At the top of the camcorder pyramid are today's utterly amazing three-chip digital camcorders. Packed with three imaging chips, one for each color, and other state-of-the-art technology, these incredible devices are fully professional and surprisingly affordable when compared to truly professional gear. The choice of wedding and event videographers as well as corporate and commercial producers, some models in this class are used to shoot feature length movies and network news reports. The quality is astonishing.

At this level, manual control is the name of the game. The variety of professional features on the Canon XL1S ($4,699) include XLR microphone inputs, manual audio level controls, precision manual focus controls, aperture control, manual shutter speed and interchangeable lenses.

The Panasonic AG-DVX100 ($3,795) records 24 progressive frames per second, like film, to facilitate the transfer of the images onto celluloid (provided you also have the thousands of dollars necessary for the transfer). There are models that wirelessly send pictures via infrared to set top receiver or using Bluetooth networking (Sony TRV950, $2,500). JVC's Streamcorder (GY-DV3000U, $4,635) provides users with direct Internet access to stream video live from the camera to the Web as they shoot.

The bottom line for the camcorder shopper is that there are more features and choices packed into today's camcorders than ever before. Examine your needs and learn what you can find at each price break. We're sure you'll be able to find the best digital video camera to fit both your needs and your pocketbook.

For a comparative listing of features and prices of current DV camcorders, pick up a copy of our December 2002 issue, or visit www.videomaker.com.

Mini DV used to be the final word in digital video and, while the market is still dominated by DV, there are a number of other serious digital formats available. MPEG-2 video, similar to what you might find on a DVD or in satellite-transmitted video, can be recorded directly to DVD disc by some camcorders. Sony has also developed it's own compressed format called Micro MV (Sony IP220, $2,000). At this time, MPEG-compressed video falls solidly in the consumer video category, but the quality is still high, and the features are pretty amazing.
You may also find video cameras that record extremely compressed video to memory cards, but these devices capture short postage-stamp sized clips and are not in the same class as the other cameras discussed here.