What to Consider When Looking for Hard Disk Drive Camcorders
Before the mass adoption of smartphones, video recording was primarily done with camcorders. Panasonic has been producing camcorders since the mid-1980's and it continues to manufacture digital video recorders.
What Type Of Storage Do Video Cameras Use?
- HDD - camcorders have built-in internal storage in the form of a hard drive or HDD. Its size is measured in GB and the larger the drive is, the more video you can record and store on it. For example, some cameras can come with a 30 GB HDD.
- SD card - video cameras can also record content on external memory such as an SD card. A Secure Digital card is flash-type memory in the form of a small card that can be inserted and used in various portable digital devices. In addition to camcorders, SD cards are used with digital cameras and mobile phones. Its capacity is measured in MB or GB.
- Mini tapes - older camcorders may also use mini digital video cassettes as external storage.
What Other Features Should I Consider In A Camcorder?
When comparing Panasonic camcorders, take into consideration the following features that can affect the performance and user-friendliness of a camera.
- Zoom - this feature allows you to get distant objects to appear closer and larger in the view point of the camera. Depending on the type of zoom and the skills of the videographer, zooming can enhance or degrade the quality of your video.
- LCD monitor - some camcorders feature an LCD monitor that allows you to view the recording in progress. The LCD screen is also used to access and adjust the various menu options of the camera. Cameras' LCD monitors are usually 2.7" wide in measurement.
- Anti-Shock - this built-in technology protects the hard drive disk during excessive movement or accidental drops.
- Still shot capability - most video cameras have a built-in capability to capture still shots even during continuous video recording.
What Are Optical Zoom And Digital Zoom?
The zoom capability of a video recorder is critical to being able to produce videos. Camcorders support two types of zooming:
- Optical - it is performed by the lens (or the optics) and thus it does not affect the image quality negatively. A 42x optical zoom means that the camcorder can view and record an object appearing 42 times closer than it is in reality.
- Digital - it uses digital manipulation of the image in order to make it appear larger or closer. Even though some models advertise digital zooming up to 3500x and more, it usually produces sub-par results compared to its optical counterpart.