Digital Camcorders

Camcorders are the latest generation in a photographic tradition stretching back over 150 years. Film cameras were popular throughout the 20th Century, but in the early 1980s, VHS camcorders came into the consumer electronics market and home movies, once restricted to the wealthy, entered the electronics age, never to look back. At the dawn of the 21st Century, digital camcorders are fast replacing VHS camcorders, much like the way Overstock.com is replacing the brick-n-mortar retailer.

When choosing a digital video camera, you have many options: A DVD camcorder uses a full size (12 cm) blank DVD R to record data. Mini DVD camcorders use a smaller (8 cm) DVD R. A digital video recorder may also use an internal hard drive or a digital camera-type memory card.

A DVD camcorder has to be big enough to hold the DVD, so it's a little heavier, but it also has room for added features. A mini camera is light and compact, great for the weekend or vacation videographer. For the serious shooter, a digital video camcorder with USB or Firewire cables makes it easy to download files to your computer for editing. Professional users ought to look for an ergonomically designed digital video recorder that you can hold and shoot for hours without getting excessively tired. Then, of course, there are the new HDTV digital video cameras--pricey, but oh, what a picture!

By the way, you're going to feel a little silly if your video camera batteries run down in the middle of your child's recital, or just before Old Faithful lives up to his name, or you are about to shoot whatever it was that caused you to buy a digital camcorder in the first place. A camcorder battery is such a low-cost extra, there's no reason not to have extra camcorder batteries ready when you need them. Likewise, there's no reason to save a few bucks buying cheap camcorders from "FellOffTheBackOfATruck.junk" when you can save as much, or more, buying quality discount camcorders at the Big Red O!