Learn about your digital camcorder

If you have just bought a digital camcorder or you are going to buy one, it will help a lot to learn about the most important features if a digital camcorder. Now, let's take a look at these key features that you need to pay extra attention on:

LCD Screen and viewfinder:
A large screen will come really handy when you while you shoot. Some screens don't work well in strong sunlight. LCDs and viewfinders are both available on all camcorders. If your screen is quite brightness sensitive, you can always use the viewfinder for playback, which is also less power consuming. The higher resolution your LCD screen or viewfinder has, the better you can preview or playback your videos.

Media formats
There are five formats: tape, mini-DVD, hard drive, flash storage, and SD/SDHC card. The most common formats are now DVD and hard drive. A DVD camcorder lets you easily take out the discs and play them back on a DVD player but these smaller discs might not fit your computer disc drive and the video quality is very high. Hard drive camcorders are now the mainstream. One big advantage is that you won't have to buy and change DVDs anymore and you can easily delete clips that are not desired and you will have more storage capacity.

Zoom Lens
All camcorders have zoom lens letting you get closer to what you shoot. Many come with digital zooms and many other have both digital zoom and optical zoom. Lots of camcorders have a 10X plus optical zoom, which is more than enough for average users. A digital zoom usually results in grainy and pixilated videos. So an optical zoom has much better quality than a digital zoom. If you want to zoom in to shoot, use an optical zoom instead of a digital zoom.

Microphones
Usually camcorders with microphones mounted in the front produce better sound quality of the subject than those with microphones placed on the top. The latter is more for users who want to record their own voices instead of the subject's sound. Some camcorders have zoom microphones to emphasize the subject's sound when users zoom in the subject using the zoom lens, which is very useful for recording presentations or speeches. If you camcorder has a socket for plugging in an external microphone, you can even produce a better sounds quality of the subject.

Low-light modes
There are many situations you get enough lights when you shoot videos. Low-light mode can be very important when you shoot under these low-lights conditions. Usually you can choose from infrared light, slow-shutter mode and built-in illumination from one or more LEDs. However, videos captured with these tools won't be as good as the ones taken under conditions where you get enough lights. Therefore, try to get enough lights as you can, and these low light modes should be your secondary choices.

Pocket Camcorders
If you don't want to carry about your camcorders with you while you travel or just walk around, pocket video camcorders will be really useful. Regular digital camcorders are actually no matter than a good pocket camcorder such as Kodak Zi8, Kodak PlaySport, JVC Picso GM-WP10, and the Flip camcorders.