Choosing your camcorder - Part 2 : Image Quality and Features

The Lens
Basically, choose a camcorder with a 'branded' lens. Not necessarily very good, but better than ordinary ones. Most manufacturers now engage famous lens makers for their camcorders' optics. Sony uses Carl-Zeiss lens whereas Panasonic leverage on Leica lens. Canon on the other hand, uses their own lens since they are well known for producing good lenses themselves.

A bigger lens diameter permits more lights entry, thus producing better and brighter pictures. 30-42mm in diameter lenses are quite common among consumer camcorders today. Besides that, also look out for the max aperture size, the "F-stop" value. Most camcorders' apertures open-up max at F1.8, and better if it goes smaller. The best seen so far for lower end models is F1.6. Expect the latter to provide brighter images.

Focus length or zoom is one of the hottest feature most buyers demand. The more times the zoom the better. 10X to 16X is quite common and it's usually enough because zooming into the max end risks instable/shaky pictures.

Sony DCR-PC330
A small camcorder with a huge lens, to allow more light in

The CCD (or imaging device)
At the heart of the camcorder, is the imaging device, the CCD. This device captures the images from the lens and converts them to electrical signals to be further processed and saved onto the tape or media.

Most consumer camcorders use one CCD with a color filter to approximate colors, but the recent advancement in technology and maturity in imaging sciences have allowed some manufacturers like Panasonic and Sony to bring 3CCDs camcorders to home users.

Broadcast level camcorder uses 3CCDs to capture true to life colors (to know more about this technology click here). Get a 3CCD model for ultimate color fidelity - rich and vibrant colors.

Another factor that dictate the quality would be the size of CCD. Smaller CCD is poorer in capturing light, which makes shooting in dim or indoor events difficult. Often, such videos turn out to be too dark and grainy, resulting in wash-out colors. Choose a camcorder with bigger CCD if you shooting indoor is your priority. For now, most manufacturers tend to lean forward to smaller CCDs to create really small camcorder.

Common CCD sizes:

• 1/3"     (bigger)

• 1/4"

• 1/4.7"

• 1/5"

• 1/6"     (smaller)

The bigger the CCD, the more expensive the camcorder. For superior low-light shooting, choose a model with a bigger CCD.

The commonest size in the market now would be the smallest : 1/6" which allows smaller camcorder to  be built and also lower in cost.

Other features

Still (photo) capture
You might be amazed but confused about the product positioning today. Are they selling a video or a still camera? Most digital cameras now can take moving images and videos and of course, the other way round, video cameras or camcorders now can snap pictures!

Please bear in mind that even the most expensive camcorder now does not take still picture as good. Don't be overly amazed and believe that a digital camera's video is good enough, and it never was and it won't be, at least for the few years to come. If you have limited budget, and you are only interested in movie making, spend wisely. Look out for features that are important to video making such as video quality, stabilizer, but not built-in flash, still capture resolution, memory card types etc.

Stabilizer
Almost all camcorders now feature at least some form of stabilizing mechanisms, but basically there are two major type :

1. Optical and
2. Electronics

Optical stabilizer is better but only available in more expansive models. They are usually present in prosumer range, that costs more that US$1,200 (RM 4000). The 2 cheapest models with optical stabilizer now are :

1. Panasonic PV-GS400 and
2. Sony DCR-HC1000

both being 3CCDs models. Optical stabilizer does not impair image quality as the stabilizing mechanism works on the optical level, adjusting the lenses on the fly to correct shakes.

Electronic Stabilizer are present in most camcorders. It is effective but some models exhibit lower quality images when it's switched on. The stabilizing feature is done on captured video images through high-speed processing circuitry. Since this applies another level of processing, the final output might be of lower quality than without. However, the recent advancement in digital signal processing technology has made electronic and optical stabilizing comes very close in terms of quality. Without thorough examination, it's hard to differentiate the minor quality improvements the optical version offers.