With the evolution of the digital camcorder you no longer have to deal with the grainy amateurish home movies you have been used to. Now you can even edit, copy, and email your movies right on your computer.
You can now get much higher quality videos by using digital camcorders which offer good to excellent picture quality, excellent sound, ease of use, and compactness. Some camcorders even double as a still camera for photos.
Sony is still the leader in camcorders with many models available in many different formats. Some other top brands include famous camera maker, Canon as well as JVC, Panasonic, and Samsung.
The most popular format these days is the Mini-DV format, which is the camcorder I personally use. Other formats available include the DVD-RAM and DVD-R.
Lets look a little more in depth at some of the formats available.
MinDVs in my opinion give you a lot of bang for your buck. Some of the newer models can fit in a shirt pocket and they record super-high quality images. The typical recording length of a miniDV tape is 60 minutes and the cost per tape is around $6.00. Prices for these camcorders vary from $300 to $2,000. Expect to pay...