Tell me everything you know about camcorders.

[tplyons]

I'm soon in the market for a camcorder for casual use. I'm graduating from college the same day my brother graduates from Law School, and my mom will be at my graduation. She wants my dad to film his graduation so she can see it.

It's something I'll use for other things too, an extension of my photography habit, etc. But simply put, I don't know a darn thing about 'em. I know how to use them, but when it comes to shopping, I have no clue. I'm sure I want something digital. But that's the extent of my knowledge.

I don't know much about the formats, the features, the things to look for in a camcorder. Where to start? Tell me what you know.

[cheesemonkey]

they aren't potatoes

[fenderhutz]

Get one that uses a SD card. Tapes suck and DVD's are a pain to edit.

[tplyons]

Originally Posted by fenderhutz

Get one that uses a SD card. Tapes suck and DVD's are a pain to edit.

I've been looking into one of those in particular. They're pretty inexpensive and I'm a big fan of Canon's myself.

[fenderhutz]

We have a Samsung SD High Def and I love it.

[Eublet]

SD card ONLY gets old. Video quality is typically poorer, and capacity is small. I think models using HDD are very handy. It's nice to have all that capacity, and also to be able to just plug it up to a TV and quickly select the video you want to watch. No waiting or rewinding. Of course, you have to be sure to back it up like anything else. And if you drop it it's much more likely to get damaged.

[scootron]

We just got a Canon VIXIA HF10. It has a 16 gig hard drive and also accepts memory cards. Max mega-pixels, great for still photos and HD video. A bit pricey, but a breeze to use and amazingly simple to transfer your photos to your computer.

[musicguy123]

What do you want to know about camcorder, here I've got to know an article on how to choose a good camcorder, it covered ten things you should know before you buy a camcorder.
10 Things to Know When Buying an HD Camcorder