How to Pick the Right Camcorder on a Budget

As I sat at my computer, I anxiously awaited for the ebay auction to end so I could snap up a fabulous deal for a brand new Samsung Mini DV camcorder. Seconds left and I placed my bid and sure enough I was the winner. A brand new camcorder for only $180 US! I couldn't be happier, well that was until my wonderful little bargain arrived. You see my last camcorder was a hi-fi Hitachi camera, which was great for all intents and purposes. But as it slowly began to fall apart, it became apparent that it was time to upgrade to a digital based camcorder. I just assumed a new Mini DV camera would naturally be better than my old tape based format. Needless to say I was very wrong. The camera produced really poor, grainy images, particularly in low light. The still images were good for nothing and most of our footage was a series of burrs. Thanks to this amazing "deal" I have no good footage of the birth of my son, and many special memories, like school concerts and holidays are barely visible through the dark pictures. Well, lesson learned. Apparently it is vital that a person researches camcorders thoroughly before making a purchase.

So recently I decided I was going to put in the effort and do some investigation on cameras available in my price range (which is definitely on the low end) for no more than $400. This time I was going into it with a bit more knowledge in terms of what I need. Because I do alot of shooting indoors, I needed a camera that was good in low light. This proved to be a challenge, because when I searched out individual camcorders on the Internet in my price range it appeared that problems with low light was a very common problem. Moreover, no matter what camera I would seem to select, there was always a negative review to go along with it. It was a long process of narrowing down through reading both professional and user reviews. One of my favorite search sources was the CNET website which outlined very clearly the strengths and weaknesses of many camcorders and provided full specifications on each. I came back to this site frequently to compare and read reviews on possible camcorders. After days of reading reviews, researching and checking prices, I knew that there was three brands to choose from. These were Panasonic, Sony and Canon. All of these brands seemed to come up consistently as the top runners for image quality and were considered to be the best value for the money.

I also learned through my research that although DVD format and hard drive format are the way camcorders are heading, the price range for a good camcorder in these categories did not fit my budget. Sure I could get a DVD camcorder within my price range, but was it going to perform as well as a lower priced Mini DV? The answer I came up with is no. I will get better picture quality (which is very important to me) from a lower priced Mini DV than from a higher priced DVD camcorder. This has to do with what happens when images are compressed in the DVD format. Although I really liked the idea of popping the DVD right out of my camera right into the player, I constantly was coming up with people complaining that the disks only held a minimal amount of footage when set to high quality! This was seen to be both a costly and inconvenient downfall to the convenient DVD format.

Another common complaint with a variety of camcorders is that some did not connect to the computer, therefore eliminating the ability to edit home movies. Although I have never really explored this option before, I did think that this was an important option to have. So I eventually eliminated the cameras without a USB port. As for the technical stuff I did examine the specifications including the gross and effective sensor resolution, the amount of optical and digital zoom and of course the lux rating. The lux rating was of particular interest because it is this rating that determines how well a camera will perform in low light. The lower the lux rating the better. However, all these features don't amount to a hill of beans if those who have used the camera still deem it to be an inferior product. In the end it was the user and professional reviews that swayed me to decide on the Canon Elura 100. It didn't have the most optical zoom, and it was a bit more pricey than a couple other cameras that had a few more features, but those who used it loved it. That is not to say that it was all good reviews. One common complaint was a motor noise that many people said occurred with this particular model. However, if I learned anything from this process is that there will always be something that someone doesn't like about a particular camera or really anything else for that matter. You just can't please everyone all of the time, but as for me, I am finally pleased with my purchase, that I once again bought off ebay, but this time a little bit wiser.