Craig's Official Camcorder Buyer Advice

A question was posted on the TiVo forum that I frequent... "I have a baby due in 3 weeks, should I buy a camcorder?"

I replied a couple times and since then I've received a BUNCH of e-mails asking me questions about camcorder buying and video editing so I decided to put together a few thoughts here so if you're in the market for a new video camera it will at least point you in the right direction.

* THE FORMAT *
The format you want is MiniDV. MiniDV is the only way to go according to many. (you get more brand choices than with Sony's Digital 8 format) And if you plan to edit the video there is nothing easier... firewire cable from camcorder to computer and import.

* DECIDE ON A PRICE RANGE *
Decide how much you want to spend. There's no real point in researching the current $1,500 cameras if you can only spend $600 on yours.

* THE RESEARCH *
My camcorder is currently a JVC. I'm about up for a new one. I'll hopefully buy a new one later this year. When it IS time to buy, I will go to camcorderinfo.com to decide on which one is the best for me. Decide if a 1 chip or a 3 chip camcorder is right for you and remember that if you plan to shoot a lot indoors, the camera's low light performance is what really counts! The large the chip (CCD) size the better the low light performance.

DO NOT buy a camcorder for it's "Still Image" Features. They all look like crap and they're not worth the extra money. If you want to take good still pictures, buy a Digital Still Camera... the vast majority of which will look better than a crappy camcorder still.

* THE WARNING *
If you DO plan on editing all of your video with a Mac/PC.... DO NOT BUY A CAMCORDER THAT BURNS DIRECTLY TO DVD! It's compressed down to MPEG-2 (quality loss) and MPEG 2 isn't an editing format. (more quality loss and time wasted converting it to an editable format.)

* VIDEO EDITING *
Video Editing is highly addictive! Especially on a Mac using Final Cut! Whatever your computer preference, you can create DVDs to send to friends & family. You can edit down the footage so it's not boring or edit it down so it's actually viewable by your parents/in-laws so they don't SEE or HEAR anything they shouldn't!

It's amazing how many different things you can do with the SAME footage! I've created a video for the us... the parents. (kids growing up), I've created a video for the kids that's goofy and makes them laugh, a lot of it has to do with timing, and the music you add over it.

Here's one of my first (and last) iMovies... (not kid related... it's VEGAS baby!) No one wants to see the whole 2+ hours of crap I shot, so I made this little video of our vegas trip and one of the dog...

Here's a link that might be of interest...

http://ali.apple.com/ali_sites/ali/exhibits/1000019/RESOURCES.html