How many times have you regretted for not filming the moment of your baby’s first step all by herself or the first time your baby calls out dad or mom. Moments such as these and many more bring out a tear when we watch them many years later. It is these memories that keep us sane and going when we find no one to give us company. What do we need to capture such moments and etch them forever in our heart? The answer is obvious. A camcorder will do that and much more than you had thought of. It can be used to record hours of videos or take tons of photos, take professional videos and instantly write them to a DVD or any other media.

To get the best camcorder, of the thousands that throng the market today, we must first find which models meet our requirement. The requirements can range from quality and complexity to the format in which it records and also the cost of the model. The needs in each of the four categories need to be defined first in order to make a sensible choice. Next, these categories must be arranged in the order of importance. Once this is done, then voila, the required model sits right in front of us. One thing must be remembered though, a decision in each category affects the other category and in turn every decision affects the cost category of the model.

Now let us look into the list of things to watch for before buying a digital camcorder.

Always look for the optical zoom that a camcorder has to offer. Digital zoom can be misleading but it only shows how much a camcorder can magnify the pixels in an image. This is like magnifying a picture to 500% in a computer. The higher it magnifies, the worse the picture becomes. Optical zoom is a measure of how much a camcorder can magnify images to bring out a great close up picture. If a camcorder does not offer much optical zoom, an add-on lens can be bought to further enhance the camcorder’s optical ability.

While buying a camcorder, never go by the number of megapixels it has to offer, cause, in video mode, megapixels do not matter, but the number of chips and the size of the chips in a camcorder are what that matter. A 3CCD camcorder will offer much more depth than a 1CCd camcorder, but nowadays CMOS sensors are competing with the CCD’s. Bigger sensors give out better videos.

For the best close up shots, the camcorder must support the wide angle shoot. Else, one will find himself going far behind to capture everyone in a single frame. It is better to test the wide angle shooting ability beforehand to avoid compromises later.

Lowlight is one problem which is being overlooked normally while buying a camcorder, as the shop is usually brightly lit. Checking the camcorder for low light performance will help you to take great videos inside your home or during evening parties etc.

Check for the position of the buttons to find out if it is easy for you to handle it on the go. Easy handling offers chances for best videos to be taken. If the camera size is too big or too small, then you will find yourself getting shaky videos as the camera will be off-balance.

There are four recording formats for the videos you capture. They are MiniDV, DVD, Hard Drive and the flash memory. While the MiniDV is affordable, it is cumbersome to transfer the video to your computer. It takes one minute of transfer time to transfer one minute of video in MiniDv format. Now, that is a lot of time you would never want to waste. DVD is fast becoming a common format or rather the mini DVD is fast catching up. It can record about 20 minutes of video per Mini DVD. Hard drive and flash memory are popular as they are easy to transfer the video to a computer in order to edit the videos. It takes about 1 GB for 1 Hr of video, but the downside is that when you run out of space you must delete the previous videos for continuing the video.

In many camcorders, the LCD screen does not work well in bright sunlight. When recording outdoors, you almost cannot see what you are recording. Testing for LCD brightness before buying will do great help.

The last thing to be checked for great pictures and videos is image stabilization feature. This varies from camcorder to camcorder. Better image stabilization helps in reducing the drag lines and botched images in videos and pictures. A tripod stand will help to a larger extent.

To get the best of all the above, you must have an unlimited budget which is impossible for most of us. Thus a good trade off in features that does not matter much can be helpful in reducing the cost of the camcorder and help you to choose a good camcorder.

I can't figure out for the life of me what cable I need to connect my Sharp mini-dv camcorder to my Toshiba Satellite laptop. I know I've hooked the camcorder up before, but I can't remember what kind of wire I used. Any help would be appreciated!

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