We are looking to buy our 1st camcorder. Our budget is somewhere between $400 and $500. My question is what features on the camcorder should we be looking for? We know that we want the camcorder to work in low light/ firework settings. Other then that we are clueless.
Also what is the difference between hard disk drive (hdd) and flash memory? TYIA for all your help
For me, optical image stabilization is a must. Note that this is different than digital image stabilization. Optical image stabilization is done by the physical lens, not by digital manipulation. Other than that, they all pretty much do the same thing. The price differences mostly come down to size of the LCD screen, optical zoom range, and bells and whistles like night recording, manual exposure control, video special effects, etc.
If you want good low-light performance, I'd say to stay away from cameras that use 3 CCD's. Go with one with a single CCD or CMOS sensor. 3 CCD cameras give great colors and contrast with good light but stink in low light.
As for hard drive versus flash, the HDD cameras have a small hard drive inside that the video is recorded to, just like a laptop or desktop PC, albeit smaller. Flash memory cameras use SD cards, memory sticks, etc. All solid-state, no moving parts. Makes for a smaller and lighter camera. And when the card is full, you just stick in another. With an HDD camera, when the HDD is full, you have to dump down to a computer and delete.
Personally, I'm a Canon fan when it comes to camcorders. I think Sony's are overpriced. They're nice cameras, but overpriced. Panasonic also makes some nice ones. $400 - $500 should get you a decent standard definition camcorded. Won't quite get you into a High Def camera (at least not a decent one.) Above all, stay away from the cute little ones, like the Flip's and the Aiptek's.
