Doesn't it seem as if everything is in HD now? You'd think it ends with DVDs, then came Blu-ray, HD cable, and finally YouTube. Now you're stuck. It's taken over the world. Too bad Pinky and the Brain weren't so clever. Now, back to your video project goals. If you want your YouTube video to reach that 1 million view mark so you get a guest spot on the Ellen Show, you should probably invest in a nice camcorder. HD camcorders are good because they're versatile. They're so prevalent now you can get portable ones to shoot mini videos.
Features
Camcorders get more complicated as time goes by, but they, thankfully, get easier to use. The commercial camcorders will more than likely be capable of one if not all of these features:
* Most camcorders will store their data on a disk or cassette. The most common DVD, MiniDV, and flash drives. Newer camcorders, like the Flip, for example, connect directly to the flash port on your computer. The reason flash is a great memory format is that it allows the HD camcorders to be much smaller and still record up to 120 minutes of footage, just like the cassettes.
* HD camcorders have LCD screens so you can preview while you record and not have to use the viewfinder. These are also very likely to be touch screen so you can adjust the focus, exposure, sound and other features.
* These cameras also can record in lower resolution, so they're much more versatile.
* They can compress the video so it will save and it won't take up too much memory. This is great because sharing these files via email, online, and on the computer would normally take-up a huge bulk of your hard drive. Big format videos uncompressed also take what feels like decades to upload and download.
* They will connect to an HDTV using an HDMI cable so you can show family and friends your videos. This is a great thing for family reunions, parties, and for reminiscing about family vacations.
* Camcorders are made to be held easily in the palm of your hand, whether it's the traditional hand strap or vertical grip handle.
Accessories
HD Camcorders have plenty of accessories to help with the quality of your capture. Some examples are lenses and microphones. Boom microphones and unidirectional microphones are great for picking up speech. They can be connected directly to your HD camcorder via a cable into the microphone jack. Multidirectional microphones are better if you plan on capturing ambient sound. Lenses like wide angle and telephoto are good if you want to capture more on your video. Telephoto will shorten depth of field and slightly zoom the image, whereas wide angle will allow the camcorder to record more on the peripherals, though slightly curving the edges. Also remember to buy some sort of carrying case to keep your camcorder out of harm's way.
