John Stalden learned about camcorders through necessity, and has been making video memories of the family for years. You can find his site at Camcorder Ferret, and pick up a camcorder for yourself at the Camcorder Store.
Time for a new camcorder? With technology advancing every day, it seems as though our newest toys become outdated as soon as we leave the store. Long gone are the large tapes and small tapes are difficult to find. Within the past several years, it became popular to record straight to DVD. While these are still popular, real popularity is coming in the form of a camcorder with a hard drive.
A camcorder with a hard drive seems like the easiest to use camcorder ever designed. There is no fussing with tapes or DVD’s. You never have to worry about whether you have an empty tape or worry about switching tapes when the first runs out. On the flip side, you do need to make sure that you regularly empty the hard drive. This is easily done. Most of these camcorders will plug directly into your computer. Others can be saved to a memory card or USB device. Overall, this really is more convenient and less expensive in the long run.
The biggest draw to the hard drive based camcorder is the ability to instantly save it to your computer. From there, you can edit your footage and create a more professional looking home movie. No longer will you have to suffer through those awkward moments when the camcorder was strategically placed staring at your left foot. Instead, you can cut that out and use a fancy fade into the next scene!
In addition to being able to cut and paste your own raw footage, you can share that footage and the completed video directly through your computer. Any of your friends, relatives, or perfect strangers on YouTube will be able to view your home video quickly thanks to the hard drive capability.
When you are on the lookout for the right hard drive based camcorder, it is important to look at recording time capability. Many of the more moderately priced camcorders can record six to eight hours. Some relatively inexpensive versions will only record half an hour to an hour. This may be perfectly sufficient for your home movies while others will need the longer recording time.
In addition to the hard drive, these camcorders come with a bevy of extras that will help you to create those more professional and finished looking home movies. Read the instructions carefully and soon you will be able to maneuver manual lighting, zoom, and special effects. You will feel like a real movie director!
As technology has advanced, it has also made devices such as these camcorders much smaller than their older counterparts. This is perfect for traveling and even carrying the camcorder around in your pocket. Now you will have no excuse to miss all of the adorable moves that your child makes throughout the day.
If you are serious about preserving your memories, then a hard drive recordable camcorder is the best option available.
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