November 28th, 2007What You Need To Know To Buy Digital Cameras This Holiday Season
The holiday season is upon us. Time for millions of families to dust off the old video cameras and start recording family, friends and pets memories on tape. Some of you will send in the tapes to TV shows such as Americas Funniest Videos where you can win tons of prizes. Before you start thinking what to do with a hundred thousand dollar prize money check out what kind of camera you need. Big and heavy camcorders were once the rage. But now, in the age of shrinking technology, everyone is looking to save space and buy smaller, sleeker devices.
Digital Cameras
The first thing you might want to look at is a pocket sized digital camera. Equipped with a decent memory card these tiny cameras can take thousands of pictures and tens of small videos. Most of the digital cameras cost about $100 and a fully featured one would run out about $150. Often the sales staff of large chain stores will sway you in to buying more expensive $300 cameras. Before dropping the cash on the counter do some research online. Most online retailers are having holiday discounts and you need to know them before showing up in store and buying the first camera you see. Some of the features to look at are:
Pixels: 7 Megapixel or above is a great choice from taking nice family pictures.
Optical and digital zoom: 5X optical zoom comes fairly standard on most current digital cameras.
LCD Screen: 2inch screen comes standard on most digital cameras
Memory: Most cameras include a small memory card with the camera. If you wish to take more than a 100 pictures you should get a compatible memory card. Get a 2GB or more memory card depending on your budget. Keep in mind the type of card that your camera accepts – they range from mimiSD to xD cards.
Reviews: Check out the product reviews before buying the product. CNet has a large number of reviews. Otherwise Google “manufacturer + product-model-number + reviews”
Point and Shoot Camcorders
Digital camcorders are most favored nowadays. With the emergence of video sharing sites like YouTube and Metacafe sharing the precious moments with grandma has never been easier. Point and shoot camcorders allow you to quickly record home videos of short duration with little
effort. They cost a bit more than digital cameras but offer cheap home video solutions. Things to keep in mind are they are cheap solutions and might break at the time you are trying to record video of the cat playing the piano. Check out the Flip Camera review I did earlier. If you decide to go with such a camera you need to check the compatibility with Mac or PC depending on which computer you use. These cameras cost about $150.
Pixels: 7 Megapixel or above is a great choice from taking nice family pictures.
Optical and digital zoom: Most such cameras do not offer much zoom capability.
LCD Screen: 2inch screen comes standard on most such cameras
Memory: Most cameras include a small memory card with the camera. If you wish to take more than a video longer than 10 minutes you should get a compatible memory card. Get a 2GB or more memory (preferably 4GB) card depending on your budget.
Reviews: Check out the product reviews before buying the product. CNet has a large number of reviews. Otherwise Google “manufacturer + product-model-number + reviews”
Digital Camcorders
Old school technology such as the miniDV tapes are still around and CircuitCity and BestBuy are offering budget miniDv camcorders for about $270 + tax. These offer a significant advantage over the flash media based point-n-shoot cameras mostly because of the recording time. On average they record 60 minutes of footage with a longer lasting battery. Nowadays more and more such cameras also come equipped with a SD card slot specifically for taking still pictures. No more 5 second pause which is generally seen when taking pictures with a camcorder. If you buy this type of camcorder remember to buy compatible tapes with it. And if you camera is equipped with a card slot then you also need a compatible memory card (probably a SD card) if you plan on taking still pictures. Another nice feature to look for is image stabilizer to take the nice shots while riding on horseback.
Pixels: 1 Megapixel or as close to it as possible.
Optical and digital zoom: Approximately 30X optical zoom seems to be a hot feature now and digital zoom should be 1000X or more.
LCD Screen: 2.7 inch or bigger screen comes standard on most such cameras
Memory: Most cameras do not include tape or memory card with the camera. Remember to buy one before flying off to vacation.
Reviews: Check out the product reviews before buying the product. CNet has a large number of reviews. Otherwise Google “manufacturer + product-model-number + reviews”
Hard disk based Camcorders
Hard disk based video cameras are touted as the next generation of the product line. They are extremely expensive compared to the existing line of cameras and are generally in the range of $500 or more. Hard disk drive camcorders provide a clear advantage over tape using devices – it takes significantly less time to transfer the video to a computer or upload it to a website. In almost all the cases you will also be able to record very high quality video (think HD quality) and you are only limited by the hard disk space. Meaning the bigger hard drive you use in the camera the more video you can record. But the hard disk is the most vulnerable part of this type of camera. If you are familiar with hard disk crashing on the camera you should know how painful it can be. Only now disk crash would mean all the pictures you took in the Bahamas will only be left in your mind. When you have to replace the disk it will also run you significantly more dollars compared to tapes. My suggestion would be to hold off on these cameras till the disk technology becomes more reliable.
Pixels: 1 Megapixel or as close to it as possible.
Optical and digital zoom: Approximately 30X optical zoom seems to be a hot feature now and digital zoom should be 1000X or more.
LCD Screen: 2.7 inch or bigger screen comes standard on most such cameras
Memory: These cameras have a hard disk built in which is used to record video and take snapshots. If your camera is SD card enabled then you might want to get a compatible memory card for taking still pictures.
Reviews: Check out the product reviews before buying the product. CNet has a large number of reviews. Otherwise Google “manufacturer + product-model-number + reviews”
DVD Recording Camcorder
The DVD RW camcorder is another type of video camera which does not use tape for storage. Rather than storing the media on traditional media it burns the video files directly on to DVD discs. It is a nice feature to have for people who want to view their vacation pool cannonball diving contest on their DVD player or TV. But for the tech savvy crowd who might want to put some titles on their video or trim the occasional clip it might not be the best solution. If you decide to get this camera try and look for the SD card slot enabled models. This feature will allow you to take glorious still shots far better than the ones recorded on the tape.
Pixels: 1 Megapixel or as close to it as possible.
Optical and digital zoom: Approximately 30X optical zoom seems to be a hot feature now and digital zoom should be 1000X or more.
LCD Screen: 2.7 inch or bigger screen comes standard on most such cameras
Memory: Most cameras do not include tape or memory card with the camera. Remember to buy one before flying off to vacation.
Reviews: Check out the product reviews before buying the product. CNet has a large number of reviews. Otherwise Google “manufacturer + product-model-number + reviews”
