Deciding On A Pro Hd Camcorder

Do you want to buy a professional high definition digital camcorder? If that's the case, this article will really help you. We will start by taking a look at the features of a high definition camcorder. After that we will go through the main brands and see what range of products each one has to offer.

Features of a Pro High Def Camcorder

Manual Aperture: having the ability to manually control your lens's aperture size is important. This will enable you to control the amount of light that the lens lets through into the camcorder, thus determining how light or dark the scene is.
Manual Focus: when using auto focus, you will find there will be a tendency for the lens to lose its focus as objects come and go from the scene. With manual focus, you have full control to be able to stay focussed on your intended object.
3 CCDs: your camcorder's CCD is the chip that records the image as digital information. 3 CCD chips means better quality images.
White Balance: different scenes have a different balance of colors. E.g, indoor light tends to be yellow in color, whereas sunshine is more towards the blue end of the spectrum. With manual white balance control, you can set the color tone to your liking.
Audio Control: it is essential that you are able to control the recording sound volume manually, as different scenes will require different recording levels.
Headphone Jack: check that the camcorder has a headphone jack, because this will enable you to minotor the sound using headphones.
Filter Ring: check to see whether the camcorder has a screw ring around the lens. This will enable you to add various filters, for example a polarising filter or even just a UV filter to protect the lens from scratches.
Audio Inputs: all camcorders have their own micrphones built-in, but what if you want to connect your own microphone so that you can record audio from a specific person or object?
Automatic Functions: although you definitely want to be able to take control with manual settings, there may be times when you want to let automatic settings take over, so make sure your camera does have some automatic controls along with the manual controls.
Removable Lens or Lens Adapters: although only the top-of-the-range camcorders allow you to change lenses, some camcorders are able to use lens adaptors to change the existing lens to telephoto, wide angle, etc.

Top Professional High Def Camcorder Brands & Their Range of Products

Professional camcorders are a very specific type of product, so there arent all that many brands out there, just a few who really specialise in make some really top quality camcorders.

Panasonic: $670-$6,000. A good range of high-quality high definition digital camcorders across a big price range.
Sony: $1,500-$5,200. As with Panasonic, a decent range spread across a big spectrum of prices.
Canon: $2,100-$10,000. A small number of very fine quality high definition digital camcorders.
JVC: $3,500-$5,400. A few very high quality professional digital camcorders.