Sony HDR-XR520VE | Sony HDR-XR520VE Digital Camcorder

The Digital Camcorder is smaller, lighter, easier to use, easier to edit, has better picture quality and better sound than your your normal camcorder. These being just a handful of the reasons why the digital camcorder has begun to dominate the home movie market over the last few years. Recording on a digital camcorder whatever the format means there is no loss of quality after repeated plays. Also it is much simpler to input into your computer for editing meaning you can create with effects previously only used by professional film makers. You will need to be clear about which recording formats you require but there is a type and price to suit almost everyone.

Really it doesn't matter how many features your digital camcorder has you so long as you are comfortable with its size, weight, shape and you can operate all the main controls easy enough. An HD Digital Camcorder has massive advantages in these areas over other standard camcorders.

A basic digital camcorder with a good operating system will allow you to point and shoot achieving great results with the minimum of fuss if all you want to do is record and play back. A digital camcorder can be found that will support these functions for under £250. It is likely that it will record on to mini-DV tapes, have an optical zoom at the lower end of the range and have a limited number of manual overrides. The image stabilization feature on such models can lead to less sharp pictures.

If you want to go a little bit further and edit your recordings on your PC then you should go for a model with a Firewire or equivalent connection. Changing footage, adding soundtracks and effects can enhance any basic recording. Models of this level will cost between £300 and £600 but will have much better features such as x25 optical zoom, more manual options like manual focus override for shooting in lower light and larger LCD screens for easier shooting. There are also digital camcorders that will take really good still pictures.

If you want to go further still then there are digital camcorders that are basically perfect for budding filmmakers. The features on digital camcorders that are around the £1,000 mark means your efforts can look and sound similar to the pros. With these models you may be looking at three CCDs, one for each of the primary colours, rather than the single CCD that most camcorders have. Also sophisticated electronics to overcome difficult lighting situations. Higher priced digital camcorders still are the models which claim to be capable of playing back images in HD.

Probably the best HDR digital camcorder on the UK market today is the superb Sony HDR-XR520VE.