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Video cameras come in varying forms and with many features. Here are a few tips on what to look for to help you find what best suits your needs.

 

The easiest distinction between a low and high end camera is the size of the lens. The bigger the lens, the more light is getting into the cameras imaging sensor, which results in better pictures. This is most important when shooting in low light situations, for example blowing out candles on a birthday cake.

 

It is the most important part of your camera, bigger is better, as there is more room for light to land on the sensor, resulting in better final pictures.

 

Optical image stabilisation is always best, it floats the cameras lens and sensor inside the camera so that the pictures are kept in the correct place. Digital stabilisation is like digital zoom, where it zooms in on what is being filmed the shifting the pictures around to accommodate movement.

 

HD Cameras record in 720p where Full HD captures 1080p footage at resolutions up to 1920x1080. If you have a full HD TV you will be able fully appreciate this feature when you play back your memories on the big screen. A new format H.264 HD is fast becoming the standard in new HD camcorders. It allows high quality recording but takes up less storage space than other HD formats.

 

Recording to digital media is the current standard. Depending on the type of camera you have you’ll be recording footage onto removable flash media, an internal hard drive, or a combination of the two. Newer camcorders use SSD’s (solid-state drives) which emulate the role of a hard drive but are less fragile and run silently and offer faster performance.

 

Apart from capacity you also need to consider ratings and speed. In the context of using SD cards for video you really need to watch the class rating. This refers to the minimum sustained rate you can rely on from the card. This is a direct reference to the minimum number of MB per second the card will be able to record. If your card cant keep up it may drop frames or have more serious recording failures. We recommend using a class 4 (=4MB/s) or higher for recording video.

 

You might want to consider the following to help assist you capturing perfect video memories.

 

A Tripod

Spare batteries

Spare memory cards

Carry case