Choosing the right camcorder for making web videos

Choosing The Right Camcorder For Making Web Videos

Topics: miniDV, shooting video, video sharing sites, camcorder

If you intend to start shooting video to use on your website and for submitting to video sharing sites for more exposure and to drive traffic to your site then make sure to consider the following points and spend your money wisely.

It is all too easy to overspend and pay for features that you do not need. Think of all the features that your mobile phone has and you never use so don’t make the same mistake with your camcorder.

The camcorder is the center piece and mainstay of your video production and if the camcorder you choose doesn’t have the needed features, it will be difficult or even inpossible, to produce a quality video.

Having a camcorder with the following features can be the difference between a video that will look professionally produced, or one that is obviously home made.

Here is a list of features to help you select the right camcorder.

MiniDV: The best and most flexible format. Consider HDD but give DVD camcorders a miss, if you do buy one then you will soon realize its limitations.

External Microphone Terminal: Required so you can plug in an external microphone. A must have. Check for the external mic terminal first, if it’s not there, choose another camcorder.

FireWire Terminal. Might be listed as a DV terminal or a IEEE-1394 connection. A must have so you can send and receive digital video between camcorder and computer.

Remote Control: Needed so you can operate the camera while recording yourself. Allows you to start the record, zoom, pause, etc. Extremely useful.

Headphone Terminal: Required so you can use headphones to check the audio being recorded. Another must have.

1/4″ or larger CCD: Avoid anything smaller. The larger the CCD the higher the resolution of the video.

10X Optical Zoom: Do not settle for less and do not be seduced by digital zoom which is pretty worthless for our needs.

Manual White Balance: Required to balance colors under all lighting conditions.

Image Stabilization: Steadies the image as you shoot. It doesn’t compensate for bad camerawork, but it can help smooth out a shot when you can’t use a tripod.

Tripod Socket: You would be hard put not to find this but worth mentioning.

Top or Side Loading Tape: Inconvenient to have a bottom loading tape when using a tripod.

Analog Video In/Out: Convert and record analog video to miniDV format or miniDV format to analog. Can connect to a VCR or 8mm camcorder. Most useful.

Manual Focus And Exposure Controls: Having the ability to turn off automatic control leads to better production as you become more experienced.

S-Video In/Out: Needed so you can record input from computer screens. Most useful.

Size Does Matter: A camcorder that is too small can be difficult to operate, will also have a smaller LCD. Look for a medium sized camcorder. When out and about take your digital camera for unexpected shots.

Finally: Stick with the major name brands, Canon, Sony etc. Avoid the temptation to buy a used camcoder from eBay. No need to spend more than the minimum if you can buy a major brand with all the above mentioned features, unless you are planning on moving up a level in your production then go for a ‘pro’ quality camcorder. My Canon MVX350i has all these features and cost me less than $500.

Research online and narrow down your list noting the prices. Then visit a store and have a ‘hands on’ before making your final choice. Check on the stores best price and if they are much more expensive then order online and just be patient until it arrives.

Bruce Walls writes about using video on your website to increase traffic. You can read more at websitevideoguide.com


Previous Articles Highlighter:

Starting An Internet Marketing Business (1)
Running an internet marketing business can be done at various times throughout the day. You will be able to create your own schedule and determine how much money you want to make each week by taking assignments that you find interesting or challenging.

Hiring A Consultant For Internet Marketing (2)
You can feel much more confident putting your Internet marketing campaign in the hands of a consultant who typically generates the type of results you are looking for in your own Internet marketing campaign.

Reasons For Selecting Private Domain Registration (3)
Keywords: BellSouth Fast Access DSL discount codes, ServerPronto bargains, Surveyteam discounts Many retail sites on the internet might seem very open about their policies and be very adamant about the privacy that they have on the internet.

Internet Marketing Strategies (4)
That means you want to market your site so that you increase the number of visitors, because by the law of averages, the more people who visit your website, the better your chances are that a percentage of those visitors will buy what you have to sell.

The Basics Of Search Engine Optimization In Internet Marketing (5)
By positioning a web page to rank highly in search engine results, it is possible to increase the number of visitors to the web site. Dustin Cannon is owner of www.JustArticlesVIP.com and writes on a variety of subjects.

Getting To Know The Best Affiliate Programs (6)
The payment could be a set amount or a percentage of the sale. In a pay per click set up, the affiliate is paid based on the number of people who visit the merchants web site regardless if a purchase was made.

Public Speaking - Basic Tips (7)
But you can't deny that you've just added to your understanding about public speaking, and that's time well spent. About the Author: Hans Hasselfors is the founder of www.SubmitYourNewArticle.com.

Why Every Business Owner Needs To Operate A Blog (8)
If you are someone who spends a lot of time on the internet then you are very familiar with the term but if you are a regular brick and mortar type of business person then you may not know what it is all about.

Are You A Wealthy Affiliate? (9)
On the other hand a number of would be wealthy affiliates sign up trusting that they will come across the best earning products to promote. Set up a website that is easy and affordable to manage and what can be done to reduce your customer service cost.

How The Right Internet Marketing Strategy Translate In Profit (10)
To create trust and credibility, your marketing strategy should include the creation of attractive and informative website content. The content needs to be keyword driven to help in SEO.

The Psychology Of Using Certain Colors On Your Website (11)
Keep in mind in choosing colors for your site that both Macintosh computers and personal computers (PC's) have a palette of 216 colors that they share. Site owners will want to ensure that the site will appear the same no matter what type of computer someone is using to access the Internet.

How To Point Your Domain To A Different Webhost (12)
The process to pint a domain name to your hosting account from a network solution account is somewhat easy. You can also have many different name extensions for your domains under one domain provider or network solution.

Three Reasons Why They Hate Your Internet Web Site Design (13)
You go to a web site page that looks nice and has good content on it. You decide to explore further but you cannot. Why? Because you are having a hard time finding the navigation bar.

Online Business Marketing Technique (14)
Not everyone who conducts business with your company will be comfortable doing business with someone they do not know. Whether in a business or social setting good old-fashioned handshaking can do a lot to improve your image as a business owner.

Get Listed On The First Page Of Google (15)
Many large companies have several people doing seo on their sites at the same time. The more energy and knowledge you invest, the better your placement will become over time.

Effective Search Engine Optimization (16)
It is because this will make your website authoritative during search engine ranking. This is the reason why some hire a seo company to do this task. To tell you the truth, you can substantially get information on low cost related services anywhere in the Internet.

How Higher Search Engine Rankings Can Help Your Business (17)
Search engines also take into account factors such as how popular your site is. A really popular site about Eskimo pudding, the reasoning goes, probably addresses the subject better than its competitors, and therefore the site gets a higher search engine ranking.

5 Strategies For Optimizing Online Press Releases (18)
In summary, I believe an optimized Press Release using some of the above strategies can be an excellent marketing channel with a good viral effect and great SEO potential long-term.

The 5 Laws Of Writing Network Marketing Blogs (19)
Just remember to follow the five laws of blogging if you wish to maximize your profits. From waiting tables to millionaire at 29, Mike Dillard, is a professional marketer who has taught over 100,000 entrepreneurs from around the world how to tap into the power of his attraction marketing techniques.

Promotional Advertising Scams On The Internet (20)
They would not have acquired sales, which in turn provide them profit, if people would not care to notice and buy their products and avail of their services offer. Product advertising plays a significant role for that.

Newer Articles Highlighter:

Easy Steps To Get Your Article Rejected (1)
Pre-formatted text. This is where the article text is posted between pre tags, which means the style and font of the text does not match the rest of the site.

The Invisible Audience At The Trade Show (2)
He's a walking score card and billboard all packed into one. At the end of the day, a connector can tell you a little something about everyone, but he can also give exacting perspectives on what the prospects are for a new company based on his wealth of information on all the competitors and observations that he's gathered over many years.

Front Page For Professional Web Design (3)
As text, images, and tables from fields and other elements are added to the page the front page editor displays them as they would appear in a web browser. This means one need not need to learn HTML to use the front page editor because it creates all the HTML code.

Tips For Generating Quality Leads On Autopilot (4)
A special report, a gift, a CD, or an e-book are all good items to use to collect quality leads. Once you have the items in place, the next step is to design the materials to attract the buyers.

Innovative Ways To Use An Autoresponder (5)
Often times, potential customers and clients simply don't have enough time to read through your terms and conditions. The terms and conditions are very important, which is why it never hurts to include them with an email.

Blogging To Boost Your Business (6)
Blogs are wonderful for marketing because you can say anything you like, anyway you would like. If your customer base is small town farmers, then you can be as laid back and informal as you need to be.

Discover How Understanding Internet Marketing Can Help Your Home Business Greatly (7)
These are some of the forms of strategies involved that one can use to market their internet business such as home business. Through home business, I have a realized that it is important that one remains focus the in pursue of their success and dreams.

Make The Leap To Affiliate Marketing Success (8)
For me, I could not stand working 12 hours a day anymore and missing the experience of my children growing up. I also absolutely had have the freedom of being able to control my life and finances through a little box that I could carry with me anywhere in the world and not be tied to anyones time pressures or demands but my own.

Ideas On Building Business Websites (9)
Search the web and use material that is available for public use. You can also trade services with designers, photographers and writers. If you know people in these professions, see what they can do for you.

When Is Internet Marketing Worthwhile? (10)
This is a rather vague statement but this article will investigate the issue further and explain how you can make Internet marketing work for your business. One of the most basic principles of marketing is to make sure you reach your target audience.

Advantages Of Email Marketing (11)
They are aware of your ability to keep your promises as well as the quality of the product or services you are offering. Most spam laws say you are allowed to send unsolicited emails to current customers but because the rules are on your side does not always mean it will be acceptable to your past customers.

Graphics For The Professional Web Design Pages (12)
However schemes which loose energy give much higher compression ratios. So in professional web design file format must be chosen wisely. If we do not restrict our self to JPEG or GIF formats while choosing our graphic images then the web browser may require external programs or helper applications called plug ins to display our graphics which is not a good way for professional web design.

Aggressive Internet Marketing-Possible To Achieve (13)
It is a must that marketing is collaborated to the website design. If the company is requiring you to pay more than fifty bucks for the web design, then that is so much for straight-forward internet marketing!

Do You Feel Good With Your Autoresponder? (14)
Autoresponder messages can be custom tailored, and look much better than simple thank you pages. Some Internet marketers use their autoresponders to save themselves time and make their customers feel a bit more at ease until they get the time to handle the request or issue.

Techniques For The Affiliate Marketer (15)
As with any business, it is important to get the word out about the products and services that the company you work for specializes in. This not only brands your company, but it also helps you to achieve the financial success that you are looking to achieve.

Some Like It Free: Pitfalls Of Using Free Article Content (16)
Rankings will be important if you wish to attract customers to your website. And if you rank poorly, you will lower your website's visibility on search results. Therefore lowering possible clicks to your website.

Yahoo! 360: A Popular Social Networking Website (17)
If you already have an email account or participate in another program, you should be able to use the same information. In the event that you do not have a user id and password, but you would like to get one, you easily can, all in a matter of minutes.

How To Create An Internet Marketing Gorilla From Scratch (18)
Since this lesson couldn't possible detail all of those different concepts, you have some work to do. Start learning each one, implement them, and with enough dedication and commitment you will eventually create an internet marketing gorilla.

7 Quick Fixes To Gear Up For Holiday Shoppers (19)
He will probably be ready to buy sometime in the near future. 4. Beef up your guarantee. Guarantees are most effective when they are completely spelled out.

How To Easliy Craft Headlines That Sell (20)
Here are some sample headlines that work well: -"Have You Ever Wished You Could (blank)?" -"If (blank), Then (blank)." -Looking for a (blank) that will (blank)? -How to make (blank) in less than 30 days.


Leave a Comment