How to Buy a Digital Camcorder

Choosing between standard and high-definition camcorders

If you plan to watch home movies on your HDTV, you'll probably want a high-definition (HD) camcorder (covered in our companion report on HD camcorders). The best HD camcorders record 1,080-line images -- the highest resolution an HDTV will display. Standard-definition (SD) camcorders, on the other hand, record only about 480 lines in an image -- the maximum resolution an analog TV will display.

If you have a standard-definition TV and don't plan to buy an HD set anytime soon, you can save $200 or more by sticking with an SD camcorder. If you store or edit your movies on your computer, SD footage eats up less memory and doesn't require such a powerful computer (although many HD camcorders have an SD setting for just this reason).

Most digital still cameras can also take HD video and are a good alternative to a pocket camcorder. Our reports on digital cameras, cheap digital cameras and ultra-zoom cameras cover the best models. For short clips, a smartphone can also fit the bill.

• Long zooms are fun. Some models top out at 10x, but some cameras have optical zooms that extend to 70x. Digital zooms can extend things farther, but are of limited value as they tend to pixelate images (e.g., cause them to become blocky and lose detail) -- sometimes to unusable proportions -- as they enlarge the image. Camcorders with long zooms should have some kind of image stabilization, preferably optical, which helps counteract camera shake. Even so, using a tripod is a good idea for long-zoom shots.

• Check computer compatibility. A relatively speedy computer with a large hard drive and plenty of memory will make the digital video editing experience more enjoyable.

• Look for a microphone jack. Many reviews lament the poor quality of the built-in microphones in digital camcorders; none of the new models discussed in this report includes a jack for an external microphone.

• Pixels are different for camcorders than for digital cameras. We're used to seeing digital cameras with 10 megapixels (that's 10,000,000 pixels) of resolution, but video needs less resolution than still photos. 690,000 pixels will give you about 500 lines of horizontal resolution. That's about the same resolution as a standard DVD.