A great feature of the Flip UltraHD camcorder is that it can be used with AA-sized rechargeable batteries. The batteries can be easily charged up right in the unit by connecting the camcorder’s USB connector to the USB port on a computer. If time needed for charging batteries is posing to be an issue, you can also install and use regular AA batteries in the unit as well.

The Flip UltraHD camcorder is extremely portable weighing at just 6.1 ounces. This model is heavier then some other camcorders of its class but the extra weight is quite negligible. Operation of the buttons is easier because they are bigger. If you’ve had problems trying to find buttons or hold on to the camcorder, the Flip has buttons that are rubberized and a matte finish that makes holding on to the camcorder very easy.

The UltraHD camcorder shoots 720p video at 30fps that is H.264 compressed, and encoded as a MPEG-4. If you’re concerned about recording time this camcorder has an 8GB internal memory that allows for the recording of over 2 hours of video. That is generally enough video time for any event before needing to download the videos onto a computer or disk. The process of shooting and transferring videos from the Flip UltraHD camcorder to your computer or uploading them to another video-file-sharing site has been simplified. All in all, with a relatively low price tag, reliable performance, small size and useful feature, this model proves to be a real winner.

By: Darius Zonta

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To capture HD videos is the standard today, so what are you waiting for. Most of the camcorders price range between $600 to $1000 and up. These camcorders have all great quality and the big advantage is that they are already in digital domain. All the camcorders are easy it use, very user friendly. The overall zoom standard is 10x and 12x, there is camcorders with a higher zoom capability. The disadvantage with a camcorder zoom bigger than 12 xs is the video is vibrating; the human hand is not steady enough to keep the camcorder still so you will need a tripod. Some of the cameras come out with a stabilizer unit build in which helps.

The small HD camcorder doesn’t always have the stabilizer unit build in. The cameras offer a similar storage devises like: MiniDV tape, DVD, hard-drive, and flash-memory card. There is camcorder that uses a variety of formats. This is so you can shoot long videos in one take. Not all the formats have big storage capability.

HD cameras have internal flash memory or flash memory card to store all the video and audio on. Flash memory or flash memory card is used by almost all cameras. Most of the HD camera manufactures have stopped to build cameras with DVD storage; you may still find this camcorder on the market. The DVD storage capability is 4.7 GB; the flash memory goes a lot higher like 16 GB 32 GB and more.

Flash-memory card models tend to be lighter and more compact than other types, although none have the viewfinders found on most other models
With the camcorders so small you can always have a HD camcorders with you for all your video memories and funny clips that happens all around you.

By: Kate Nell

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The HF200 camcorder from Canon is a lightweight model weighing in at a mere 340g. Small enough to easily fit in a bag or pocket the HF200 is rammed full of recent technologies to help you take quality HD video footage.

The has a clever anti-shock system keeping your footage free from shakes which can be caused by small movements of your hand as you record. There is also a face detection feature which can track multiple faces at once keep those you care about sharp and in focus. The with a combination of Pre Rec. and Quick Start features the Canon HF200 can be set to always record so when you press the record button to capture one of those spontaneous moments you won’t miss a second.

Like many camcorders the HF200 provides the option to shoot still photos as well. You can capture 3.3MP photos when not recording or 2MP photos while you record. To get the that really prefect shot the HF200′s photo burst feature can grab 25 still photographs from a second of HD video footage allowing you to select the perfect snap of that quick event.

The HF200 has a external microphone input allowing you to use a separate microphone for a step up in audio quality. A 32GB SD card is enough to store up to 12 hours of HD footage which should be enough for the most demanding of users. Another neat feature the Canon HF 200 has to offer is the ability to upload music using a Music Transfer Utility which you can edit into film directly on the HF200 meaning you can produce and edit your movies without using a computer.

By: Zoe Brooks

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Each and every second in life is precious and cannot be tried again with the best action. So, living life to the fullest is a vital factor for a happy living. Recording moments that are worth to be recalled is mandatory for enjoying the past moments. This is facilitated with the help of camcorders.

Recording the video on the hard drive instead of the conventional tape is advantageous indeed. More recordings can be done and the worry of running out of space in the middle is no more encountered. In addition to the better quality, camcorders provide a pleasant experience in recording events in the form of video. The need for a better change can be faced best with the help of HD camcorders. Processors at increased speed and the aggrandized memory space in the form of hard disks are enticing features of camcorders. The employment of pixel capture and the altered memory space target at providing a better digital experience using advanced technology.

Augmented performance and depletion in the size of the device are the keywords for the leap in technology. The self contained hard drive provides the abundant storage space. The need for tapes and disks in case of exhaustion of memory is no more occurring due to in built hard disk.

The maximum number of hours available for storage is dependant upon the quality of your video being recorded. Usually, it varies between seven to ten hours of memory storage. Economy mode is also available that aids in saving the space on the compromise of the quality.

The video recording can be readily transferred to the computer in the conventional ones. But this is not a burden with the HD camcorders. On account of the direct capturing of the video on to the hard drive, the operation is made simpler.

Carrying extra tapes or disks on picnic can be tedious with the handy cams and other such devices. Forget that cumbersome job when using HD camcorders. Spending your money on blank media is no more required. Rearranging the playback sequences in addition to the creation of playlist of videos is feasible without the fast forward operations. Instant playback of the selected clip is considered as a major advantage.

Recording video no more demands extra cost with HD camcorders. Since the available hard disk comes with a life time guarantee of the camcorders, replacing by new ones is not necessary. Selected video content can be categorized depending upon the priority and need.

Recording time is proportional to the quality of the video. Exhaustion of memory should be followed by the transfer to the computer before proceeding with the recording process. Direct view on the camera or through a television hooked up to the camcorder is the additional feature. No damage is caused to the camcorder due to repeated viewing and also the video content can be accessed randomly.

On the other hand, fast phenomenon seems to be missing with the dragging process in the video content. Reliability is missing since the tape mechanisms offer more and not subjected to failure in operation owing to vibrations and mechanical shocks. Even though the tape is prone to be mechanically broken in the recording process, chances of retrieving the content are high. Failure of the hard disk pushes you to forget the content completely.

Extra clicks are mandatory until you become familiar with the operations in the camcorders. This will no more be a difficulty once you get used to it. Location of the slot for the SD card is tedious since usage of tripod will prevent the access to the slot. Dismounting of the camcorder from the tripod is a cumbersome job and a must to insert the card. Crashing of the hard disk happens on account of mechanical shock. Failure rate is high when using hard disk which is similar to the laptops.

HD camcorders offer disadvantages in addition to the unique features. Choose the best model and attain the maximum benefit.

By: Fredrick Joy

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Picking the right HD hard drive camcorder can make your brain hurt, they just so many. So finding your way through the many formats is your first step. They are four different formats on the market and they are MiniDV tapes, hard disc drive, DVD/BD and Flash memory cards.

MiniDV Tapes

Mini DV camcorders:
FOR:
High quality images
Easy to use
Tapes and camcorders are cheaper

AGAINST:
Lengthy Transfer Process
Not as convenient of flexible to transfer footage
No in – camcorder editing

Once the industry standard, what does this format offer consmers today?

MiniDV tapes are deemed the industry standard format for consumers; they’re easy to use, small, a familiar format and give high quality results. However, times change and there are more flexible and convenient formats for consumers to opt for instead.

The MiniDV is probably the least and most time-consuming option to transfer footage from for the beginner, as you have to play the whole tape to transfer it.

There are Five ways to transfer footage from MiniDV: composite A/V leads – the red, white (sound) and yellow (video) plugs – and An S-video cable, though both of these downgrade the footage from HD to standard definition, so they tend to be used purely for viewing on an SD. ADV cable (or FireWire), and USB 2.0 Both maintain the HD quality. The last way is using an HDMI cable – though this is just for viewing.

Composite Av and S-video can go into Your DVD recorder and PCs. FireWire is for connecting to a PC. If you are saving the footage to your computer, you will need bags of room for HD footage, and plenty of Ram memory too. You will also need dedicated software if you want to edit footage in any way.
Hard Disc Drive
What are the benefits of recording onto a hard drive over removable media?

FOR:
Large storage capacity (up to 240GB)
Familiar recording format
Compact

AGAINST:
More expensive than MiniDV and DVD, without the quality of MiniDV
Hard drives can fail

Built in HDD hard disk drive (HDD) are now widely used in camcorders. They work in the same way as your PC’s hard drive in that they store all of the footage internally, so there is no need for removable memory storage, such as cards or tapes.

The benefits of HDD hard disk drive camcorders re: long recording times, compact dimensions and that you can easily access your footage at random place in the recording timeline, which makes for convenient editing in -camcorder.

A possible downside is the argument made by some that hard drives can be fragile (for example, if the camera is accidentally dropped) and they will eventually wear out. Of course, as you’re recording onto an internal medium, you will also need to transfer it off the camcorder onto a DVD or your PC at some future point. When you are transferring the footage, your footage appears as single files that you can drag and drop, much like many PC operations, making it a familiar format for consumers.

Transferring your footage involves connecting your camcorder using DV (firewire) or USB 2.0 cables, and software if you want to edit. Of the two options, DV will be the faster method to transfer footage.

DVD/BD
Enjoy the convenience before they disappear from shelves forever…

For:
Straight Forward and easy to use
Decent quality
Instant playback in your DVD/BD
Convenient

AGAINST:
DVD/BD disc limited capacity
Spare media could get expensive
Format not popular for camcorders

DVD camcorders are becoming less renowned and will soon be dropped by many manufactures. They are inexpensive and offer a very handy and easy format to get to grips with. However, the chief plus point is that you can take your recently recorded footage and download in into a DVD player or PC for instant playback without needing any extra cables or some sort of transferring procedure. You can also use your DVD enabled PC to edit footage and you have easy access to the footage on DVD because you don’t have to keep going forwards and backwards to find a particular scene, as is the case with MiniDVs.

The downside is that the 8cm DVDs used in HD camcorders only hold around 15 – 20 minutes of footage per disc and at around

]]> http://besthdcamcorderreviews.com/articles/the-right-format-for-the-right-hd-camcorders/feed/ 0 http://besthdcamcorderreviews.com/articles/never-buy-a-flip-video-ultra-series-camcorder-review/ http://besthdcamcorderreviews.com/articles/never-buy-a-flip-video-ultra-series-camcorder-review/#comments Fri, 17 Dec 2010 20:40:29 +0000 HD Camcorder Expert http://besthdcamcorderreviews.com/articles/never-buy-a-flip-video-ultra-series-camcorder-review/

If there ever was a product that failed to live up to it’s potential, the Flip Video Ultra Series Camcorder was that product. Small, easy to use, YouTube friendly, and everyone is doing the video thing these days. The Flip Video got all kinds of media love from USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and even Oprah used a Flip Video on her show. It’s truly a great idea whose time has come, and people are buying them up, in spite of all their problems. Speaking of their problems, lets have a look shall we.

Shooting videos with the Flip Video, and viewing them on the camera seems to work fine. The problem comes once you attach the the video camera to your PC or MAC. Problems include intermittent uploading of videos. Meaning, sometimes videos upload and sometimes they don’t . Sometimes only a few will upload, and sometimes none. In addition uploads can be painfully slow. Some consumers have reported complete computer crashes while attempting to load their videos. Even MAC users have seen their virtually bullet proof systems crash when hooked up to a Flip Video. Pure Digital, the company behind the camcorder has been madly releasing software, and firmware updates for Flip Video. Some of the patches do seem to be helping.

The other thing to consider is the quality of the video you plan on creating. The Flip Video, probably creates quality slightly better videos than most cell phones, but not as good as the videos from a decent digital still camera. It seems to be geared to the YouTube crowd, as that’s about where the quality of the videos seem to fit. If your looking to shoot family and friends videos you want as keepsakes, it’s probably better to go with a dedicated camcorder. If your only a casual video shooter, than maybe you should spend a few extra bucks on your digital still camera, and make sure it’s got good video features.

I don’t mean to pick on the Flip Video too much, but there are a few other smaller problems as well:

- Small size of unit can be cumbersome for people with larger adult size hands.

- Interface is not as simple to use as it should be.

- Customer service unable to keep up due to the popularity of the camera, and numerous software problems.

- Lens quality and placement make it prone to scratching.

By: Chris Campbell

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Specifications: The Canon VIXIA HF200 camcorder is currently one of the top video cameras in its class. It has a 3.89MP image sensor and when in still-image mode, can take images with up to 3.31MP in resolution. This model comes with a built-in flash and 32GB of removable flash storage. It uses a 4.1mm – 61.5mm zoom lens, with up to 15x in optical zoom and 300x in digital zoom. This camcorder fares well in terms of connectivity too, with a built in component video output, composite audio/video output, USB, HDMI, microphone and headphone ports. It ships with a battery pack, power adapter, component cable, wrist strap, wireless controller, USB cable, stereo video cable, a manual and photo/video editing software.

Design: The Canon VIXIA HF200 camcorder measures at 2.8 x 4.9 x 2.4 inches and weights at 12 ounces. It has a rotating display (with 211’000 pixels). This model looks pretty good (with a silver, gray and black external casing), but one can help but to notice that some of the cheaper Canon camcorders looks a little more classy and expensive that this one.

Features & Performance: The Canon VIXIA HF200 camcorder is very portable and can easily fit into your jacket’s pocket (albeit a little bulging) or bag. It feels very good in your hands and the controls are strategically placed so that you can easily reach them with your fingers while holding it. The quality of video at 24Mbps bit rate was very good. The videos were sharp and the colors look great. At this bit rate, it records 5.5 minutes of video per gigabyte. The optical image stabilizers works pretty well too, even at high zoom.

Overall: The Canon VIXIA HF200 camcorder currently retails at around $580 each. It may be just a little more expensive that some of its competitors but it does come with a better set of features and a nice design. The Canon VIXIA HF200 camcorder is a perfect choice for those who are looking for a stylish, practical and feature-packed camcorder that records excellent HD videos.

By: Troy Richards

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The HDR-XR520VE HD Camcorder from Sony has fast become one of the most popular HD camcorders on the market.

Recording full HD video at a 1920×1080 pixel resolution the XR520VE has a 240GB hard disk drive offering over 100 (101 to be exact) of recording space. This should prove to be enough to the most intensive use on a 2 week holiday or more. There is also the option of increasing the recording capacity by adding a memory stick into the integrated memory card slot.

The quality of recordings you can get from the HDRXR520VE is superb. This level of quality is due to the high end components Sony have used when building the XR520VE. The lens is a Sony premium G Lens specifically designed for HD camcorder useage. The light is transformed into a digital signal by a Exmor R CMOS sensor. This CMOS sensor has twice the sensitivity over some other camcorder sensors making the HDRXR520VE an ideal choice for shooting in poor lighting conditions. Sony have finished the combiniation off with their BIONZ high speed image processor which provides the noise reduction and picture enhancement routines to make the final video footage top notch.

There is a 12x optical zoom available form the lens as well as 120x digital zoom. As with all digital zooms the further you zoom in, the less pixels that are present in the video so you lose quality. When zoomed in, camera shake can become a problem if you are not using a tripod. Sony’s Opitical SteadyShot is one of the better image stabilisation features available on a camcorder and does a fine job of keeping the picture free from shakes while you record.

Another great feature the HDR-XR520VE has to offer is Face Detection. This optimises the contrast, white balance and focus of the camcorder when it detects there is a face in the frame. This is especially useful when filming a person against a bright background such as at the beach or when the sun is low in the sky. Another feature is the Smile Shutter which will take and store a still photograph automatically whenever it detects your filming subject smiles.

A feature that sets the XR520VE apart from the competition is the addition of a GPS within the camcorder. This will display your location on a map on the LCD screen and tag all of your records with the location in which they were filmed. You can then use this information to quickly find all of the recordings you took at a particular location, simply by pressing the touch screen map. The GPS will also automatically update then camcorders time whenever it detects you have changes time zones.

By: Zoe Brooks

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The Canon Vixia HF20 is currently one of the best consumer HD camcorders that money can buy. It is a full-featured model that gives the user great versatility in recording HD videos. Like most full-featured camcorders, this model’s size is far from those of the Flip UltraHD pocket camcorders. The HF20 measures at 2.8 x 2.5 x 4.9 inches and weighs 13.9 ounces. Nevertheless, it was very comfortable to hold on to with very well placed control buttons.

For previewing your videos, there is a 2.70inch LCD display. Most of the controls shows up on the LCD screen. The change between user interfaces is now smoother than the older models and you can even choose the font size on the display. The videos recorded can be either stored in its 32GB internal flash memory or straight into a SDHC memory card. This model has a 15x optical zoom and SuperRange optical image stabilization that works really well on even on close-ups.

The quality of the HD videos and performance of the Canon Vixia HF20 camcorder is top notch. The camcorder focuses accurately and quickly even in dim lighting conditions. For the best video quality, Canon has recommended the use of a Class 4 (or higher) SDHC memory card. Considering the size of the lens, the video quality was excellent with great exposures, well-saturated colors and very realistic images. The quality of the still photos was also very good. Currently, the Canon Vixia HF20 HD camcorder retails for around $625 each, which is a little more expensive that usual. Considering its great performance, the wide array of manual features and excellent HD video quality, this camcorder is definitely worth the buy!

By: Ryan B. Smith

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These days everybody seems to be recording videos. If you take a look at YouTube, you’ll see tons of new content added everyday. Many of those pictures are low quality ones, and that could be party due to the fact that many people assume that you should pay a fortune to get a decent HD-camera. In reality, you don’t have to spend more than a couple of hundred dollars to get a decent quality camcorder for your online videos.

Flip Mino HD is a highly portable camcorder that allows you to record videos (up to 60 minutes) and share them on YouTube or any other online service that you prefer. Whether you are a vlogger or just want to record interviews or your job, Mino has something for you. Here is what you get with FlipHD Video camera:

Capacity: it holds 60 minutes of HD-quality video (1280 x 720 resolution at 30 frames per second; 16:9 widescreen) on 4 GB of built-in memory. That’s more than enough for most vlogs. Weight: Mino weights only 3.3 ounces. It is very slim, and it fits almost anywhere. Convenience: Flip features one-touch recording and digital zoom. It is very simple to handle, and the interface is very intuitve to use. Connectivity: the USB arm plugs directly into your computer to launch built-in FlipShare software. The software is very intuitve to use and doesn’t take too much time getting used to. The software lets you save and organize your videos, edit individual clips, make custom movies, email your videos, and upload them to YouTube. Price: it only costs $210. That is very affordable for a highly capable video-cam. And let’s not forget that we are talking about a HD-cam here.

Overall, FlipHD is a great choice for videobloggers and those who like to take amateur videos. The quality of picture is decent, and the device is highly portable. If you are looking for a portable HD solution to take with you all around the world, you should strongly consider this gadget.

By: Panah C Rad

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