I need help with buying a camcorder.

Buying a new camcorder need help?

• i am buying a new camcorder and i think i have found what i am looking for but there are some things that i don't have a full grasp of. like what is "MB" i know it ...show more

• Answer:

  One thing you should get a full grasp on is how much space digital video takes up. If you're serious about camcorders, you shouldn't be thinking of video in terms of megabytes, but rather in terms of gigabytes (1 gigabyte = 1000 megabytes). Most low-cost camcorders use MiniDV tapes. Normally, you don't think of capacity in camcorders in terms of megabytes or even gigabytes but by the length of the tape. A normal MiniDV tape is 60 minutes long; that would take a little over 5 GB. If you use a MiniDV camcorder, 32MB is only enough for ten seconds of video (3.1 MB a second). It is possible to compress video down so it takes up less space per unit time, but the quality will go down. I have the description for the Tony Hawk Helmet Camera in front of me, and it says it comes with 32MB for 30 minutes of video at 640x480 resolution. I wasn't able to see any samples of the video on DigitalBlue's website, and I think it's for good reason. It's possible to get it down that small, but it would probably be really yucky quality. You could probably get the same quality out of the video camera on your cell phone (if yours has one). I think it's telling that it says, "Recommended for age 7 to adult," which means it's probably being marketed to the elementary school crowd. I really think it's just a toy, and I wouldn't waste my money on it. Strap your cell phone on your helmet with duct tape instead.