Audio podcasting is great. Video is even better. So, I’m taking the plunge into video podcasting, and have spent a week or so researching camcorders. There are a baffling amount of options and features available, especially for newbies like me.
CamcorderInfo was an enormous help, written by enthusiasts and pros, their reviews are detailed and informative, with a highly useful comparison. Their sister site, EasyCamcorders has advice and a buying guide. Among their advice
-Low light performance is crucial, and by that they mean indoors too.
-Stills won’t be as good as from a digital still camera
-A 3 CCD model is way better than the standard 1 CCD
-Mic-in and headphone jacks can really help with audio
-Ignore digital zoom, it’s useless. Optical zoom is what’s important.
Plus, from what I can tell, mini-DV camcorders record at higher quality than DVD or Flash.
Given all that, I’m getting the Panasonic PV-GS500, 3 CCD, mini-DV, good in low light, with lots of tweakable features, and used Froogle to price it and check customer satisfaction ratings with the online stores.
After I learn how to use the camcorder and edit the results, Polizeros will start videocasting!