Prosumer Camcorders - 8 Critical Things To Compare

Like many aspects of technology today, many of the features provided on camcorders are never used. Camcorders are categorized according not only to the use for which they are applied by the end user, but also to the degree of automation desired.
Consumer Camcorders - are the light, handheld cubes with point and click convenience. Just don't expect me to read more than 4 pages of the manual.
Prosumer Camcorders - are for those consumers who want to expand their filming environments and require manual override settings for aperture, focus, zoom and light control. Prosumer camcorders are often used by wedding videographers, and corporate presentations.
Professional Camcorders - these are the big heavy guns with shoulder mounted, external microphone, and low-light film-like quality. These are the documentary making camcorders.
Out of all the features, the following have stood out as being the most important to the Prosumer:

Manual Control Capability - since Prosumer is about more quality, the need to manually set focus, aperture and light are critical.

Low Light - with most Prosumer camcorders having 1/3? 3CCD chips, features that concentrate light and render more color and saturation are preferred. Low light is extremely variable between camcorders and is generally very poor in most consumer models.

Button Positioning and Size - its all very well having manual control features, but if the access to these features is too difficult, so too is filming. Manual buttons on the casing are preferred to LCD touch screen buttons common to Sony Camcorders.

Image Quality - this is normally the base image quality, without manual intervention. As manual control is standard at Prosumer level, the standard auto image quality does not rate as highly as the ability to manually manipulate it.

Size and Handling - Prosumer camcorders are much bigger than the consumer handheld models. Most are tube like in dimensions, except the highly favored Panasonic AG DVC30 which is more cube like. Balance in the hand is important, although most Prosumers recognise that for quality video, using a tripod is essential.

Night Function - night function was previously managed by slowing the shutter speed. This may have been fine for still landscapes, but add a little motion and you add a whole lot of blur. Other IR options resulted in a greenish/yellowish tinge to the film. Again the Panasonic AG DVC30 has triumphed here with a totally different approach.

Inbuilt Audio - anyone serious about video quality is also serious about audio quality. No camcorder is going to give you top quality audio from a built in microphone. But of these models - the one that has the microphone furthest away from the noise of camera operations is again, the Panasonic. Getting an idea that this model came up on top?

Price / Value - prices vary significantly from store to store. For example the Panasonic AG DVC30 can cost as low as $1400 up to nearly $2500. There are plenty of comparison sites but check first on availability - what they state online is not always accurate.

The Prosumer models that came up tops, in order were:
1. Panasonic AG DVC30
2. Sony VX-2100 [although technically a professional camcorder, its price
is comparable]
3. Canon GL2
4. Sony TRV-950
The top two were quite close in scoring [13 and 15] and the bottom two were equal but a long way down the points [26]. The points were awarded in terms
of ranking 1 to 4 amongst the models, and then totalled. Not scientific or weighted, but it does provide a relative scoring base between models. Our next article will go into more detail on the feature comparisons between these four models.

Max Carr is Editor of RichMediaMix.com. He consults on Rich Media Technology and Digital Publishing.