Event and Special Occasions - Buying A Digital Camcorder

There is your baby about to cross the stage. You, however, are sitting in row 27. Or your niece is up at bat and you hear the great-grandparents in your ear asking “Are you getting the shot?”

For once in a life time events you don’t want to be the one that miss the shot. I also know that many of you really want to transfer videos to DVD for archival purposes and for those relatives that refuse to touch a computer.

Event and Special Occasions – Camcorders from $250 to $999

Your needs include:

• 20x or more optical zoom
• Image stabilization
• Able to record in a variety of lighting conditions

Sorry, no disrespect to the legion of The Flip camcorder lovers. A camcorder with good optical zoom is what you need in event and special occasion situations. You will also want image/optical stabilization if you are going to do more hand held than tripod work.

Recommendations

I’m thinking something like the Sony DCR SR47/L Hard Disk Drive Handyman Camcorder (standard definition) with a 60X optical zoom and a 60GB hard drive to store hours of the wedding, graduation or family reunions.

Also for consideration, the JVC Everio GZ-MS120B Flash Memory camcorder or the high definition cousin JVC Everio GZ-HM200A.


Video Editing Software

• Corel Photo and Video can help novice and low tech uses to create videos and DVDs.
• Sony Vegas Movie Studio includes DVD Architect to help create DVDs.
• For DVD production you might want to consider programs like Roxio Creator 2010 or Ashampoo Burning Studio 9. Both programs have built in themes, tutorials and export options.

This is the fourth extract from my BlogHer post on Thoughts on Buying A Digital Camcorder. I've added additional resources and removed still more grammatical marks of shame.

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