These can be divided into three categories: operational features concerning the image quality and sound, physical characteristics, and price.Ĭamera technology improves very quickly, and just like the analog and MiniDV devices of the past, standard resolution of 720 x 480 pixels has more or less disappeared. Next, examine the features offered by individual camcorder models. Identifying the best category for your needs is a great place to start. If you’re launching a career as an independent filmmaker, look to the prosumer category. The significant quality increase is reflected in the higher price.
They capture footage at high enough quality for broadcasting or professional filmmaking and usually offer superior audio.
Prosumer camcordersĭevices in this category straddle the line between professional- and consumer-grade equipment. Want to film your skydiving team from the air or capture a rock-climbing experience from a first-person perspective? This category is for you. Their portability and protective construction often result in a restricted feature set. Their rugged construction protects from damage during rough use, and they boast a variety of devices for mounting on helmets, bicycles, cars, and even surfboards and skateboards. Action camcordersįrom skydiving to scuba diving, camcorders in this class can go with you virtually anywhere. If your primary usage is family vacations, birthday parties, and capturing day-to-day digital memories, a budget camcorder is likely a great fit. They’re perfect for sharing your footage on YouTube, Facebook, or your home TV. Models in the budget price range offer great flexibility for the least money. Consider these camcorder classes to help target the best fit. On the other hand, it’s possible to spend a lot of money on functions you never use. A cheap camcorder might provide decent results, but as your skills develop, you might find it lacks quality or features you want. With such a broad range of prices and features, it’s important to identify the best class of camcorder for your needs. Digital cameras and DSLRs are great for still shots, but if you want to create brilliant videos, a camcorder is in order. However, the iris doesn't close during a still shot, so the picture could end up blurry.
A camcorder's primary job is to record video, but it can capture still shots, too. They're cheap, easy to replace, and make vandals stick out like a sore thumb at night.We discussed camcorder functionality with a professional at an electronics shop. Also keep in mind that there's nothing to stop the vandals from attacking your camera, so don't blow a load of money on it and be surprised when it gets stolen / smashed.įinally - get a motion-sensor light (PIR). See if you can arrange a demonstration with a salesperson to see what the image quality looks like, and decide for yourself whether you consider it clear enough to produce a quality picture. My suggestion would be to go for something with a decent framerate, over something with a larger image size. I'm not a photographer, so I can't really give you advice on what specs to look for, but the hard truth is that quality costs money. What you're looking for is a camera with a good quality lens, decent nighttime performance, reasonable framerate, and low chromatic abberation. Sadly, the camera industry has been pushing "MOAR MEGAPIXELZ!" as the standard for better quality, but it's simply not the case. However, from a technical standpoint, you're not really looking for higher resolution you're looking for better quality pictures. The guy ended up with a hefty fine and a long suspended sentence. This actually resulted in a conviction in a particular case I know of, where they ended up matching the tag to a string of other graffiti incidents. If you're dealing with spray-paint graffiti, they can ship paint samples off to a lab and have them matched by mass spec / IR spec. It generally depends whether they can convince a judge (or the CPS, in the UK) that what they have constitutes reasonable evidence. You've just got to hope that you've got a dumb one! In such a case, even a low-res blurry image of someone's face can be enough evidence to issue a warrant to search their premises, to find further evidence of graffiti or damage. This makes identification difficult, if not impossible.
Unfortunately, criminals these days are smart enough to wear scarves or bandanas over their face, so that only their eyes are visible to CCTV. This is more of a legal question than a technical one, so before I answer I'll provide the usual disclaimer: IANAL.įrom my (unfortunately rather extensive) experience with this, the police usually already have a good idea of who's responsible.