Camcorder
Camcorder is a portable electronic device for record videoimages and audio onto an internal storage device. The camcorder contains both a video camera and a videocassette recorder in one unit.
Camcorders are often classified by their storage device:
- Analog Camcorder which record video onto VHS, Betamax, Video8, etc (older video-tape) and,
- Digital Camcorder which record video onto Digital8, miniDV, DVD, Hard drive and solid-state (flash) semiconductor memory.
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Camcorders contain 3 major components: lens, imager, and recorder. The lens gathers and focuses light on the imager. The imager converts incident light into an electrical (video) signal. Finally, the recorder encodes the video signal into a storable form.
1. The lens is the first component in the camera-section's "light-path". The camcorder's optics generally have one or more of the following adjustments:
- aperture (to control the amount of light),
- zoom (to control the field-of-view), and
- shutter speed (to capture continuous motion.)
In consumer units, these adjustments are automatically controlled by the camcorder's electronics, generally to maintain constant exposure onto the imager.
2. The imager section is the eye of the camcorder, and converts light into an electronic video-signal by electronic process.
3. The recorder, is responsible for writing the video-signal onto a recording medium (such as magnetic videotape.) The record function involves many signal-processing steps.
After the first time you bought your camcorder, you have to read carefully the manual to understand the specification. How to operate it, what kind of feature offered, each keys function and what menu features inside and use what kind of tape, until how to troubleshhot if error massage appears on the creen. Learn each part of your camcorder so you understand how to use it.
Video Resolution
There are two type of video resolution: Standard Definition video and High-Definition video. Standard definition video will have 480 lines of resolution; where as High-Definition video can have up to 1,080. The more lines of resolution you have, the sharper your video will look. There are three different resolutions of HD video available: 1080i, 1080p, and 720p.
To the human eye, these three video resolutions look very similar. The main difference between the three comes in the way they record video. The (p) at the end of 1080p and 780p stands for "progressive scan" the ( i ) at the end of 1080i stands for "interlaced".
- Interlaced Video: Typical standard definition video is interlaced video, as is 1080i. In interlaced video, the camcorder will record every other line of resolution. So, it would start by showing lines 1,3, and 5 and then follow later with lines 2,4, and 6.
- Progressive Scan Video: Progressive scan video records each line of video in order without skipping any lines. So it would start first with line 1 and work its way all the way to line 1080. Progressive scan video typically looks better than Interlaced Video.
Currently, consumer high-definition camcorders are available on the market with different in recordig system, MiniDV tapes, mini-DVDs, hard disks, and flash drives.
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