Today, consumergrade camcorders have been almost completely replaced by the video capabilities of smartphones, DSLRs, and action cameras. But in 2008, there were more choices than ever: analog or digital; standard or high definition; and various forms of tape, disc, hard drive, and flash memory recording. I explain all of these varieties of camcorders and provide some sample footage from them.

Today there are some signs of a resurgence in popularity of camcorders due to their "retro" aesthetic, but unfortunately the inexpensive new ones all over Amazon are gussiedup toys with very bad video and audio quality, and it may be difficult to import and edit the footage from a vintage camcorder on a modern computer. Windows Movie Maker 2012 is my beginner's recommendation because it's a simple solution that supports a very wide variety of formats, and unlike many modern video editors (including Microsoft's own replacement for it, ClipChamp), it actually knows how to properly deal with interlaced, rectangularpixel, and/or 4:3 aspect ratio footage.

One 2000s camcorder format I didn't mention was MicroMV, because it was already long gone by 2008. See Techmoan's excellent video about MicroMV:    • MicroMV and me  Tiny Videotape, big ...  

And Panasonic's brochure for their 2008 camcorders was a real tour de force of marketing, sloganeering, and logos plastered all over the place: http://www.amstereo.org/files/panason...

Time flow:
0:00 Introduction
1:03 Analog Hi8/VHSC
1:34 Digital8
2:04 MiniDV
3:15 DVD
3:58 Hard drive
4:31 Flash memory
5:05 Extra features & hybrid models
5:51 HDV
6:37 HD on DVD & Bluray
7:58 AVCHD
8:38 SD with HDMI output
9:09 Budget HD camcorders
10:06 Over 50 models in 2008
11:22 The camcorder market today
12:34 My recommendations
13:20 Conclusion

Disclaimer: Except for the cat, none of the sample footage was recorded by me, and I don't know any of the people in it.

#camcorder #RetroTech #FoundFootage