CARPE H-DIEM (HD Camcorder Review)

Life, they say, is like a roll of toilet paper. Closer it gets to the end, faster it goes. Not to mention, we take for granted how valuable it is until it’s run out and it all flashes (flushes?) by before our very eyes. And if you're anything like me, your memories are about as fuzzy as that thing your toddler just picked up off the ground and put in his mouth. So are you really going to trust your gray pudding to store those precious moments? Especially those of your child’s first steps or his first base hit or…seriously, what the heck was that thing he just put in his mouth?! Start capturing it with the crystal clear images of a high definition camcorder. There’s a reason why “new parents” make up a significant portion of the camcorder buyers. Besides, you didn't buy that multi-thousand dollar HDTV to watch some "standard" definition video, did you?

As it happens, I just recently purchased one and got to play around with it for a couple of weeks. I swear, the pictures are absolutely stunning! Of course, I’m no expert when it comes to camcorders; what follows are the details of my personal research and selection process. Just be warned that you'll see combinations of letters and numbers here which should never appear next to each other in any language.

There are what seem like thousands of different camcorder models out there. Fortunately, I wanted a high definition camcorder, so bam! That eliminated all but a handful of models. More specifically, there are currently four high definition "prosumer" camcorders retailing for around $1,500 (if you're really serious, you can pick up some "pro" models for thousands more). Sony makes three models (HDR-HC3, HDR-UX1 & HDR-SR1) and Canon makes the other one (HV10). They'll all create comparable high quality, high definition images and they all come with similar features, including countless built-in manual adjustments (to make all your subjects look like green Martians, for example). But they're really designed to be used as "point and shoot" camcorders - much like the tiny digital camera you already probably own. And let’s face it, for most of us, that’s pretty much what we want, right? Speaking of digicams, as with most camcorders these days, they'll also take still images (or a single square, if we’re continuing with the toilet paper analogy).

(Sony HDR-UX1)

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