Today, consumer-grade 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 gussied-up 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, rectangular-pixel, 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/VHS-C
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 & Blu-ray
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