Susan Jan asked:

With your trusty digital video camera by your side you can capture all those special moments, such your child’s first steps, your birthday or wedding, or your vacation with family and friends etc.

With so many manufacturers and models available in the digital video market, you may find it confusing trying to choose the perfect one for you. Your choice will, however, depend on the features that you want and how much you are willing to spend.

The most important thing to consider is the format in which your videos will be stored, as the video format determines the video quality. Digital 8 otherwise called D8, Mini-DV, DVD and HDD are the main types of video format that digital cameras offer. Both D8 and Mini-DV are tape-based formats, with the Mini-DV currently offering the highest quality video format to consumers. The DVD format allows direct video recording onto a digital disk, while the HDD type uses internal hard drives where the video is recorded. As the tape format is slowly being phased out by major manufacturers, it is a good idea to invest in disk or hard drive based digital video cameras.

Digital video cameras also come with charged coupled device or CCD imaging sensor. Digital video cameras come with 1-CCD or 3-CCD features. Cameras with 1-CCD suffer from poor video quality, whereas 3-CCD cameras produce much better quality videos. Most professional camcorders use the 3-CCD technology, thus making them more expensive than the other models.

The optical zoom feature of the camcorder lens generally ranges from 10X to 20X. The choice of zoom depends on how close you want to get to the action. Some digital video cameras also allow still photography at various resolutions, and some camcorders offer both video and still photography features. Some digital video camcorders have in-built flash for low-light photography, while some video cameras come with a ‘Night Shot’ feature. Other popular options include external flashlights, external microphones and external storage devices that can be attached onto the camcorder.

Camcorders with longer battery strength is also recommended. Digital video cameras have battery life ranging from 4 to 8 hours of continuous shooting. However, using the zoom or any external devices reduce the battery strength.

All cameras nowadays come bundled with a digital video editing software. But if you are not satisfied with the one provided, you can always buy a better and more expensive editing software from Adobe or any other reputable brand.

Video camera prices today vary from $500 to $4000, with Sony, JVC and Canon being the more popular brands.

David Fishman asked:

Digital video is a new technology that can be used and manipulated much easier than the old analog signal. This generic term is not to be confused with the name DV, which is a specific type of digital video. In the past video was recorded on tape but today with digital video it can be recorded on tape, DVD or straight to the hard drive of a computer. This generic term is not to be confused with the name DV, which is a specific type of digital video. Digital video can be processed and edited very easily today, special effects are easy to add with digital editing.

Digital video can also be edited on a personal computer which has the proper hardware and software. Regardless of software, digital video is generally edited and needs quite bit of disk space to store everything. Digital video is also used in modern mobile phones and video conferencing systems. The quality of the digital video is far superior to the analog counterpart.

Artistic people will claim that the quality of digital video is cold, that you don’t have the warmth of the look of film images. But one thing is for sure. Digital video is here to stay, which means that our films of our 25th anniversary celebration are also here to stay.

These new cameras can record for several hours on end. The recording is done either on a small videocassette, blank CD or a DVD. Visuals are continuously recorded by these cameras and can be played on the screen.

Marketing videos with poor picture quality are likely to reflect a poor quality company in the mind of the viewer, so try to get the best quality video you can get. When people talk about interlacing they are talking about a special technique that improves the quality of the picture without increasing extra or more bandwidth. Using a camera that is analog you will need multiple tapes for long filming, but with digital video you need plenty of disk space to store all of the video. In the past when recording with tapes you will lose the quality of the recording when duplicating the information but with digital recording you do not have that problem plus the footage will last forever. Today many of the cameras come with many features that you only find in professional cameras. You can get better picture quality when using a more expensive digital camera.

When filming with a DVD format it will allow you to record right to digital disk, the other type of technologies are HDD and this allows you to record right to a hard drive. As the tape format is slowly being phased out by major manufacturers, it is a good idea to invest in disk or hard drive based digital video cameras. While this format is very easy to use and is supported by practically all software it is not efficient as there is no compression applied.

With digital video cameras today there are features that allow you to take low or medium quality footage to save space.

Russ Snapper asked:

Digital video recording system uses a digital video signal. Based on image capture formats, Digital video cameras are of two types: interlaced and progressive scan. In the Interlaced camera technology, the odd numbered lines are scanned first and later the even numbered lines are scanned. Again the odd numbered lines are scanned and so on. A set of even or odd lines is called as a field, and a frame is a successive pairing of two fields of opposite parities. In the progressive scanning digital video camera, each frame is recorded as distinct having both fields as identical. Hence, interlaced video records two times the fields per second similar to progressive video, when both work at the same number of frames per second.  This is the cause of the video having a ‘hyper real’ look since images are drawn at the rate of 60 times per second whereas the film records 24 to 25 progressive frames per second.

Digital Video digital cameras have emerged technically superior. Today, we have a new generation of digital video cameras having a technology that eliminates the difficulty of frequent exchange of tapes as in the earlier digital camcorders.

There are some important factors that can help you choose a digital video camera.

Tape or Disc: Decide whether you need a camera that records on tapes or discs. Digital video can be recorded on both tape and disc formats. Other Medias are also used such as Card Cams, DVD cameras and Hard Disk Drive Cameras.

Pixels: Your images will be clear with more realistic colors, as the number of megapixels is more.  Instead of considering the gross number of pixels that a camera can capture, the number of effective pixels should be considered. Effective pixels are the numbers used by the CCD chip of the camera while recording.

CCDs: CCD chip captures the Pixel information similar to the way in which the film captures light for a film camera. You get brighter pictures with better colors with larger CCD as more light is taken along with the image.

Low Light Performance: As most home digital video cameras are used indoors, it is essential to find a camera that performs better in low light conditions. Some models offer night vision function to shoot pictures in dark conditions.

Zoom: There are two types of Zoom available in Digital cameras; Digital and optical. Optical zooms maintain picture clarity and are important. Some Digital video cameras have more digital zooms, i.e. the existing picture is enlarged resulting in less clearer images due to less pixels.

Image Stability:Another complaint associated with picture quality is the shaky pictures apart from lowlight pictures.

Interconnectivity:Most Digital video cameras are available with a number of sockets in the back for connecting the digital video camera to a VCR or DVD Recorder. Check out the available connections on your VCR or DVD or computer for compatibility.

LCD Screens:More the pixels on the LCD screen, the better the picture quality.

Manual Settings:For point and shoot pictures, automatic settings in the menu will be desired. For tailoring the image to the desired conditions, manual controls for the focus, iris, shutter speed and white balance affect the picture quality.

Where to buy: Ensure that you buy your camera from a reputable source.

Brad Martinson asked:

There are countless choices in the games that kids can play. However, not all video game systems are suitable for kids. Some are educational, fun and extra entertaining for many kids to enjoy. Because of our new innovative technology and progress, even changes in the way children games have also transformed to a more realistic and virtual game playing with contents unacceptable for many kids to view.

Before, video games were invented for educational and entertainment purposes that kids have enjoyed playing even today. Most likely, parents did not have to worry about what their kids are playing because game content was safe and fairly protected from harmful contents. Like the Atari video game system, offering wholesome games such as Pac-Man or Space Invaders, kids are open to have a fun and be entertained without any explicit content and away from corruption that could influence the children’s behavior. Unfortunately, changes in technology have altered the way video games are today. Games of today are more realistic and are in stilled with adult content that many game manufacturers have included in their games. Therefore, parents are now concerned on the typical game system that they want their kids to have. In fact, many parents are opting to find the best video game system that is best for their kids but away from adult contents and other threatening factors that could influence the kids.

Unlike before, Atari game system was the best video games made available to kids. Now, video game system has increased due to so many selections available to consumers especially to parents. Large selections of different types of game system such as Sony PlayStation 2, Nintendo’s GameCube, the Microsoft Xbox and Xbox 360 video games from Microsoft are some of the selections that parents consider purchasing for their kids.

The best selling game console in the market is the Sony PlayStation 2 (or often referred to as PS2), it caters to all ages while providing about 600 different types of games. These games have been rated for every age bracket to enjoy and specifically for preference of age limitation allowed for each game and level usage. For example, games rated with E are allowed for ages from six and up. Other games at this rating, however, are complicated for younger children to play therefore, rating with E10+ are advisable for children above ten years old to play. Likewise, other games for younger children below 10 are rated with EC or in other words, Early Childhood.

A popular video game system that children basically love is the Nintendo GameCube console. This game system has about 263 games that are based on children’s favorite titles like the Sega’s Sonic GEMS Collections, Mario Party 6 and Mario Tennis from Nintendo, and other game titles particularly for GameCube console that are also rated E.

Another video game system rated E is the Xbox and Xbox 360 video game with a built-in parental control. The Xbox has about 270 available games while the Xbox 360 has about 12 games and increasing with other popular releases. Although, some of these games may not only be available on the Xbox but as well, be available to GameCube and PS2 or all three video game systems mentioned. In such, the Xbox games with E rating like Astropop and Feeding Frenzy can have crossover titles that many publishers have also released and made possible to other video game system. For instance, rated E games like Eidos InteractiveLEGO Star Wars are available to GameCube, PS2 and even Xbox whereas other rated E10+ are also available to other game systems, while other games like the rated EC Global Star Software’s Dora the Explorer are solely for Xbox and PS2 only.

Choosing the best video game system for the kids is important especially if parents are very concerned in their kid’s preference in video game playing. The abovementioned video game system can help parents understand the kinds of video game system available to kids while assisting parents in finding the best video game system to give to them. Parents should keep in mind that video game systems for their kids should have parental control options on the game system to lock functions or set limits to the kind of games or titles allowed for playing or viewing. From the abovementioned video game systems, the most advisable for parents to purchase is the Xbox and Xbox 360 because it comes with a built-in parental control.