Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Pick Me a Camcorder

by Jack Kabza
Published on Nov 22, 2005 2:00 PM



You’ve read our 2005 CamInfo Select Awards by now, and you already know the all-around best camcorders of the year. You know all the specs and the pros and cons, the ins and outs and the Achilles’ heels. But what about that certain, special je ne sais quoi that makes you pick up a camcorder and fall in love? A camcorder is more than the sum of its pixels, and one’s man’s dream cam is another man’s paperweight.

We gave out the 2005 CamInfo Select awards based on performance, value, and ease of use, but if you’re strictly talking in terms of a camcorder’s personality—well, that’s a cam of a different color. If your top priority is attitude and not aperture range, read on to find what camcorder best matches your character.

Personality: Filmmaker on the Rise
Camcorder: Panasonic PV-GS250
Who cares about style or personality? The filmmaker on the rise just wants the best, and we say the PV-GS250 is the best 2005 camcorder for under $800. Just take a look at it. Classic horizontal design, sizable body, imposing lens barrel and moveable viewfinder, professional, silver color. None of those fancy matchbox designs for you, no sir. Besides, it’s the innards that count, and you’ve got great manual controls—a focus ring, control over shutter speed, aperture readings, zoom, and white balance—what more could you ask for? Well, aside from manual audio levels, which that ‘artistic’ filmmaker has on his camcorder, but never mind about him. The PV-GS250’s all-business, utilitarian attitude is the height of professionalism. For what you can afford right now, anyway.

 
Panasonic PV-GS250 and Canon Optura 600

Personality: Bleak Artistic Amateur Filmmaker
Camcorder: Canon Optura 600
The Optura 600, Canon’s top consumer cam, has some important filmmaker features for the existential artist (widescreen mode, a decent selection of ports, manual audio levels), though it is lacking on some points, like independent adjustment of iris and shutter speed. But you’re a visionary, man. You don’t need to conform. Most importantly, perhaps, is the unobtrusive size of the Optura 600. For all its great performance, this is a very small body, and perfect for getting the close-in shots necessary for that cinema-verite feel. You don’t want to hide the dark darkness of you dark soul, but be careful not to get too dark. The 600 does not have the best low light performance.

Personality: Joe Average
Camcorder: Canon ZR200
Joe Average doesn’t care about a focus ring, manual gain options, or a hot shoe, but does care about 20x optical zoom and great automatic controls. The Canon ZR200 is there for you, the ideal ho-hum camcorder for your ho-hum life. Smack dab in the middle of our 2005 ratings at the time of this writing, the ZR200 is also smack dab in the middle of Canon’s 2005 ZR line, with video performance between that of the ZR100 and ZR300—which is to say, average. The audio is average. The port options and portability are average. The low light performance is great for a Canon, but compared to most cams, it’s average too. Joe might be disappointed by the small and low-res LCD and poor still features, but ‘average’ is never as good as we think it should be. Like Joe, the ZR200 certainly isn’t bad; it’s just unassuming and unremarkable.

Personality: Gosh, Playing with a Camcorder Sounds Like Fun!
Camcorder: Sony DCR-DVD403
Oh, wow! A camcorder! Isn’t that just totally fabulously super-cool? You aren’t picky and you just want to have some fun taking video of your friends at a party or two, to record Shelia picking her nose when she thinks nobody is watching. DVD cams are definitely your type, with that certain instant gratification edge that lets you finalize your DVD footage in-camera and then pop the disc into a player to watch (or burn copies for all of your friends). DVD and Sony are just two different ways of spelling EASY.

Personality: Fashion Slave
Camcorder: Panasonic SDR-S100
They say perception is 9/10ths of reality, and there’s no doubt that the little matchbook SDR-S100 will make you look good. As the first 3 CCD cam that relies on an SD card, it’s the cutting edge of technological style, and with dimensions of 1.96” x 3.78” x 3.17” it’s as small, smooth, and sleek as your 26-inch waist. The stills and video if taken in bright light are colorful and sharp, so you can record every shimmer on your cohorts’ beautiful locks as you frolic on your yacht. But like you, the SDR-S100 has all this and brains too: independent adjustments of aperture and shutter, and even manual gain control.

Personality: Ineffably Weird
Camcorder: Samsung SC-D6550 Duocam
You know that unshaven guy wearing one orange flip-flop and one black combat boot who wanders into the drug store every day and reads the labels on the shampoo bottles? For those beyond understanding, the SC-D6550 is the perfect fit. Perhaps not meant for the camcorder world with its two lenses, painful mish-mash of style and design, this Samsung still manages to see the world through rose-colored glasses (evidenced in its distinctly pink-tinted video). The video is terrible, but the stills are great. Think of this as a grotesquely oversized still camera with a video function attached. An amazingly hardy battery lasts for two hours and twenty minutes, long enough to capture the alien autopsy, the pink elephants, or the voices.

 
Samsung SC-D6550 and SC-X105L

Personality: Sports-Obsessed
Camcorder: Samsung SC-X105L
To capture every slalom, every North Shore wave, and every ascent of Devil’s Tower, there’s no substitute for the SC-X105L. It’s incredibly small, rubber-coated for weatherproofing and durability. A second external lens you can strap to your body, so you can record the perfect x-treme clip of the gravel rushing up to meet your face as you pitch head-first over the handlebars. The video quality isn’t that good, but if you’re filming a face plant, you only need the general idea anyway. And if your video clips from the halfpipe don’t inspire your friends, this gizmo is an MP3 player as well, so you can listen to some inspirational rage-rock as you execute popshoveits and smithgrinds. Who needs low light performance and manual control? You don’t do this stuff in the dark, and you need your hands free.

Personality: Revenge of the Nerds Cast Member
Camcorder: JVC GZ-MC500
The GZ-MC500 is comparably sized to the fashionable SDR-S100 and also has 3 CCDs to record to non-tape media, but the JVC is more seductive to the crowd who favors integrals over iPods. The MC500 takes video and stills that are both incredibly stunning, making it a true hybrid cam and therefore an electronic marvel. It’s got JVC’s great Auto Gain function for low light performance, as well as TeleMacro mode, widescreen video, surprising manual control options for its size, and even a focus ring, all housed in a snazzy, swiveling split-bodied design. And its tendency to overheat after prolonged use will keep all you single nerds warm at night.

Personality: Nostalgic
Camcorder: Sony DCR-TRV280
You still listen to your 8-Track tapes and you remember when Digital8 camcorders were the zenith of technology. Now you can and relive the glory days of video capture with the Sony DCR-TRV2980, a Digital8 machine that was released just this year. This blast from the past is the only 2005 camcorder not to feature Sony’s touch screen menu, and includes a black and white viewfinder, no manual white balance, no digital still capabilities, and a heavy and awkward design. It’s got a few modern touches like 20x optical zoom and a Burn DVD Mode, but you can just pretend these features aren’t there.

 We hope this guide has been useful, and wish all of you out there happy shooting.