My sister recently called me asking me for advice on selecting a nice sub-$300 camcorder. The occasion is that she is pregnant (yay!) and, of course, everyone will want to see videos to see how the new member of the family is doing.
Now, I personally don't own a camcorder. I use my trusty
Canon PowerShot SD1100IS 8MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Blue)
for all my photo/video needs (and it works perfectly). Still, I set myself up on the task of finding the best digital camcorder for less than $300.
What defines the best digital camcorder? Well, I decided upon certain requirements to make this a good purchase.
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- First, it has to be compatible with the rest of the world.
- That means that she should be able to connect it to any computer there is and it should work without having to install any program to either transfer the files or view them.
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- Second, she needs to be able to recharge the camera anywhere.
- Say she is on vacation in a remote place without access to a computer, she should be able to plug it into the wall for charging. None of that USB-only charger type of devices.
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- Third, she should not run out of space.
- Meaning that, in that same remote place as above, should she run out of memory, she should be able to swap a memory card and keep going without having to upload all of the pictures to a computer.
