Camcorder Myths Exposed

Three common misconceptions examined, explained, and exploded.

Richard Baguley, Special to PC World

Richard Baguley is a freelance writer whose dog Fester is frankly getting a bit sick of being videoed everywhere he goes. Contact him by e-mail.

Like most technical products, camcorders are the subject of myths and misconceptions that are passed around by misinformed users and untrained salespeople. And like myths of old, they may make entertaining stories, but they don't always have a basis in truth.

Myth 1

"The longer the zoom, the better the camcorder."

The JVC GR-DF550 has a 15X optical zoom, which can be useful for getting a closer look at distant objects (although a tripod is needed to avoid shaky video).

This idea probably began with the horsepower school of car marketing that tries to convince people bigger numbers are better. And this is why we see people driving Hummers to the supermarket, and camcorder manufacturers splashing huge zoom numbers on the front of their products. For example, one that I recently saw (the JVC GR-DF550) had "700X" emblazed in big letters on the case.

The JVC GRDF550 also has a 700X digital zoom, but as this frame shows, the digital zoom produces poor-quality video. This was taken at 295X.

But bigger is not always better. For one thing, the number that vendors typically quote is for a digital zoom, in which the camcorder uses built-in software to enlarge a small part of the image. The problem with this is that the resulting video looks like a T-shirt that has been laundered too many times: washed out, creased, and in general, not something you'd want to show to your grandma.

The more important figure is the optical zoom, which is the measure of what the lens is capable of without any sort of digital jiggery pokery. But again, bigger still doesn't necessarily mean better: You are very rarely going to use anything much beyond an 8X zoom unless you've got the camera on a tripod, because the zoom exaggerates movements such as the trembling hands we all get from too much caffeine that morning or too many beers the night before. So why choose a camcorder on the basis of a feature you'll never really use?

Myth 2

"It doesn't matter what brand of digital videotape you use: They're all the same."

The thinking behind this myth is that because digital camcorders record the video and audio digitally, you aren't going to get the problems with distortion that you got with old-school analog audio tapes--and therefore the quality of the tape doesn't matter.

The people who believe this have it half right: Because the data is digital, and because of the way it's stored, if you lose a little bit, the camcorder can reconstruct it and you won't notice the loss. It's much the way a tiny scratch on a CD doesn't necessarily wreck your music. But bigger problems caused by things like the tape stretching or getting creased can cause what are called "dropouts," where a frame of video is lost because the data is corrupted. Cheap tapes (particularly those in which the plastic strip underneath the magnetic layer that holds the data is thin) are especially prone to these sorts of problems.

Digital videotapes are still tapes, prone to getting caught, creased, and tangled in the various gears, capstans, and drive heads inside your camcorder. If that happens, your tape is probably toast. So do what the pros do: Pick a good, well-known brand and stick with it. Choose one that can stand up to the rigors of being wound, played, rewound, played again, and so on.

There are other reasons to stick with a single, high-quality brand of digital video tape. Different manufacturers use slightly different formulations of both the magnetic material on the tape and the lubricants that keep the tape moving smoothly. Mixing these by constantly swapping brands can damage your camcorder's delicate recording and playback head.

Videotapes are cheaper if you buy them in bulk, so it's worth purchasing a box of 20 to avoid having to use the nasty brand that your local drugstore sells because you don't have your usual tapes at hand.

Think about it this way: Videotape is cheap, but your memories are priceless.

Myth 3

"Don't worry about shooting bad video: You can always fix it when you edit it."

I was in London a few months ago, sitting by the Thames near the Houses of Parliament. I saw a couple who were capturing video, with one of them talking into the camera. They were obviously filming a movie to show their vacation to friends and family. The woman stumbled through saying hello to the family, obviously nervous about being filmed. When she was done, she asked her partner if that was okay. "Good enough" he replied. "I'll fix it up when we get home."

Now if those people are reading this, I'm sorry, but you were being dim. If the video you took isn't any good, the best editing program in the world isn't going to help you. Modern video editing programs can do wonders in fixing inadvertent problems, correcting for over- or underexposure, cleaning up the sound, and generally helping to recover from the thousand and one things that can go wrong. But they can't help you if your original video stinks. As any Hollywood director will tell you, all the editing in the world isn't going to help you fix a film that's a dud.

So don't rely on the abilities of your camcorder or video editing program to save you. Get familiar with your equipment and take your time while you are recording. If you think something might not have come out right, try it again if you can: The worst thing you'll do is to waste a bit of videotape and time, and you might just save your video. Somewhere, there is a woman who cringes every time she watches the awful video of her great European vacation because her partner thought he could fix it. Don't be like him: Take the time to shoot it properly.