Camcorders getting smaller, cheaper

If a tree falls in the forest and there's no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?

Who cares? These days, the real question is: If you score a soccer goal and your parents weren't there with a camcorder, did it really happen?

Yet it's digital still cameras, not camcorders, that top all the electronics best-seller lists. And no wonder--most people think of camcorders as much bigger, more expensive machines.

So for the last few years, the executives at camcorder companies have all but tattooed the words "smaller and cheaper" onto their foreheads. Year by year, they've been whittling down both the bulk and the prices of their camcorders.

As a result, the dawn of 2005 has brought with it a raft of coat pocket-size MiniDV camcorders that offer easy operation at street prices clustering around $500. (The prices reported here are identified on Shopping.com as the lowest from a reputable store.)

You can find some incredibly sophisticated features in these compact camcorders: 30x zoom, image stabilization, big screens, long battery life, zero-light filming, built-in video lights and brilliant, spectacular color.

You cannot, however, find all of that in any one $500 model. Indeed, as you open the boxes, you practically hear the echoes of the boardroom design meetings in which various compromises were hashed out. ("Sixty-five cents for an S-video TV connector? A dollar for an accessory shoe? Out they go!")

With the assistance of Robin Liss, who runs camcorderinfo.com, I plucked a representative slim, midprice MiniDV camcorder from Canon, JVC, Panasonic and Sony. You won't be disappointed with any of them. You will, however, have to choose one set of compromises or another.

For example, the $510 Panasonic PV-GS35 leaps out of the pack with two exceptional features: unusually long battery life (95 minutes, tied with the more expensive Canon) and a 30x zoom, the most powerful of any consumer camcorder. Of course, zooming 30x closer also amplifies your hand jitters by 30x, so a tripod or a friendly wall to lean on is pretty much a requirement at that range. But it's nice to have the option.

Similarly, the GS35 offers a sort of sleep mode that uses only half the battery power of On, but keeps the tape ready to roll in only 1.7 seconds. It's handy when you're walking around Niagara Falls, Disney World or the school science fair, waiting for the occasional moment worth filming.

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You can now operate all playback functions with one hand, thanks to the new thumb-driven joystick, whose four compass points, in iPoddish fashion, represent play, stop, rewind and fast-forward. You'll love it, as long as you're not left-handed.

So, where's the compromise? If you were hoping to take still photos with this camcorder, forget it; the GS35's still shots measure one-third of one measly megapixel. There's no accessory shoe for external mikes or video lights. And this camera lacks one profoundly useful feature: analog pass-through conversion, which rescues your old, deteriorating VHS and 8-millimeter tapes by converting them into immortal digital form on a computer.

It's worth noting here that for $100 more you could buy the Panasonic GS65, the world's least expensive three-chip camcorder. Three sensors, one each for red, green and blue, mean absolutely brilliant, true color, so superior to the other camcorders here that my non-techie friends picked it out of a video lineup every time. But although it still fits in a coat pocket, it's much bulkier than its one-chip rivals. Note, too, that its color superiority exists only in good light; as twilight approaches, its three-chip advantage evaporates away to absolutely nothing.

Although the price of JVC's new GR-D295 is only $400, you get not one but two 65-minute batteries. JVC deserves cheers, too, for including a couple of fresh features in this model. One is a button that, when tapped during recording, films the next 1.5 seconds in slow motion. The effect works brilliantly as long as you can anticipate precisely when the ball will go into the basket, the cartwheel will begin or the dog will catch the Frisbee in midair.

JVC is also the first company outside of Sony to offer a "minutes remaining" readout for its 65-minute battery, which is far less panic-inducing than Canon's and Panasonic's four-segment battery meters. Unfortunately, to see it, you have to turn off the camcorder, open the screen and press a Data button. JVC must think its customers have a lot of time to kill.

On the other hand, JVC rigged the liquid crystal display screen so that opening it turns on the camcorder, a deliciously obvious time-saving gesture

that should be standard across the industry.

Alas, the JVC's video quality was a crushing disappointment. The picture, both on the LCD and in the recorded image, wasn't anywhere near as vivid or clear as its rivals.

If it's picture quality you want, look into Canon's new Elura 80. My test panel deemed its color and clarity to beat all comers in this category, and, in some scenes, even to rival the picture on Panasonic's three-chip model. The Canon's LCD screen is also excellent.

In dim light, the Canon offers a trade-off. Whereas its rivals reduce much of the world around them to inky solid black, the Elura records far more detail and nuance in the scene. But there's a catch: The Canon's low-light recordings exhibit massive video noise, more dancing grain than a wheat-germ kick line. Otherwise, the standout feature of the Elura 80 is that it has no standout features: no 30x zoom, no slow-mo, no S-video and no microphone input. It's just a high-quality, comfortably slim camcorder for $550. (Comfortable, that is, unless you try to use the Menu button or its selector dial. They're in front of the screen, where you can neither see nor reach them.)

Sony, for one, must be getting ready for the huge global switch to wide-screen high-definition TV. Why else would the flip-out screen on its new $500 DCR-HC42 be a wide rectangle, like a plasma TV, instead of squarish, as on all other consumer camcorders?

Now, this camcorder doesn't shoot in high definition. And all of the camcorders here can shoot in so-called 16:9 mode; that is, they can capture video in a shape that fits today's wide-screen TV sets. But only this camcorder has an LCD screen to match, so you see more of your picture when you film in wide-screen. At the touch of a button, the screen restores a traditional square picture with vertical bars on either side.

The HC42 is easily the tiniest camcorder of this batch; you could eat a serving of meatloaf this size and still have room for salad. In part, that's because Sony cheated. First, it offloaded its FireWire, USB and S-video jacks to a sleek docking station. Second, it relegated numerous functions to an occasionally frustrating touch screen.

Yet the Sony's color, if not its clarity, is nearly as good as the Canon's. And you still get many of Sony's wonderful classic camcorder features: a minutes-remaining battery readout; a superb image stabilizer; and Nightshot Plus, which uses infrared light to film in total darkness with astounding clarity, albeit in black and white.

There's something here for everyone. The Best Bang for the Buck trophy goes to the Panasonic PV-GS35, which comes loaded with an S-video output, a microphone input, a full suite of manual controls and that crazy 30x zoom. Sony's new nanocorder walks away with the award for Most Likely to Be Mistaken for a Wallet. And the award for Best Picture goes, of course, to the Canon Elura 80.

By the way, all of the models described here have siblings with more or fewer features and corresponding price tags. For example, Canon's Elura 85 adds a built-in flash and a microphone input; the Elura 90 adds a video light and a 20x zoom; and so on.

So, what do you sacrifice by buying a midprice camcorder instead of a $1,000 one? Some picture quality, especially in low light. (The tiny built-in white-LED video light on the Panasonic and the JVC works wonders, but only if you're within a few feet of the subject.) And you can take only low-resolution still photos, although even the higher-resolution photos from more expensive camcorders don't look so hot, either.

What you do get, though, is 85 percent of the video quality for half the price, in an amazingly small package. The next time a tree falls in the forest, you'll be ready.

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