Top Five Digital Camcorders for the New Graduate
While digital still cameras are among the most popular graduation gifts (see my recent post, Top five digital cameras for the new graduate), post-graduate life also offers up plenty of video-worthy moments. Outfitting the new graduate in your life with video gear that suits his or her new lifestyle is easy given the huge range of options available. Here are some of my top camcorder picks for the various grads in your life:
The Budding Videographer
It used to be that to get high-end digital video, you needed to lug around an enormous three-chip camcorder. Well, times have changed. If your favorite graduate is an aspiring documentary shooter, Canon's top-of-the-line prosumer camcorder, the Canon Vixia HF S100, will offer top-notch HD video quality in a relatively compact package. Actually, make that next-to-top-of-the-line, since the flash-memory-based HF S100's sibling, the Vixia HF S10 adds 32GB of built-in memory for $200 more. But with memory card prices so low these days, I think the HF S100 (which records to SD/SDHC memory cards) is actually a better buy. The camcorders both record 1,920x1,080 HD video and combine a relatively large, 1/2.6-inch 8-megapixel CMOS sensor with a large f1.8 10x HD lens for excellent video quality.
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The YouTube Junkie
Of course, nowadays it's possible to get HD video in a super-compact, super-cheap package as well. If your grad is looking to post most video online, the hyper-popular Flip line of YouTube-friendly camcorders from Pure Digital is the way to go. While the HD capabilities are overkill for just posting online, I like the newest model, the Flip Ultra HD for a few reasons: The 720p HD video quality is probably the best you'll get from a $200 camcorder, I like that you can use standard AA batteries in a pinch, and I personally find the slightly bigger and heavier (though still completely pocketable at 6.1ounces) size a little easier to shoot with compared to the 3.3-ounce Flip Mino HD, for example.
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The Globetrotter
For graduates that are postponing their job searches to travel the world first, the Sony Handycam HDR-XR500V offers the unique ability to geotag video and photos using its built-in GPS receiver. While geotagging videos is a novel option to be sure, note that unlike geotagged photos, there's no set standard yet for storing metadata with a video file. Sony stores GPS data in an associated file, which can't be used by most applications. Still, the camcorder's Map Index feature lets you search and find recorded scenes by location (or view where the scene was captured). The camcorder incorporates Sony's smile- and face-detection technologies and combines a new back-illuminated Exmor R CMOS sensor (which Sony claims improves low-light performance) and 15x zoom lens. While the HDR-XR500V includes a 120GB hard drive, for $200 more you can get a 240GB drive in the otherwise identical HDR-XR520V (which my fellow blogger, Rachel King included in her post on Four great camcorders for summer).
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The Beach Bum
No best-of list for a young graduate would be complete without the requisite waterproof model. Sanyo included two waterproof models in its camcorder lineup announced earlier this year. I prefer the Sanyo Xacti VPC-WH1, because of its more traditional, horizontal body design, but if you prefer a pistol-grip vertical orientation, the VPC-E2 is also a popular option. The VPC-WH1 is waterproof up to 10 feet (for one hour) and can shoot 2-megapixel digital still images with 30x optical zoom and 13 fps sequential shooting. It shoots 720p (1280×720) HD video at 30 fps, and includes a 2.5-inch LCD and face-detection technology.
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The Photography Buff
While Sanyo touts the VPC-WH1 as a "dual camera" capable of taking quality video and stills, none of the above camcorders will really suffice if your videographer wants to shoot "real" still photos. However, my top entry-level dSLR pick for graduates, the Canon EOS Rebel T1i, not only shoots fine still images, but it also serves up more-than-servicable video (though not as good as its big brother the EOS 5D Mark II, which now offers manual exposure control for video). The T1i shoots 1080p HD video at 20 fps, but you'll probably get better results shooting 720p at 30 fps.