Best Buys
The Which? Best Buy award is given to
products with high total test scores that perform consistently well in
our rigorous lab tests and excel in all key areas.
Energy Savers
We award the Energy Saver logo to
products that our testing shows are very energy efficient, meaning
they'll cost you less to run.
Don't Buys
The Which? Don't Buy logo alerts you
to the products that performed extremely poorly in one or more key
areas of our tests.
Price
Find the product that fits your budget
Video quality under dim light
Camcorders sometimes struggle to produce good quality video under dim light
Overall video quality
Includes video quality under daylight, dim light and artificial light
Still photos
Receives "n/a" if no still photo function, or still photos recorded to tape. Image quality, shutter delay and other convenience rated
Sound quality
Sound qualty achieved using the camcorder's built-in microphone
Launch date
Older models may be harder to track down - but you may find a bargain. Test programmes and key features change over time but we re-evaluate results for older models to make them as comparable as possible with newer models.
HD or Standard definition
High definition camcorders take much better videos, but they come at higher prices.
Built-in memory type
Hard disk and flash memory are different types of internal memory storage. Hard disk drives tend to offer larger memory capcities, but they have moving parts which have a small risk of damage if the camcorder is dropped. Flash memory storage has no moving parts, but tends to offer less recording capacity.
Built-in memory size
The larger the memory size, measured in gigabytes (GB), determines how much footage you can store on the camcorder itself. For example, 32GB offers around four hours of HD recording, or eight hours of standard definition recording.
DVD
Some camcorders feature built-in recording to DVD discs. These tend to be smaller in size than standard DVDs, though they will still play back on most DVD players or computers.
Mini DV / HDV
Some camcorders record to Mini-DV or HDV cassette tapes. These formats tend to be useful if you do lots of video-editing as they can be read by most computer editing programmes.
Touchscreen
A touchscreen display lets you control some of the camcorders functions - for example, you can scroll through your videos, or even select the parts of the picture you want the camcorder to focus on.
Viewfinder
An electronic viewfinder can make it easier to record video - by holding the viewfinder to your eye, it's easier to hold the camcorder steadily. A viewfinder can also help when strong sunlight makes the LCD screen hard to view.
Price
Typical prices are the most common online price we found and are updated monthly. Retailers you see on the 'Compare Prices' links are from a 3rd party. We cannot guarantee stock availability at these retailers and don't endorse them in any way. We are not responsible for any loss or damage for 3rd party websites and have no control over their content.
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