Features Comparison: The Big, the Small, and the Expensive

With the new breed of digital camcorders, making your own movies has never been cheaper or easier, so it's next stop, Sundance. Whether you are filming an independent movie, a sales meeting, or a family barbecue, these new camcorders make shooting your video as simple as writing an Oscar acceptance speech. And it's easy to copy that digital video to your PC, where you can edit it and then burn it to DVD to send to your friends, colleagues, or family.

One of the fastest-changing areas in digital video is storage. Although most of the camcorders we review here use the widely available MiniDV tapes, two of the models use other storage types: The Sony DCR-DVD300 records video to an 8-centimeter mini-DVD disc that can be played in most computer DVD drives and most DVD players, while the diminutive Sony DCR-IP1 uses tiny MicroMV tapes. We tested nine models costing between $350 and $1000, including everything from entry-level models to semi-professional units. The PC World Test Center put them through their paces, testing battery life and video quality for indoor, outdoor, and low-light indoor settings.

All of the units shot good-quality video in outdoor and well-lit indoor venues: The variations we saw in our video tests on the 30-inch LCD TV we used were noticeable when we looked at videos side by side. We rated the Panasonic PV-DV953 as having the best, most accurate video overall; colors were vivid and lifelike and the motion of the video was smooth and realistic. (Read story "DV Stars: Hello, Hollywood!")