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Must-See DV

We pick the best camcorders and software for professional-looking digital videos.

Richard Baguley and Paul Heltzel

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No longer a pricey technology reserved for news crews and documentary filmmakers, digital video is growing as a mainstream tool for creating everything from simple home movies to presentations and professional training films. For instance, Dr. Steven Schwaitzberg, an associate professor of surgery at the Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, tapes most of his operations so that he can demonstrate new surgical techniques to his peers. "I record the video with a mini-DV recorder," he explains, "and then transfer it to either a desktop or a laptop system, where I can edit it and dump it out onto videotape." Just think: ER without the commercials.

But you don't have to be a doctor with university funding to afford today's video editing equipment, and you don't have to be a brain surgeon to figure out how to operate it. We looked at seven digital video camcorders and found that, for the most part, they're easy to use, capture impressive footage, and offer substantial value. We also examined seven video editing software packages to see which applications can best help you craft your rough footage into a polished movie.

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