By Billy Teo

FOR bright and sharp high-definition (HD) footage, think lighting.

The image sensors and lenses in these camcorders are physically small, so every bit of available light will help to create better visuals.

The brighter the environment, the 'cleaner' the video will be. Colours will look more vivid too.

Otherwise, you end up with plenty of fuzzy noise or worse, dark splotches of shadow ruining your video.

When indoors, turn on all the lights in the room before you start shooting. Turn on the built-in video light on your camcorder if it has one.

Finally, increase the exposure setting - if available on the camcorder - to allow more light to reach the camcorder's image sensor.

Control motion

For the best results, try to shoot without moving the camcorder at all. This lets the camcorder lock the focus and exposure automatically, so that the footage stays consistent throughout the recording period.

Otherwise, the pocket camcorder might have trouble keeping pace with the constant focus and exposure tweaks needed as the scene changes when you move - say, from bright sunny outdoors to a shadowy indoor room.

You might get sudden changes in focus or shifting colours within your footage as a result.

However, if you must pan - moving the camcorder in an arc from right to left, or vice versa - or tilt, do so in slow, measured movements.

Leave the zoom

Most pocket camcorders feature a digital zoom, in which the image is electronically cropped and magnified to give the illusion of a telephoto zoom.

This is an artificial zoom and usually results in a poor quality video.

So ditch the zoom and move closer to your subject.

This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life.

For more The Straits Times stories, click here.