BEFORE buying a camcorder, decide what you want the video footage for.

Is it just for sharing with friends on Facebook or YouTube?

Or to catapult you into creative moviemaking - say, shooting a documentary or an experimental video for a film festival?

The next consideration is cost.

Rule of thumb: The more features and capabilities you want, the more you will have to pay.

$300 and up:

Pocket HD camcorders

These budget-friendly camcorders are pocket-sized, yet can shoot high- definition footage (usually 1,280 by 720 pixels).

Examples include the Creative Vado HD 3rd Gen ($299) and the Flip Mino HD.

They are designed to shoot HD video clips and photos on either internal memory or inserted SD cards (if supported).

They also offer bundled software for simple video editing and uploading of clips to YouTube, for instance.

The footage they produce can be surprisingly sharp under good lighting, but video buffs will find the overall quality lacking.

Low light scenes, for instance, might end up a murky mess of shadows.

Forget about manual focusing or optical zoom. Such devices are meant for quick point-and-shoot videos.

$500 to $1,000:

Standard definition (SD) camcorders

Using a full-featured camcorder that records SD video, such as the Canon Legria FS306 ($599), has its benefits.

Video quality is not an issue.

The SD footage will be as sharp and clear as your favourite DVDs viewed on an HDTV.

Such camcorders also offer optical zoom, so you can close in on objects metres away without affecting image quality.

They also support external accessories such as microphones.

One big plus:

Older versions of video editing software programs such as Windows Movie Maker or Apple's iMovie can tackle SD footage easily - even on five-year-old computers.

Finally, you save storage space - SD clips are roughly one-third to half the file sizes of HD footage depending on the video compression used.

In some cases, you can conveniently burn the footage directly to a DVD without needing to convert.

$1,000 to $2,900:

HD camcorders

For expert users who desire manual controls and the sharpest video possible on a consumer budget, a feature-packed HD camcorder is the ultimate choice.

Examples include the Sony Handycam HDR-CX150 ($1,399) and the Canon Legria HF R-16 ($1,099).

Video quality is a cut above.

You will get sharp visuals with vivid colours that shine on an HDTV.

This is because they are packed with larger imaging sensors, high-quality lenses and more advanced image- processing engines.

The more you pay, the better these features tend to be.

High-end HD camcorders will let you, for example, fit a wide-angle lens converter or external microphones.

The only caveat is that it takes a lot of computing horsepower to edit HD footage, so a PC with cutting-edge processors is a must.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.

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