Digital camcorders empower home-video enthusiasts, writer-director filmmakers, and professionals alike to capture the images of life in a number of ways. While combined camera camcorders are all the rage in some circles, it likely makes more financial sense to invest in a camcorder and camera separately. After all, handycams, like the Sony DCR DVD 403, don't offer much in the way of quality still photography. Still images tend to take up memory and don't print very well.

The Canon GL-2 camcorder is a great piece of equipment in the same class as the Sony minicam DCR DVD 403. This camera features a 20 times optical zoom, and it is extremely lightweight. Documentarians, in particular, will love the ease-of-use and transportability of the Canon GL-2. Of course, serious filmmakers will almost certainly want to accessorize.

The standard omni-directional mic that comes with the Canon may simply be insufficient for listening to distant conversations. If you don't get a directional mic, you'll inevitable sacrifice sound quality in your final cut. The GL-2 does offer a 30 frames per second capture, however. The result is an almost film-like final result. Despite some reported video head problems, the Canon SL-2 is a superior camera for its class.

Dim light capabilities exist on a number of more recent camcorder models, such as the Sony handycam, DCR DVD 403. Regardless of your ultimate camcorder choice, make sure to purchase enough memory cards to store critical data and to get easy writing formats, so that you don't have to transfer recordings over to your television in a painstaking manner.

You can choose from among several recording formats. HI8 and SVHS-C formats have generally fallen out of favor, although some professionals still swear by these 'arcane' formats. You can also get MiniDV, which offers 500 lines of resolution and both SP and LP speeds. Alternatively, you can go with an 'industry standard' DVD or DVD-R format.