Why Aren’t Camcorders More Popular?

Camcorders. Some of us grew up with them and many of us abandoned them as soon as possible to move on to DSLR or mirrorless systems. But maybe it’s time to take a look through modern eyes at how camcorders have been modernized? So basically, I know nothing about modern camcorders, at least on paper, and this is my excuse to try one out and see how it compares to a traditional camera– what is now a traditional camera, a mirrorless camera. So I was born in 1985 and I grew up with 8mm and VHS camcorders.

And I love these things for a lot of reasons. They’ll always be really special to me because they are what originally sparked my interest in A/V production.

But the image quality from these is, um, it’s…

really baaaaaaad. They don’t look good at all. This is my 8mm Sony HandyCam from the year 2000, and this was my main camera, basically all through high school and even into college. So this was the maximum image quality that I could possibly get from this analog camcorder. Keeping in mind that I am now in a very, very brightly lit studio that has like 15 lights on right now just to get this level of quality.

This is literally the best image quality I could get from a camera like this for most of my life. These are some old clips that I filmed many, many years ago, and with analog cameras like this, once you start editing, things get even worse because the only way to edit was to take this tape and record it to another tape and then record back and forth.

And every time you do that, you record from a tape to a tape, there’s a generational loss of quality. So by the end of a project, when you’ve transferred it four or five times, your image is just a mushy mess of mush. This is an actual clip from a movie my friends and I made in high school.

We tried so hard on this to make it look professional, and this is what it looked like after four to five transfers between tapes while editing. The absolute best image quality possible. Fortunately, as it tends to do, technology progressed. So as we moved on from analog 8mm camcorders, tape camcorders were still big, but those were like MiniDV, digital camcorders.

So this is a camcorder that takes a tape, but you can then connect this to a computer and import the footage for editing there.

That’s how I learned to use iMovie version 1.0 And real quick, I just wanted to point out that in this goofy clip from 2006, you can see in my computer browser the MySpace homepage. And I just really miss MySpace. So the benefit to that is once the footage is on a computer, there’s no more generational quality loss. You can transfer it, duplicate it, just like any file today, and you’re not going to keep losing quality every time.

However, you’re still working with not amazing footage to begin with. The footage from a camera like this does look better. It’s digital footage.

It’s a little bit clearer, but it’s nowhere near even 720p, much less full high definition or anything beyond that. So as soon as DSLR cameras gained the ability to shoot video, I was sold.

I bought the Canon T2i and it brought tears 2 my i’s because I had full high definition, a giant sensor– even though the camera was a crop sensor, it’s still absolutely massive compared to what was in these cameras. I could get a $50 prime lens and have super shallow depth of field and beautiful bokeh and why on earth would I ever want to go back to a camcorder after experiencing that? But I’ve recently noticed that there are a few YouTube channels that I watch, specifically outside of the camera niche, where the creators use camcorders and get pretty amazing results.

One of my favorites is called Aviation101, and the guy who runs that channel, Josh uses a 4K Sony camcorder for a lot of the footage, and it’s really versatile, especially in the cockpit of a plane. The super long parfocal lens gives these results that just really aren’t possible with any mirrorless camera system.

And parfocal is probably something that’s important to focus on because what that means is your lens will stay in focus even as you change your focal length through zoom, which is something that even a zoom lens on a mirrorless camera usually doesn’t do. So for example, this is a giant television camera from the year 2003, so this is not a high definition camera. This is standard definition. But it is digital. It films everything to tape, but it has a broadcast lens.

And just like any camcorder, it’s a parfocal lens. Now, lots of camcorders, even since like the 1980s, have had autofocus so you haven’t had to worry too much about setting your focus perfectly. But big cameras like this did not, and sometimes even still do not have autofocus. Everything is manual. And so the way that you focus, let’s see here And so basically the way that you grab your focus is you just zoom in, I can automatically zoom in really, really far with this.

Grab everything into focus and then zoom out, and now everything from that focus point and towards the camera is going to be in focus no matter what.

And so once I have that subject in place, as I zoom in or out with this camera, I don’t lose my focus at all. That’s very different than DSLR and mirrorless zoom lenses. I have a zoom lens here and it’s in focus, and the camera has really good autofocus. If I snap the focus real quick, it doesn’t keep the focus.

Even though it’s in focus and we go back, it still needs to get its focus again. That’s just something between a parfocal lens and not a parfocal lens. So going back to seeing these really cool results from a camcorder, I looked up the one that I saw on Aviation101 and found out that it was this camcorder here, which is the Sony PXW-Z90.

A very catchy product name as usual from Sony. This is a 4K camcorder that retails for $3,800, I think.

And it’s not a surprise that a $200 camcorder is going to be just the worst. It’s going to be built terribly. The image quality is going to be potato level. And it’s just not going to be very fun or reliable or enjoyable to use.

So I didn’t want to look at something like that, like just use your phone.

It’s way better. But what about something that has like a lot of energy and effort put into it a high quality camcorder? And I found this very interesting because that $3,800 retail price just so happens to be the exact same retail price as the Sony FX3. So that means this is a camcorder that’s on the same budget level as one of Sony’s cinema cameras.

In the spirit of full transparency, in the two months that I’ve been borrowing this camera, the price has changed.

Now I’ve seen it for $2,800, which just kind of makes it even more valuable. I don’t know if that’s a permanent price change or not because this is several years old, but when I borrowed it, it was the same price as the FX3, and currently at the time I’m filming this, it seems to be available for $2,800 and it doesn’t look like that’s a sale. It just seems like they changed the price. And I think that this comparison is particularly important because on paper there are a ton of similarities between these two cameras even though the camcorder came out several years before the FX3 did.

This is by no means a full tech review of this camcorder.

You can definitely find model specific reviews all over YouTube because it’s not a new model. But a few of the things that I think are very interesting are that it is a video-centric camera. The Sony FX3 is a video-centric video first camera. This has a lot of customization, a lot of video specific features. So does this.

They both come with detachable top handles that have dual XLR inputs and the exact same controls. So to me that kind of begs the question that if you’re somebody who does a lot of video work, why wouldn’t you just lean towards a camcorder like this in the first place? Why would you mess around with a mirrorless camera at all? Like, is that even worth it? Because one other huge benefit to the camcorder is that it comes with a lens.

You can’t detach the lens, so that’s also perhaps the biggest drawback is you can’t take this lens off, but it comes with the lens for that price.

The Sony FX3, that $3,800 price is just for the camera, not with a lens. I want to put this back on here so dust doesn’t get on my sensor. And buying a high quality lens for a full frame mirrorless camera is pretty expensive. This is the Sony 24mm f1.

4, so it’s a $1,500 lens on a $3,800 camera. This little camera rig right here, just by itself, I guess not really counting the memory cards even is over $5,000. Where for just the price of the camcorder, you are ready to go. This does have nice dual card slots in here. You also get a relatively large capacity battery that seems to give the camera significantly better battery life than most mirrorless cameras that I’ve used.

So in terms of just grabbing a camera and being set for the day, this sort of seems like the way to go and that built-in lens, while you don’t have the versatility of being able to swap out to your heart’s content– I haven’t had this light on the whole time?! That’s annoying. And before this sounds too much like a sales pitch for this camcorder.

I do need to be clear this video is absolutely not sponsored.

I do owe a huge thank you to B&H Photo for letting me borrow this camcorder. (Hi Morty!) It was supposed to be for one month, but now it’s been two months. So I’ll be sending this back to them as soon as I’m done filming this video. But it’s been great to have a lot of hands-on time with this camera over the past few months, and I appreciate B&H Photo loaning it out to me to do that and to make this video.

It’s been hugely helpful. So, it’s not a sales pitch. I’m genuinely asking the question. I chose this specific camcorder to test because I’ve seen results from it on YouTube channels that I like, and so I just wanted to test it out. But really this could be a high end camcorder from any of the main brands, Canon, Panasonic, lots of companies make camcorders that look like this and basically function exactly the same with the same results.

So going back to what I was saying about the lens, this is perhaps the greatest strength and the greatest weakness of a camcorder: the built-in lens. Fortunately, the lens that you get is shocking. It is a 9.3 to 111.6, f2.8 lens. It does have a variable aperture, so that F-stop will increase to up to f4.5 as you zoom in. But at its widest angles, you can get f2.8 out of this lens, which is pretty cool.

And going all the way from 9 to 111mm is crazy.

The sensor inside this camera is just a one-inch sensor. So, the full frame comparison, I wrote this down, the full frame comparison for this lens would be 29 to 348mm! Can you imagine having a lens on a mirrorless camera that is a 29 to 348 f2.8 lens?! That also isn’t a manual zoom lens that has power zoom built into it! That’s going to cover pretty much everything that you would need to do, everything that you would want to do with a camera. And you can zoom the lens either with this ring on the side, you can program this to be either zoom or focus, or you can use the rocker switch, the classic camcorder zoom rocker switch. Or if you have the top handle attached, you can even zoom up here.

So, you have all kinds of different ways to control the zoom.

And just as with camcorders for many years, it’s variable speed so basically the harder you press the button, the faster the zoom will zoom. And going back to my broadcast camera over here, the lenses that go on those cameras, unfortunately I can’t mount this to any of my new cameras. Believe me, I’ve tried. This is a Fujino lens that goes from 7.3 to 117mm. So, the full frame equivalent of that would be something close-ish. to like a 24 to 380-ish lens, something like that, almost a 20 to 400mm lens that goes all the way down to F 1.9.

And this can be a constant aperture because it’s all manual.

So in a lot of cases, a camera like this does have an interchangeable lens, but it’s not really meant to have you swap out the lens all the time. You kind of just buy your one broadcast lens. And then because these can be so expensive, sometimes thousands or tens of thousands of dollars by themselves, when you get a new camera you take the lens, put it on the camera, but you’re not constantly swapping out lenses.

So, it is possible to get very pro-level results with a built-in lens. So even though that is potentially a limiting factor with a camcorder, it’s also one heck of a lens, and that is pretty awesome.

So, with all of that in mind, this setup for the camcorder right out of the box, may not be the best choice for narrative filmmaking, but for things like documentaries, for vlogs, for lots of different styles of YouTube videos, and for just sort of an all-around super versatile camera, this covers a lot of bases.

This is definitely a wildly capable camcorder. Capable camcorder, a Capac order™ So now that we’ve looked at reasons why modern camcorders seem pretty great, I think the next logical question is just, is it any good? Right now, this is my Sony FX3 with my 24 millimeter f1.4 G Master lens.

As I mentioned, this is a $5,000 setup altogether, and this right here is the Sony PXW-Z90, the product number I mentioned earlier in basically the same position. The shots aren’t going to match up perfectly because it’s just hard to do that, but also because the lenses are different. So this is both lenses at their maximum width. And 24 millimeters versus 9.3 millimeters.

But if you remember math, that one inch sensor means that this is really 29 millimeters, and this is 24 millimeters on full frame. So you can see that even when both cameras are in basically the exact same spot, the camcorder is still going to be a little bit tighter than the 24 millimeter lens would be.

So, this is as wide as you can get with the Sony camcorder. Now, I’ve also been showing all kinds of different clips from this camcorder throughout this video, so you’ve been able to see those so far. But I think it’s really cool to see how it would function in a studio setup, because that was one of my main questions is for somebody who does a lot of YouTube videos like this, why not use a dedicated video camera like a camcorder?

So, one other big thing I had to change was the ISO.

Right now, this camcorder set to ISO 500 and the lens is at f2.8. The FX3 is at ISO 800, but the lense is at f1.4, and I have an ND filter on here.

Normally when I’m at f1.4, if I’m not using an ND, the ISO can go all the way down to 100 or even 80 and still have some areas in my specific shot that are a little bit overexposed. So that sort of emphasizes one of the weaknesses of the camcorder, which of course is low light performance.

No, they’re on…oh hi! Hello, hello. We’re just using a camcorder. Camcorder!

It sort of depends on the circumstances. In some situations, low light performance is really, really nice, but in these examples, for example… “In these examples, for example?” We went to the zoo at night, and you can kind of see the camcorder footage. While it’s really fun to be able to zoom in super far and see all these animals in their secret nighttime shenanigans, the footage itself looks pretty grainy, whereas with the a7IV and my Tamron on 20-40mm lens, the low light performance just absolutely blows away what the camcorder can do. Now of course I lose that versatility because when I was using the a7IV with this lens, I could only go from 20 to 40 millimeters and that’s it, which is really not that far on a full frame sensor versus 9 to 111, 29 to 320, whatever insanity that this lens is right here. So between these two shots right here, I don’t know which camera to look at, you can kind of see that the footage is still really good.

They’re both shooting in 4k.

They both look nice there. There’s bright light in here. However, the camcorder just really isn’t quite as good when it comes to things like low light performance or creating a shallow depth of field in the background. And speaking of low light performance on this camcorder, one thing that I was sort of bummed out about, really the two things that I’ve noticed it’s missing. One of them is NightShot.

Sony cameras for years, you know, from before the year 2000 had infrared Nights hot. So you could be in a pitch-black situation, you could turn on Nights hot and then you would get sort of that green footage, but you could see in the dark.

It was pretty amazing and some camcorders like this one even had built in lights, which is not going to be the best image quality there, but at least you kind of have Nights hot, you have a built-in light. Definitely things to help with your low light performance. I was kind of surprised to see this camcorder does not have NightShot or anything like that.

I know it can be kind of cheesy and it makes it look like you’re going to go hunt ghosts in an abandoned hospital or something. But hey, it’s kind of cool to have, and I was surprised that this didn’t have it. This also, speaking of using ND filters like I am on the FX3. The camcorder does NOT have built-in ND filters, which I also found strange. That is sort of a staple of higher end video cameras.

The broadcast camera back there, of course, does have built-in ND filters, some more modern cinema cameras like the Blackmagic’s do, but even some of Sony’s own older camcorders and even small cameras like the RX100’s have built-in ND filters.

And considering how tiny the sensor is in this camera, it just made sense to me that it would have a built-in ND filter. And so let’s now talk about depth of field, because right now on the FX3 with an f1.4 lens, even a wide lens like this, I have a blurry background and I love the way that that looks. This is about as wide and blurry as I’m going to get my background on the Sony camcorder.

Now you can do the trick that you can do with any zoom lens. I have a little remote control for the camcorder here. If I zoom in on something like my Swiss Army knife here, whoa. The further you zoom in on something, the easier it is to then get a compressed out of focus background. But then you have to have this incredibly zoomed in tight shot right here, versus being able to get something similar on a camera like this even without having to zoom in.

If I hold something up to the camera, then we’re going to get really shallow depth of field. If I do the same with this camera, the depth of field is nowhere near as shallow in the background. So for somebody who loves a blurry background and a shallow depth of field, the camcorder is just really not going to give that to you. It’s not supposed to though, and I think that’s important. Perhaps we’re tipping the scales unfairly by taking this camcorder and comparing it against the full frame mirrorless camera?

It makes sense to compare the two, but at the same time, it’s stacking the deck really in favor of the mirrorless camera.

So, let’s take a step back and look at what we’re really getting with the XD Cam, with the Sony camcorder, if we’re not directly comparing it to the mirrorless camera. We are getting a pretty darn good image. It’s got decent autofocus. This is several years old, so it has face tracking and not eye tracking, but it has pretty decent autofocus.

Tons of features in the menu, although the menus are set up a little bit strange. And it’s definitely that old Sony system where it’s like a human did not design this. But it’s still got a lot of features built into it and it can record indefinitely. It will never overheat on you. You’ve got full size HDMI out, some camcorders like this even have SDI outputs or inputs.

The versatility is really phenomenal when you’re dealing with the camcorder form factor. And I think that that’s really the biggest advantage to a camcorder is that you do have all of this power, this massive power in this incredibly small form factor.

Is this actually any good? The answer is yes. It’s super freaking good.

The end. I think the more nuanced question is why aren’t camcorders more popular, especially compared to mirrorless cameras, which in a lot of cases do require some significant workarounds to be as adaptable to video as a camcorder just is straight out of the box? Because even many mirrorless cameras like my a7SIII right here, this is a video camera. It looks like a photo camera and it inherited that build quality and that design from photo cameras. But this is a video camera more than anything.

And while I love mirrorless cameras, and maybe like you, I’m super used to using them for video.

There is something quite different about using a camera that’s geared towards video from the beginning. A camera built from the ground up with video recording in mind, a video camera recorder……a cam-corder! It’s hard to argue with this form factor.

I even got a specific cage for my FX3 that has a side handle like this specifically so that I could feel more comfortable, and because this is a more comfortable way to film when you’re sort of out and about in uncontrolled environments. There are some things that camcorders have just gotten right for many, many years. The same way that with many broadcast cameras, even though this one is 20 years old, it looks pretty similar to a broadcast camera that you would find today.

It just takes different media, and it also looks similar to broadcast cameras that came like 20 years before it in the 1980’s. Sometimes a tool just hits a specific design and specific form factor, and it just turns out that that is kind of the optimal form factor for the thing you’re trying to do.

Camcorders are a pretty darn good example of that because while the technology and the insides have changed, the basic form factor and the basic way they work has just sort of worked for years– decades at this point. Now after spending two months with this camera, I definitely started to have my own opinions about camcorders, but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t totally off the mark.

So, I took to Twitter, and I got a shocking number of responses from people with very strong feelings about camcorders. I know it’s like 30 responses, but it’s literally the most viral thing I’ve ever done on Twitter, so I’m going to claim that. If Elon wants to send me a check for essentially keeping the platform afloat with this level of engagement, I’ll accept that check anytime.

And while there was a lot of discussion and a lot of different opinions in that thread, by far the most common reason that people said they didn’t want to use a camcorder was because of…sensor size. So I don’t need to censor myself when I say that size matters when it comes to cameras, because a giant sensor can just do things that a small sensor can’t.

And unfortunately, packing a full frame sensor into a camera body that has all of these video-first functionality just doesn’t really come at a price point where you’d be able to afford this camera the same way you could now, because those kinds of cameras do exist and they’re called cinema cameras. And I know the FX3 is technically a cinema camera, but if you go into more similarly designed and spec’d cinema cameras with full frame sensors.

You’re talking about things like the Sony FX6, FX9, Canon C500, stuff that costs many, many thousands, if not $10,000 plus dollars to get that full frame sensor in a video-centric body, and again, that doesn’t even include lenses at all. Like the broadcast lens, where to then get a lens like this, some amazing broadcast lens on a 4K camera, you’re probably spending more than $10,000 just to get that lens, maybe even $20,000 or $30,000 to get a lens like that. So when we look at our $3,800 or maybe $2,800 camera that comes with a built-in super capable lens, it starts to make sense why this is potentially a pretty incredible value.

And while the small sensor does present a lot of limitations in terms of low light performance and depth of field, it is also one of the things that helps make camcorder so reliable because there’s zero overheating with the small sensor. So cameras like this are absolutely amazing for live events, things like graduations, or conferences, performances, where you can then just use the built-in SDI or the full size HDMI output and then run this into a video switcher, and these things can be on literally all day and never overheat. So now that I’ve used a modern camcorder for a couple of months on a lot of different projects, and as much as I love it and as impress as I am by it, I can say that I would NOT buy it. I would not choose a camcorder like this, personally, for my main camera. Mainly just because I really do prefer the image quality and the results that you get from a full frame sensor.

And there’s just no way to get that out of this camera. Like no matter how you stack it, it’s just not going to happen. But maybe as a second camera or even a third camera, this would be an awesome choice. So, if I had unlimited monies, I would definitely have something like this because it is a really helpful thing to use a lot of times. And that’s only speaking from my point of view.

Because I do think that there are a lot of workflows and a lot of instances where a camcorder like this makes a lot more sense than a mirrorless camera like this. So it really depends on what your specific needs and preferences are, which I know is what I say at the end of like every review video, but it’s very important to really analyze not just what works for me or somebody else, but what you need and what’s going to work the best for you. If you’re somebody who does a lot of live events streaming production, or you do documentaries, or even if you just need to travel light, a camcorder could be the perfect choice because you don’t need to pack lenses.

Imagine being able to take your entire camera kit and never having to change a lens, travel with a lens or anything like that! While you’re out on location, and if you want to be even more discreet or more compact, you can remove the top handle.

You can even take off the lens hood. And now you have a really, really small camcorder. This can easily fit in any camera bag, any backpack, you don’t need a whole special setup, and you’ve got your full camera studio right here.

So in the end, I do think that camcorders are often overlooked as viable options, and I do think it would be worth it next time you’re looking to upgrade your camera to check out camcorders. If you have a budget for a mirrorless camera, whether that’s $2,000, $3,000, $4,000 just see what camcorders are available in that price range and see if that actually works for you.

Maybe you could even rent one and try it out to see if it really fits within your workflow. So while I do have a newfound appreciation and fascination with modern camcorders after this, it has also reaffirmed my love for everything that a full frame mirrorless camera can do because these cameras, honestly, I just find them absolutely incredible. And speaking of things that I find absolutely incredible, thank you to everyone who helps support my channel through Patreon and YouTube Channel Memberships. Oh, and if you’re wondering how I’ve been able to get all the footage from these old cameras throughout this video, there’s two ways: One of them is with this Elgato video converter. It’s a USB thing, and then you just plug your RCA cables in there, and there’s an Elgato app that connects it.

This has been my favorite thing to use. I have a whole video all about this, but sometimes if you don’t want to use that or you want to use an HDMI direct thing, I found these really cheap HDMI video converters work pretty well. I also have a whole video about these. I’ll put links to all that stuff in the description. This basically gives your analog camcorder an HDMI output, and then you can run it into a capture card or whatever to your computer.

So, with this, you need a capture card. With this, you don’t need a capture card since it basically is one, and it works really well for capturing all this footage. I had a ton of fun making this video. I tried filming using this table in this direction for a while, and then I tried filming this way, and then I tried filming into the corner. Also tried using the Zoom F2 that I mentioned a few videos ago and recording with a lavalier microphone if I’m not in a situation where I have my boom mic, and it works really well.

So, I actually learned a lot from making this video, and I tried to even structure it slightly differently than other videos.

I have no idea if that actually came through or not because sometimes, I have all these ideas and then I do them, and the video just seems like the same as always. But I had fun.

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