History of a camcorder

Initially, video cameras were used for the singular purpose of recording footage, while the recorders used to be places somewhere else. With developing technology, video cameras became more compact and handy; however the recorder had to be carried by someone else. It was only in 1982, that a video camera became a one-man's-job, with more freedom and portability. All along, video cameras had used video cassettes. 1986 onwards, video cameras started using digital formats of video and data compression. In 2003, Sony came out with the very first tapeless video format. Since then, camcorders have become more and more common and are more accessible even to the common man.

Camcorder - What is it actually?

A camcoder is an electronic device which combines the functions of a video recorder and a video camera into a single unit. The first known consumer camcorder was released by Sony in the year 1983 - the Betamovie BMC-100P. It required a betamax cassette and could not be held with one hand. Subsequent releases were made by JVC , Panasonic , RCA and Hitachi.

The latest versions of Comcorders record video on flash memory devices and small hard disks, using MPEG-1, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 formats. The main features of camcorders are that they're generally a portable , self-sufficient device having video capture and recording as its primary objective.