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.
