From Emily Price,
Your Guide to Camcorders.
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Sonys DCR-HC26 digital camcorder is a great inexpensive camcorder for families who are looking for something to take on vacation as well as a wonderful first camcorder for an aspiring film maker. The camcorder has a good mix of basic and professional features, and priced at under $350 its affordable as well.

Specs

LCD Screen:2.5"

Lines of Resolution:500

Height: 3.1"

Width: 2.6"

Weight:14 oz.

Professional Quality Lens

The DCR-HC26 has as professional quality Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens. The video you shoot with your camcorder is only as good as the lens you shoot it through, and Carl Zeiss lenses are one of the best on the market today.

The camcorder also has a 20x optical zoom, and 800x digital zoom. The optical zoom is a little lower than other camcorders at the same price point, but is still good enough to get you close to most things you would want to film.

NightShot Plus Night Shooting

The NightShot Plus infrared shooting mode I think gives this camcorder a huge advantage over its competition. The NightShot Plus tends to look much better than the night shot on other camcorders, often allowing you to shoot good looking color video in extreme low light situations.

White Balance

The camcorder can auto white balance itself, or you can set the white balance yourself for the perfect video in every lighting situation.

The auto white balance on camcorders doesn't always give you the look you want in your video. A manual white balance is an important feature to have in any camcorder you buy.