At VidSwap.com I get a lot of questions about choosing camcorders, so in this post I’m going to cover how to choose the right consumer and prosumer camcorder for filming your football, basketball, hockey, soccer, volleyball, lacrosse, and any other sports games. If your looking for professional models go this post. The first major question to ask is should I go HD…and the voice in your head should scream, “YES…of course!!!!!”. The quality of video compared to old standard definition cameras will blow you away and actually make it fun to watch scouting video again. The prices also make this a no brainer because you can get great models as low as $350…and I don’t mean those crappy blogging, flip cameras or the brands you’ve never heard of. These cameras also make it really easy to upload to VidSwap.com, so we can breakdown and edit your games for you (that’s right, we do the work for you). So, let’s get started…

(Note: We use personal experience and www.camcorderinfo.com for all of our recommendations)

1) What brands should I stick with?

2) Hard drive or SD card and how much storage should I get?

Stick with SD card dominant cameras and minimal hard drive space because you’ll save money and stay current with SD card options. Keep in mind most cameras now days have built in hard drive space, a minimum of 8-16 GB, and an SD card slot to compliment. Just don’t splurge on a camera with lots of hard drive space if there’s a model with less hard drive. SD cards get cheaper and bigger every year. You can get a 32 GB card on Amazon for $25…you might spend an extra $100 on a camera with 32 GB of internal storage. Get as much as you can afford, but don’t go lower the 16 GB.

32 GB SD card

3) AVCHD, MP4, h.264…what the heck are these and which one do I choose?

These are video formats used to create the great looking video and are all related but used confusingly in marketing.

• AVCHD is the flavor of h.264 video used that is Blu Ray compliant
• MP4 is the file format that h.264 video is used in…usually NOT AVCHD but straight h.264 or quicktime video
• h.264 is the main video codec or compression used to deliver HD video

Up till now most good consumer and prosumer level camcorders have been AVCHD, but we’re starting to see the release of straight MP4 cameras. The reason is AVHCD can be difficult to work with, playback, and convert…and the obvious is Blu Ray is becoming more irrelevant every day. MP4 video is playable and uploadable by any computer and is THE standard for broadcast and internet video. All internet streaming video, HD broadcasts, Netflix, and iTunes video is h.264 video which is usually an MP4 or MOV flavor.

Stick with an new AVCHD/MP4 based camera from one of our 3 recommended brands.

4) 1080p, 60p, 60i, 720p, 30p…what the heck does this all mean?

These numbers refer to either the frame size and/or frame rate. They are widely miss used in marketing and very confusing. There are 3 specs you should be concerned with…

• frame size…1080 or 720 aka 1920×1080 and 1280×720, this tells you how big the viewable picture is. All good HD camcorders shoot in 1080, and more are coming out with 720 options. Honestly you really won’t see that big of a difference between the two, but choosing this will depend on what you want to do with the video. If your uploading the video to VidSwap or another web site, 1280×720 is the recommended frame size and if you want to play back on an iPad.
• frame rate…60 or 30 fps. This means how many frames there are per second. More frames means a smoother, more lifelike video. Smaller number of frames gives a more cinematic and preferred look. All web based video is 30 fps, all TV and movies are 24 fps. We’re starting to see more 60 fps devices and I would only recommend these for sports, but the main problem is there are still lots of devices that don’t support 60 fps playback at all or very well. iOS devices won’t playback 60 fps and unless you have a suped up computer, you’ll still have issues playing this back. It requires a lot of computing power to playback all the extra frames.

• p or i…progressive or interlaced. The short answer is always choose progressive. A long time ago interlaced was developed to help deliver a good picture with lower overhead. Interlacing means each frame is halved then put together to form 1 full frame, so you can fit half as much info in a 60i video and still get nice, smooth video. For example, 60i = 30p in terms of the amount data thats being processed…but 60i will look smoother then 30p. The biggest problem is that most devices now days are progressive, specifically computer and LCD screens. As a result, more cameras are shooting in full progressive because in the end it simply looks better. Full frames look good no matter what device your watching them on.

Putting this all together…we actually use terms like 1080p30, 1080p60, 720p30, 720p60. You’ll be fine with a 1080p30 camera, but 1080p60 is very nice. Many 1080p60 cameras also shoot 1080p30. Canon’s consumer line doesn’t support 60 fps yet, but Panasonic and Sony do. The new line of Canon’s support 720p30 MP4 video which is ideal for uploading and sharing.

5) Does it have a LANC connection?

If you need to connect a remote to the camera for an endzone camera or like to use one on your sideline camera…which I highly recommend, then this is very important. (Note, all pro level cameras have these connections, but prosumer and consumer camcorders don’t always.) All Sony’s have a LANC port, Canon’s require a hot shoe for a LANC connection (but Canon recently discontinued their mini hotshoe lanc port for earlier models), and Panasonic’s just don’t support this at all.

So, if you need this stick with Canon and Sony.

6) Other specs like… stabilization, low light performance, optical zoom, manual controls, etc  

For prosumer and consumer level cameras these specs are usually limited and quite similar but can easily set one above the other. We use www.camcorderinfo.com for indepth testing results on all the major brands. You can go to their site and look up most of the popular models and see their results, recommendations, and video tests. It’s from these tests that we’ve seen Canon consistently score above the rest in most categories, although Panasonic is right up there as well. Keep in mind when we talk about video quality, you must think about all of the adverse conditions you might film in…at night, in the rain, etc.

Canon and Panasonic will produce the best video quality.

Conclusion…

Canon AVCHD/MP4…this is what we recommend as they provide the best video quality, and a wide choice of manual settings and controls.  Most of all we really like their new line of MP4 cameras that shoot amazing video, are really affordable, and make uploading a breeze.

Canon Vixia HF M500 (Our favorite of them all and what we recommend)

Canon Vixia HF R400

Canon Vixia HF R300

Canon Vixia HF G30 (if you can afford it, choose this one…new higher end prosumer model)

Panasonic AVCHD is a great choice if you don’t need a LANC connection…that is one of their biggest drawbacks.

Panasonic HC-X920 (not confirmed if it does in fact have an MP4 shooting mode)

Panasonic X900MK

Panasonic HCV700k

Panasonic HCV500M

Sony AVCHD/MP4 is certainly dependable and has all of the features and controls we like, but severely lacks the video quality in comparison to the others. They also tend to be a bit more expensive.

Sony has finally added an MP4 shooting mode in their new 2013 models, but I would avoid the added expense of the built in projectors.

Sony HDR-CX430V

Sony HDR-CX380V

Sony HDR-CX290B

VidSwap.com breaks down game video online for you. We’re a web-based video editing and analysis service for sports organizations, specializing in game exchange, video sharing, and game analysis. We serve HS, amateur, college, youth, and pro teams.