Camcorder

A camcorder is a self-contained portable electronic device with video and recording as its primary function. It is typically equipped with an articulating screen mounted on the left side, a belt to facilitate holding on the right side, hot-swappable battery facing towards the user, hot-swappable recording media, and an internally contained quiet optical zoom lens.

The earliest camcorders were tape-based, recording analog signals onto videotape cassettes. In the 2000s, digital recording became the norm, and additionally tape was replaced by storage media such as mini-HDD, MiniDVD, internal flash memory and SD cards.

More recent devices capable of recording video are camera phones and digital cameras primarily intended for still pictures, whereas dedicated camcorders are often equipped with more functions and interfaces than more common cameras, such as an internal optical zoom lens that is able to operate silently with no throttled speed, whereas cameras with protracting zoom lenses commonly throttle operation speed during video recording to minimize acoustic disturbance. Additionally, dedicated units are able to operate solely on external power with no battery inserted.

The Oxford English Dictionary records the first instance of the English word camcorder in The Economist in 1982. According to Stewart Wolpin, the word was coined by American electronics journalist David Lachenbruch in 1982 as a blend of camera and recorder. However, Garland Hampton Cannon and Nicholas W. Warren instead suggest that the word is derived from the Japanese kamukōdā (カムコーダー) using the English words camera and tape recorder, coined by Sony for export purposes in March 1982.

Video cameras originally designed for television broadcast were large and heavy, mounted on special pedestals and wired to remote recorders in separate rooms. As technology improved, out-of-studio video recording was possible with compact video cameras and portable video recorders; a detachable recording unit could be carried to a shooting location. Although the camera itself was compact, the need for a separate recorder made on-location shooting a two-person job. Specialized videocassette recorders were introduced by JVC (VHS) and Sony (U-matic, with Betamax) releasing a model for mobile work. Portable recorders meant that recorded video footage could be aired on the early-evening news, since it was no longer necessary to develop film.

In 1983, Sony released the first camcorder, the Betacam system, for professional use. A key component was a single camera-recorder unit, eliminating a cable between the camera and recorder and increasing the camera operator's freedom. The Betacam used the same cassette format (0.5 inches or 1.3 centimetres tape) as the Betamax, but with a different, incompatible recording format. It became standard equipment for broadcast news.

Sony released the first consumer camcorder in 1983, the Betamovie BMC-100P. It used a Betamax cassette and rested on the operator's shoulder, due to a design not permitting a single-handed grip. That year, JVC released the first VHS-C camcorder. Kodak announced a new camcorder format in 1984, the 8 mm video format. Sony introduced its compact 8 mm Video8 format in 1985. That year, Panasonic, RCA and Hitachi began producing camcorders using a full-size VHS cassette with a three-hour capacity. These shoulder-mount camcorders were used by videophiles, industrial videographers and college TV studios. Full-size Super-VHS (S-VHS) camcorders were released in 1987, providing an inexpensive way to collect news segments or other videographies. Sony upgraded Video8, releasing the Hi8 in competition with S-VHS.

Digital technology emerged with the 1986 Sony D1, a device which recorded uncompressed data and required a large amount of bandwidth for its time. In 1992 Ampex introduced DCT, the first digital video format with data compression using the discrete cosine transform algorithm present in most commercial digital video formats. In 1995 Sony, JVC, Panasonic and other video-camera manufacturers launched DV, which became a de facto standard for home video production, independent filmmaking and citizen journalism. That year, Ikegami introduced Editcam (the first tapeless video recording system).