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Every month I get emails from folks asking which camcorders I would recommend they buy. Often these requests are from educational institutions. These institutions are in a unique dilemma. They naturally see high-end camcorders as the ones they ought to buy so as not to limit their students' creativity. Unfortunately, if they purchase these expensive camcorders, they can't buy as many. This, of course, is another limitation on their students.
Typically, the compromise is to purchase one of the new low-cost, handheld, three-CCD camcorders. While these deliver acceptable quality and are cheap enough to allow multiples to be purchased, they have several downsides. First, they simply invite students to approach video as a "point and shoot" exercise. Second, even with optical image stabilization, it takes a lot of shooting experience to avoid "shakicam" video. A shoulder-mounted camcorder not only looks more professional, but it also enables more professional shooting.
While I receive many requests for product recommendations, I'm rarely asked which camcorders serve as a good training ground for learning the craft of shooting video. As long as a camcorder allows for manual focus and color balancing, it seems to pass muster for most instructors. Unfortunately, this attitude imposes another limitation on students, as they fail to gain experience working with a truly professional camcorder. This limitation is perhaps the most serious one that can be imposed upon students.
Panasonic offers the perfect solution to this problem. A few years ago, I reviewed Panasonic's AG-DVC10, which did not deliver optimal image quality. It has since been superceded by the AG-DVC60 camcorder.
The DVC60 is a unique camcorder. It has three CCDs that provide good image quality. It is shoulder-mounted, although you can shoot both low- and high-angle video because it has a 2.5in. (110,000-pixel) LCD screen that can rotate up or down. The camcorder's handle makes low-angle shooting especially easy because it has both a three-speed zoom lever and a start/stop button. The DVC60, with its carbon fiber composite body, weighs only 5.7lbs., and it ships with a long-lasting (300- to 360-minute) 5400mA battery.
The DVC60, as we will learn later, has many professional features, but let's first look at the camcorder's video capabilities. The DVC60 has a Leica Dicomar F=1.6, 16X (f=4.1 to...