Reasons For Buying A Good Low-light Camcorder

Capturing video footages in a low light conditions is somewhat like hell without a proper equipment. Recording is almost always a blurry, pixelated and noisy thing. This is happening due to the lower light sensitivity of the camera - it can’t get the proper image without the suitable light source and all the final result thus becomes something unsuitable. And this is the one of the main reasons of getting yourself a good camcorder with an adjustable ISO and aperture. And in our article we’ll talk about suitable cameras and some tricks to do the low-light recording in a best possible way.

When and how to use an additional light sources?

One of the most obvious ways of improving your low light recording experience is to add more light to a scene. Even if you’re in a hurry, it’s not too hard to add some more light. On-camera light sources are a good solution - those are always at hand, mounted at camera and won’t produce an excess lighting. LED version of mounted light source will be a good choice.

Another way of adding light to a scene is somewhat complicated and is better for professional recordings - using a lamps, overhead lights, refractor panels, mirrors and all that pro stuff. Of course, a wise thing is to have a variety of lights at hand in a portable lighting kit. And if you have those tools in a suitable amount of variations than you already know how to do the stuff anh probably already got some professional camera with high ISO values.

When to buy a camcorder for a low-light recordings?

Using a lights in a dark environment without losing quality while making a good low-light recording is something that’s a bit complicated. It requires to be a pro at capturing high quality footages. And if you’re a beginner than it’s better to you to get yourself a good camcorder that’s suitable for capturing videos at low light environment. To give you some straight advantages of buying a camera by some specifics, we’ll compare some features of basic cameras and low-light suited ones.

Configuration sequences

Basic camcorders have little to no powerful modes and settings to do a low-light footages. “Night portrait” or something like that are the only one way of doing something good in a low light conditions. Advanced camcorders have an adjustable ISO, aperture and shutter opening speed as well as a lot of other features up to having a built-in night vision system or LED light source. Thus it will capture more or less light when needed.

Image stabilization and noise reduction

ISS and NRS are cheap and unreliable when you’re talking about cheap basic camcorders. High-grade image stabilization in low-light camcorders, accompanied with a well-built noise reduction system will give you more stable video. It will be less blurry and less pixelated due to adjusting sensor position to every single move and getting rid of noise on an output video produced because of too high ISO or sensitive aperture.

Lens and sensor quality and capabilities

Pro low-light camcorders almost always have a bright lens, reducing focus depth and allowing sensor to capture more light from all available sources and whole environment. Some of those high quality models might have a light-reactive lenses, improving the low-light recording capabilities of a camera even more.

Good cameras which are suitable for a low-light recording is also equipped with a better sensor than its cheap counterpart. Sensor is responsible for capturing light so it’s required to have a good one - it means more captured light and it’ll give a much more quality to a footage that’s captured in a low-light environment. There are 3 suitable sensor types - full-frame, APS-C and MFT or Micro 4/3, listed from biggest to smallest.

What’s the main point of buying a low-light camcorder?

If you want to get a video of a suitable quality in low light conditions, you need to choose either to do some tricks or buy yourself a suitable camcorder. Of course, you don’t need to choose between low price and some unneeded 4K. Full HD resolution will be more than enough for you if your device is packed with advanced environment-related features. Those features will make an output footage even better without a need of an excess payment for some unneeded resolution capabilities.