Lighting is an essential element of any film making situation. The range of lighting possibilities are endless, and your digital camcorder should be able to shoot a crisp, clear video in any lighting situation.
White balance
The color of outdoor light is different than indoor light, and indoor lights vary depending on the type of bulb. White balance will help to compensate for the color of white light in your setting. White balance adjusts the other colors of the spectrum in accordance with their relationship to the white light, resulting in truer color for every lighting situation.
Low-light capacity (LUX)
How many times have you captured a priceless moment in either a picture or a video only to find later that the light was too low, and your image is dark and fuzzy? LUX is designed to measure illumination levels and automatically adjust to the current lighting conditions. Ideally, you will be able to shoot video in even the darkest space, and still have good contrast (sharp definition, not hazy gray) and color accuracy (red is red…not pinkish or orange-ish).
When checking the LUX rating on digital camcorders, you won't usually find any numbers to compare-just make sure that the words "measured by the EIA standard" are included somewhere.
Night vision
Most digital cameras come with some type of night vision capabilities. Camcorder manufacturers love to give this feature a particularly exciting name, ranging from "Night Shot" to "Night Alive," "MagicVu," "MagicPix," or even "Cat's Eye." Night vision is accomplished by an infrared illuminator that targets objects up to 10 feet away-much like those night vision goggles used by the military. The night vision feature is like a cool new toy; it's fun to play with at first, but you never really use it, and you soon forget all about it. Most night vision modes are monochromatic black and white with a definite green tinge. If you do plan to shoot a lot of video in the dead of night, you may want to consider a model from JVC that has "NightAlive." Although we've not tested this feature, they claim that NightAlive is full color rather than the traditional monochrome.
Detachable light
A great bonus feature not yet available with many camcorders is a detachable light for shooting in low-light situations. Your subjects may shy from the "spotlight" effect at first, but they'll eventually become comfortable with it, and you'll get much higher quality video.
