Whether you're looking at picking up a kid's digital video camera so you and the whole family can film your daily adventures or are after a vlogging camera with flip screen so you can finally become the star of YouTube you've always dreamt of becoming, the camera that you should be looking at purchasing will be vastly different.
The best affordable digital video camera can be hard to find, with each of us having our own list of wants and needs from our purchase.
Read on for an overview of what we think are the best digital cameras for video on the market. Once you've found the right camera, be sure to also read our guide on choosing the right aspect ratio for YouTube and social video so your footage is formatted perfectly for every platform.
Compact Digital Video Cameras
For your basic everyday video recording, the Compact Digital Video camera is still a great go-to option, despite the still-camera world doing its best to encroach on video territory. As their primary job is video, even the average Small Digital Video Camera recorder has the basic desirable features to best capture movies.
These video-friendly features include being comfortable to hold in the hand thanks to their compactness and hand strap, a rotating and tilting LCD screen for comfortable and steady filming, plus video optimised stabilisation and autofocus systems. As audio is an important and often overlooked aspect of video, it is worth noting that the built-in Microphones of digital video cameras are often more advanced than those of DSLR and Mirrorless cameras.
This is good for those wanting the best video camera to record meetings or similar who are not wanting to look into external microphone options.
As slim digital video cameras typically have smaller image sensors than models with interchangeable lenses, they often have reduced overall image quality. However, this is offset by their convenience and ease of use, which make them the best place to start searching for the best video camera under $500.
Mirrorless and DSLR Cameras
Just a few short years ago Digital SLRs were thought of as purely still photography tools. These days, a DSLR filmmaking kit is a common sight and a lack of advancement in video functionality will often find a DSLR camera being somewhat poorly received upon release. Mirrorless cameras are the smaller siblings to DSLR cameras and they too are becoming more and more suited to video recording with each new release. At the entry-level end of this segment of reasonably priced cameras, you can locate a good digital video camera for under $1,000.
As mentioned above, these interchangeable lens cameras feature large image sensors that help them achieve unrivalled image qua