Color control
All digital camcorders offer an automatic white-balance setting that calculates the right color balance for your shot, but the results can be erratic. Look for models that let you select among white-balance presets for particular types of lighting, such as sunny, cloudy, incandescent, and fluorescent. Many camcorders allow you to set white balance manually, and that's the most dependable method. You take a reading from an area that you want to appear as pure white in your video, then the camera uses that reading to calculate the color balance. Some semipro cameras allow you to fine-tune adjustments after setting the white balance, as well as to make manual color gain (saturation) adjustments. Advanced videographers who will be editing and color-correcting their footage should look for a model that displays SMPTE color bars.