I've been reading some guides and they keep on mentioning CCD, why is it the most important feature in buying a camcorder?
CCD is the heart of a camcorder and stands for Charge Coupled Device. It transforms the incoming images into electical information. It works as follows. The CCD consists of a matrix of light sensitive sensors (each sensor representing one pixel). Light that enters the lens is projected on the CCD. The sensors generate a small electrical charge when it is hit by a light beam. These electrical charges are measured and this information is used to store the images coming in. There are three important features to pay attention to: the amount of sensors on the CCD (i.e. the number of pixels), the size of the CCD and the signal-to-noise ratio. The first two are generally easy to find in the specifications of the camcorder, the last one may be a bit harder to find. An increasing number of camcorders these days is equiped with three CCD's. In this case the incoming light is split in the three primary colors by a prism and each primary color is then projected on one CCD.
