The following are meant to be easy tips for editing hours of boring video into the perfect home movie.
One of the easiest ways to spice up an armload of video is with a little editing. The question is, what's the easiest way to find the hidden gems within hours of home video? The answer is video-editing software. It lets you polish all that poorly shot video, delete the not-so-interesting footage, and set everything to music, until what you're left with is something your audience will enjoy.

If you're in the market for a good digital camcorder here's some advice on the camcorder specs that matter:
The Specs That Matter

• Design Horizontal, vertical, compact, ultracompact
• Lens type 10X or greater zoom controlled via switch or lens ring; electronic or optical image stabilisation
• Sensor 1/6-inch or larger CCD; minimum 340,000-pixel effective (a.k.a. actual) video resolution
• Minimum illumination rating 7 lux or lower
• Recording format MiniDV; Digital8; MicroMV; mini DVD-R/RW/RAM; Microdrive/CompactFlash
• Ports and connectors FireWire (a.k.a. i.Link or IEEE 1394); A/V; USB; S-Video; accessory shoe; microphone terminal; headphone terminal
• Exposure controls Automatic; exposure shift; programmed scene modes; backlight mode; low-light mode
• Focus controls Automatic; manual option via dial on camcorder body
• Viewfinder and LCD Colour viewfinder and 2.5-inch or larger colour LCD
• Multimedia Memory card slot for photo capture; MPEG-1 or MPEG-4 video for Web and e-mail

The above are general pointers but before you fall in love with just any old camcorder, you need to know precisely what you're looking for, lest you realise somewhere down the road that you chose the wrong machine. Ask yourself the hard questions, then match your needs to one of these user profiles.
To bone up on the audio specs that matter for your user type, take a look at our section on capturing good sound with video.

• Home and vacation moviemaker
• Budget buyer
• Trend-setter
• Independent filmmaker
• Business videographer

• Post-production tools
• Watch and edit movie using a timeline add Titles, audio and finishing touches
• DIY Accessories
• 10 tips to beat bad home video

Everyone wants a camcorder that shoots great stills; after all, nobody wants to carry two devices that essentially perform the same task. Unfortunately, most camcorders use fast but low-resolution, high-noise sensors, which creates video that looks great on a device such as a television but pretty bad on a PC monitor or printed as stills. Here are some clues to finding a happy medium.... Read more.

If you buy a cassette-based camcorder, you'll probably be able to drop a tape in your camcorder and start recording as soon as you open the box and charge the battery. But before you can download the video to your computer for editing, you'll have to make sure your PC is set up for a FireWire connection. At best, you'll simply have to buy a FireWire cable; at worst, you'll need to add an internal card to your PC.... Read more

• Relax, find something interesting, and enjoy your subjects. You can always cut it short in the editing.
• Don't cut off the action too soon.
• Let the actions develop and play themselves out.
• Avoid changing your angle constantly as if you were a dog hunting for treats.