Digital camcorders see a rebirth as more babies are born

Kim Sook-hee, 31, is a working mother who recently purchased a digital camcorder. She bought the gadget so she doesn’t have to miss a second of her baby growing up while she’s at work. It was her first child and she wanted to record everything. “Every time I watch my baby eat, bath and crawl, I realize that I’ve become a mother,” said Kim. At first, she thought the recording system on her digital camera would do for recording the daily progress of the baby. But Kim soon realized that it wasn’t enough. Most of the recording was done indoors and the baby was constantly moving.
Samsung DX10.That’s when she decided to get a digital camcorder. Bong Seong-gwan, 30, is really into user-created content, or UCC.At first, Bong spent a lot of time watching UCC created by other people.After having watched what others had done, she wanted to get involved herself. Not long after purchasing a digital camcorder, Bong started to win various awards in UCC competitions. Now she is making one or two UCC items a week. “Simple recording can be covered with digital cameras, but when it comes to editing in high quality, there’s nothing more convenient than a digital camcorder,” Bong said.Since 2004, when the recording systems of digital cameras and mobile phone cameras started to improve, the camcorder market started to fall. It has only returned recently, thanks to the popularity of UCC sites such as YouTube.In 2006, roughly 16 million camcorders were sold in the world, according to the camcorder industry.The market is crossing its fingers about reaching 18 million camcorders this year.Additionally, people’s urge to capture their family’s moments in high definition quality, thanks to the wide distribution of high definition television, is also contributing to the sales of digital camcorders.The camcorder industry in Korea estimates that it sells roughly 120,000 units a year. Even in this small market, Sony has the lead. Samsung Electronics, however, is closely chasing the Japanese firm. “As the birthrate in the country decreased during the last three years, we’ve seen our sales drop to as low as 50 percent,” said Lee Sang-un, in charge of Handycam at Sony Korea. “But with the double-spring lunar year, more people got married and more people gave birth to children, which helped our sales grow more than 20 percent since last year,” said Lee.The lunar year, which falls between Jan. 29, 2006 and Feb. 17, 2007 contained two springs, which makes it a lucky year, tradition holds. Furthermore, it was the year of the pig, which also is considered lucky. Many couples started to have children because it is believed by some that children born in the year of the pig will be lucky and prosperous.The year of the pig was between Feb. 18, 2007 and Feb. 6, 2008.Although digital cameras can do recording, the anti-shake system is not as good as the one found on digital camcorders.Additionally camcorders can record for longer and work better at night.Among new camcorder models, Sony has released the TG1 as part of its Handycam SR series. The TG1 is equipped with a 60- to 120-gigabyte hard disk drive that provides plenty of space for many memories. The Samsung Electronics HMX20C allows users to record in high definition quality. Choi Hyun-joon at Danawa, a Web site that compares product pricing, said it’s best to purchase camcorders that have a sufficient amount of storage ability.To record one hour in full high definition requires more than 10 gigabits of memory. “Unless you are a professional, it is better to purchase a high definition camcorder that costs between 300,000 won [$293] and 500,000 won,” said Choi.