You, too, can direct films: Just point and shoot

IHT: "In many ways, Alexandra Pelosi is the classic maker of home movies. She does not like to carry a lot of weight and she hates to fiddle with camera settings. 'I am basically a point-and-shoot person,' she said. 'I never set a level. Never.'

Nonetheless, Pelosi's first home movie was nominated for six Emmy Awards and won one, for outstanding picture editing for nonfiction programming (Aaron Lubarsky was the editor). Granted, her success was partly because the movie, 'Journeys With George,' chronicled her life as an NBC News producer covering George W. Bush's first campaign for the presidency and starred Bush.

But technology deserves some of the credit. Her hand-held camcorder, a Sony CCD-TRV900, was made with three of the light-sensing chips that digital cameras use to capture images, whereas more common camcorders have only one. The three charge-coupled devices, or CCDs, gave it the ability to produce broadcast-quality images that are unattainable with a single-CCD camera.

Since Pelosi bought her camera five years ago, three-chip video cameras have fallen in price and grown more sophisticated even as they have become easier to use. Although the best professional-grade cameras can cost $50,000, three-chip digital video cameras that can be bought in stores for less than $5,000 are being used to shoot theatrical-release movies, including the suspenseful shark tale "Open Water" and the sci-fi film "28 Days Later." A camera comparable to the one Pelosi used for "Journeys" now goes for less than $600.

What makes a three-CCD camera superior seems obvious: It has three light sensors where other cameras have one. The three sensors allow the cameras to record colors more accurately, to work better in low light and to record images in greater detail.

In still and video cameras, light is captured by a CCD, which functions as digital film. The CCD is covered with millions of tiny sensors, called pixels. Each pixel converts light into data points, which collectively make up a picture.

The sensors on the CCDs, however, are colorblind. On a single-CCD camera, a filter over the chip allows light of different colors to reach the sensor. Software reconstitutes this information into a color picture.

The most basic three-chip camcorders, like the Panasonic PV-GS120 (panasonic.com; $700 list price), have all of the features of standard consumer cameras. About the size of two large paperbacks side by side, the PV-GS120 is set up with point-and-shoot photographers in mind. With three 4.2-millimeter, or one-sixth-inch, 460,000-pixel CCDs, it features presets for filming sports action or for tricky lighting situations like surf, snow or theater spotlights.

It also has some of the consumer camcorder features that are best ignored, like the 700X digital zoom, which can blur images. (You are better off sticking with the 10X optical zoom). The PV-GS120 has button controls under the liquid-crystal display door, which I find easier to use than touch-screen controls. And the camera is so lightweight that a tripod is often needed to steady it.

More expensive point-and-shoot camcorders add higher-end technology. The Sony MiniDV Handycam DCR-HC1000 ($1,700 list price; www.sonystyle.com) has many automatic features, but it also has optical image stabilization, which means that the lens reacts to motion to keep your subject centered and your images shake-free.

Larger than the PV-GS120, the DCR-HC1000 accommodates a 12X zoom lens, and three one-megapixel CCDs, which means it is a step up in picture quality from the Panasonic.

The HC1000 is still compact. To save space, the camera controls are on an LCD touch screen, which can be a challenge for people who are awkward with their fingers. Another way the designers made the HC1000 less bulky was by placing its built-in microphone on top of the camera rather than in front. As a result, it captures sound from the cameraman better than from the subjects. If you are like me, you will want to buy an auxiliary microphone.

More expensive camcorders have more customizable settings and features, but taking advantage of these requires more knowledge.

Although a camera like the Panasonic AG-DVX100A (list price $4,000) can operate as a point-and-shoot, its principal charms are that it can be extensively configured using manual settings and that it shoots in a format that can be easily transferred to film.

The DVX100A's CCDs are a further step up from the Sony, this time to 410,000-pixel chips. With this camera you can set shutter speed and exposure and alter color tint in the camera to create a blue-tinged, shadowy feel, like the look of "C.S.I.: N.Y.," which you couldn't get with automatic settings. The camera can record in the standard 30-frames-per-second format for video to be viewed on a television, or it can record at 24 frames per second, which is the speed of movie film. If plans call for transferring your homemade epic to film for a theatrical release, that would be especially important.

One mini-DV camera that has been used to film movies for theatrical release is the Canon XL1s, which has been replaced by the similar XL2 (list price $6,500, canonusa.com).

In addition to being able to make numerous manual adjustments and to shoot at variable frame rates, the XL2 has a changeable lens. The Canon XL2 Kit comes with a 20X zoom lens, but the camera also accepts a 3X wide-angle lens. A weighty piece of gear, it may not be the right camera for unobtrusively filming future presidents, but it is useful for a filmmaker on a budget.

Danny Boyle, director of the futuristic zombie film "28 Days Later," has said in several published interviews that he was able to create a convincingly abandoned London, reportedly on a $15 million budget, because his crew could set up numerous digital video cameras and shoot scenes relatively quickly."