Oh! Gizmo

By Shane McGlaun

The first camcorder that I ever saw was one that my uncle had. The thing was huge and looked like something the newscasters used. It wasn’t only the huge camera though; the thing had a huge VCR that had to go along with it. It weighed about 30 pounds altogether.

Panasonic has announced a couple new camcorders today that are being called the world’s lightest camcorders at 0.5 pounds. The camcorders are the HDC-TM10 and the HDC-SD10. The only real difference between the two is that the SD10 stores video to SD and SDHC cards only. The TM10 has 8GB of internal storage and then changes to SD/SDHC cards.

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By Shane McGlaun

I for one am glad that the majority of consumer video cameras available today have left tapes behind and moved to digital storage formats. That means instead of having boxes of cassette tapes sitting around the house gathering dust I can put all my home movies onto my computer or burn the easily to DVD.

Samsung has announced a pair of new ergonomic camcorders called the SMX-C14 and the SMX-C10. The two camcorders have the Touch of Color design that Samsung pioneered with its TVs. Both of the camcorders utilize Samsungs Active Angle Lens to make shooting video more comfortable.

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By Shane McGlaun

Over the last few years camcorders have changed drastically from devices that recorded to tapes of different types to machines that use internal flash or hard drives to store video. With the move to flash storage and HDDs the cameras were also able to shrink to more portable sizes.

Genius has announced its first camcorder called the G-Shot HD520. The little camcorder weight less than six ounces and records video in 720p resolution. Video is encoded and compressed using MPEG-4/H.264 formats. In addition to recording video the camera can also take still images at 11-megapixels.

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By Andrew Liszewski

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, you can’t deny that Sony makes some really nice toys sometimes. Their latest ultra-compact camcorder, the HDR-TGV5, records “full” 1920X1080 video (compressed to AVCHD) to 16GB of built-in flash memory which should accommodate about 6 hours of footage in LP mode. And if that runs out, you can always throw a Memory Stick PRO Duo card in there when you need more storage.

The 2.7-inch LCD display should help reduce the camcorder’s battery life, but it also serves as a touch screen interface, reducing the amount of buttons that usually clutter up the exterior. The HDR-TG5V’s also got a built-in GPS antenna and comes with NAVTEQ digital maps allowing you to geo-tag your videos and photos and see where they were captured right on the camera’s display.

The HDR-TG5V is expected to ship sometime in May, and will set you back about a grand.

[ PR - Sony TG5V ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Evan Ackerman

Looks like the recession hasn’t had much of an effect on California sea otters, one of whom was recently spotted in Monterey Bay with his own video camera.

“I was like, did I actually see an otter with a video camera or was I hallucinating?” [Aguirre] said.

The screen on Aguirre’s digital camera soon confirmed what he’d seen: an otter floating on its back, video camera grasped in its paws, lens aimed at the boat of excited photographers. The humans had a bad angle, but Aguirre managed to snap a single clear shot before the otter dived, video camera in tow.

“He’s the only one who got the photo,” Gideon said.

Judging by the rust and seaweed adorning the camera, the otter probably wasn’t getting much good footage. But Aguirre, who has photographed animals all over the world for more than a decade, said the otter aiming a camcorder was the “craziest” thing he’s seen an animal do in the wild.

The otter never resurfaced, leaving the photographers to speculate on the make and model of the animal’s gear. Aguirre suspects that the camera was dropped by a kayaking tourist and then picked up by the curious creature.

“I know I can go down there another million times and I will never see another otter with a video camera,” Aguirre said. “I think I have more chance of a penguin coming up to me and actually speaking English.”

I dunno, if the sea otters can somehow monetize their YouTube cuteness, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them sporting MP3 players and SD cards and jetpacks.

[ Santa Cruz Sentinel ] VIA [ Neatorama ]

By Evan Ackerman

In the market for a new HD camcorder? No? C’mon, why not? Everything’s getting smaller and cheaper, and HD camcorders are no exception. RCA sent us a sample of one of their smallest and cheapest, the EZ300HD, which can do just about everything you want and nothing you don’t care about. This is going to be fairly straightforward and simple review, because the essence of this camcorder is that it’s straightforward and simple. Oh, and cheap, of course… The EZ300HD costs just $130. Review, after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

By Luke Anderson

In the last month we’ve seen a digital camera and mobile phone that appear to have been constructed of LEGO bricks. While we’re not exactly sure why LEGO is venturing into the gadget world, it appears that the company has more bricked-out products up its sleeve. This time they’ve crafted a video camera.

The camcorder looks a little less like it was actually constructed of LEGO bricks than the camera, but it still isn’t half bad. I guess I’m just a little stumped as to why they are making these. Sure, it’s fun to mod your own gadgets and recreate them with LEGOs, but to actually buy a device that looks like it’s made from those colorful bricks isn’t nearly as cool. Not sure if this is actually going to end up on store shelves, or if they just made it for kicks.

[ Hobbymedia ] VIA [ Dvice ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Aiptek’s new PocketDV AHD 300 is a budget-level camcorder that’s capable of capturing 1080P footage for just $250. Well to be completely accurate, it can only capture footage at 1440×1080 (compared to the 1920×1080 image displayed by your HDTV) but that’s actually not a big deal since even high-def codecs like Sony’s HDCAM only stores 1440×1080. And while it can capture 1080P at 30fps, you can actually get it up to 60fps if you switch to the camcorder’s 720P mode. The 90MB of usable internal storage is pretty much useless, but it does include an SDHC SD card slot that supports card capacities up to 32GB in size. For comparison a 4GB SD card should give you enough room for about an hour’s worth of 1080P footage.

Unfortunately that $250 price tag does come with some limitations, like a crappy digital zoom and a non-HD 2.4″ TFT LCD display. But more importantly it represents another important step in consumer level HD gear becoming more commonplace and affordable.

[ Aiptek PocketDV AHD 300 ] VIA [ TFTS ]

This post is syndicated with permission from Gadgetoholic.com

When camcorders first launched decades ago the image quality was bad, the cameras were huge, and lots of tapes were needed to record anything. Today camcorders are very small, image quality is now often HD, and tapes are mostly a thing of the past.

Canon introduced three new camcorders that all record to internal storage in full 1080p HD resolution. The camcorders are all in the VIXIA line and record in 24Mbps bit rate in AVCHD format. Canon says that 24Mbps is the highest bit rate that can be used in the AVCHD format and makes for more detailed and smoother video recordings.

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