A relatively large announcement went live earlier today from RED, which as you’ll remember, made big promises for digital cinema a while ago — with equally big (and vague) timeframes. Today was a minor solidification of those timeframes, but many RED users were expecting solid shipping dates, and those didn’t happen. Instead, a change in strategy was announced, and a few brave RED owners will participate in an intensive beta program with the pre-production camera, dubbed “Tattoo.” After that, the S35, as it will be called in production, will see a wide simultaneous release, hopefully with some bugs squashed.
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Short version: An excellent casual HD camcorder with superior image quality to pocket cams and a flexible focus system, making it useful for bloggers like me as well. At under $200 this thing is absolutely a steal.
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Flip definitely created a market that no one knew existed, when the came out with their now famous line of portable camcorders (or pocketcams). There have been a few other brands, with a few different feature sets, and now Vivitar is going to throw their product into the lineup.
You guys! Remember back on January 5th of this year when I put up a post about these scuba goggles that have a built-in high definition video camera for recording stuff under water? Well, they’re finally available. Ah, January 5th. Those were the days.
If you’re still not on the pocketable camcorder bandwagon, you’re missing out! Well, maybe you’re not. It’s all relative, really. The important thing is that if you feel like you’re missing out, then you can get into the game today for around 100 bucks.
Yesterday I lamented Apple’s decision to establish its own video standard, which, while little more than a suggested resolution and bitrate, does not fit will with any devices anywhere. The steady progression of VGA or WVGA, 720p, and 1080p are perfectly fine for the moment. That’s why every camera in the world shoots to one of them. 1080p is too much for most people to work with, but 720p isn’t that bad (though render times can be long), and VGA is really not that bad at all (Doug swears by it). So why the hell put a new one in there between WVGA and 720p? I don’t like the idea of Apple bullying companies like Sanyo, who make perfectly good camcorders already, to add an option which needlessly complicates things.
But let’s just get these camcorders out of the way, because they’re worth taking a look at.
The tiny Flip MinoHD camcorder now comes with double the storage – 8GB of memory good for two hours of recording time. Video is recorded at 720p (1280×720) and the camcorder now sports a two-inch LCD screen with a 960×240 resolution versus the previous model’s 1.5-inch, 528×132 screen. Also new is the inclusion of an HDMI output port.
Looking for a pocketable HD camcorder but don’t want to spend a ton of money? Amazon’s got the Aiptek A-HD 720P for $80 after a $20 price break. This little camera has a flip-and-swivel LCD screen, too, which is a feature missing from a fair amount of pocket camcorders.
And now to finally get to the bottom of WHO DRANK MY LAST TAB?! This unassuming little clock tells the time and tells you who’s been breaking into your house at night to eat multiple peanut butter, lettuce, and pastrami sandwiches. It’s definitely not you sleepwalking.
It was only a couple months ago that you all thrilled to the reasonably fast and extremely loud video adventures of Mister Ha. VholdR decided that 720p wasn’t good enough for rattly rolls through Stuyvesant Town, so they’ve updated the ContourHD to go up to 1080p. Other than the resolution upgrade there doesn’t seem to be anything changed, but to hear Peter tell it, that’s not such a bad thing.
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The folks over at NewTeeVee took the “Flip SD,” as they called it – no real clarification if it was the bigger Flip Ultra or smaller Flip Mino camcorder – and did a side-by-side video quality comparison against the new iPod nano. You’ll recall that during the Apple presentation last Wednesday, Jobs and company took a few direct shots at the line of Flip cameras.
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Although the pocket-cam market (Flips, Zi8s and such) is blowing up, these compact handhelds really have the upper hand in image quality and storage. I switched my primary camera for reviews and such from the Zx1 to a Sanyo because of the better low-light and close focus abilities, and I’m sure these new Toshibas enjoy the same advantages.
John noted them briefly in the Toshiba press conference, but the new lineup is worth a closer look. Details are a bit fuzzy due to Toshiba giving these things the same names as some of their projectors (hello?!).
Here’s a mighty fine deal on one of my favorite camcorder lines, the Samsung SC-MX20. This version is available in red or blue for $150 from Geeks.com and features 16GB of built-in storage that can be expanded via SD or MMC.
Everybody who’s anybody has a Flip camcorder, am I right? Am I right? If you’ve been unable to justify the purchase of a Flip camcorder because of the relatively high price tag, you may be happy to find out that you can get your hands on one of the older, clunkier ones for just $50.
Samsung’s rolling out some new camcorders today: The full HD Flip-like HMX-U10 and the SMX-K40 and SMX-K45 cameras that record at 720×480 resolution and then upscale the footage for playback on an HDTV using an HDMI cable.
Right out of the gate, I feel obligated to tell you that the two flash memory camcorders written about in this post will cost $1100 and $1300 when they’re available in September. That being said, they’ll handle full 1080p HD video and feature 32GB or 64GB of internal memory depending on the model.
If you’ve been holding out for a Flip Mino-style camcorder but haven’t been able to justify the $150+ price tag, here’s something that may be of interest to you instead.
Amazon is selling the RCA Small Wonder EZ200 camcorder for just $59.99 with free shipping. The camera uses microSD cards for recording footage and features a swiveling LCD screen for standard and flip-around self-recording — the Flip series of camcorders just have a standard, non-flip screen.
Secretly taking photos of people is sort of easy to do with a cell phone but it’s probably even easier to do with a Volkswagen-style car key. For $66, Brando will be more than happy to sell you one too.
What kind of lifestyle do you lead? If you answered, “EXTREME!” or “Slam a Dew!” or something along those lines, I’d like you to know that you can get a $229 wearable camcorder for just $99 today.
Amazon has a one-day deal on the Creative Labs Vado HD camcorder. Normally selling for around $215, it’s on sale for just $130 with free shipping.
