David Pogue of the NY Times takes a look at the new crop of HDTV camcorders:
The beauty of hard-drive camcorders like these — the Sony Handycam HDR-SR7 and the JVC Everio GZ-HD7 — is that you never have to rewind or fast forward; you can use an on-screen table of thumbnail images to jump to any scene for immediate playback. You never have to worry about recording over something by accident. And you never have to wonder if there’s a blank tape inside.Both of these new machines are clad in shiny, futuristic black cases. Each can store five hours of high-def recordings at top quality — which is a very, very high quality indeed. The picture is so sharp, it could slice a tomato.
Both cameras connect to a high-def TV set using either HDMI, which is a single cable that carries both picture and sound, or component cables, which have three for picture and two for sound. Both include goodies that are usually missing on cheaper camcorders, like a microphone jack and, on the Sony, a headphone jack. Both have built-in lens covers — a great feature — and a “minutes remaining” battery display.
I also spotted this new USB camera:
On sale at a big chain near you today is “The Flip,” a point-and-shoot video camera from Pure Digital the size of your palm which plugs directly into a USB port and will upload your video directly to YouTube, according to Matt Marshall at VentureBeat. A 30-minute model will sell for $119.95 and a 60-minute model will sell for $149.95.SEE MORE
Don't tell my wife, but I wouldn't mind going out and splurging on a high-def cam. She was upset when I went to Walgreens a few months ago and purchased a $99 AIPTEK mini SD camera. I threw 2 gigs in there and I was ready to go. Is it the best camera? No, but once again, let me remind you of the price! I have used it to put videos on abc13.com, but before you think that is a seal of approval, you could definitely tell the difference between this camera and the site's usual video quality.
