Camcorders Are Pushing Up Daisies
on 11.09.06, 02:41pm in gadgets • Comments (2)
A few months ago, I asserted that "Television, as you know it, is dead". Today, I think I’m starting to come to a similar realization around another popular gadget:
Low-end camcorders are dead.
Think about it: There’s a new breed of small, point and click cameras that are coming out that have extremely capable movie modes. Why on earth would I want to carry around my "bulky" camcorder when I can have something that slips into my pocket, uses two AA batteries and records decent enough quality? Not to mention the added benefit of not having to plug into a 1394 or USB port to ‘capture’ the video, when I can just copy the video like any other file.
Check out the new Casio Ex-S770D - it’s a point and shoot camera that can fit 1 hr of DivX video on a 1gb SD card at 704×384 (16:9) or 640×480 (4:3) resolution at 30fps. Or the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2 which can record 1280 x 720 at 15 fps and 848 x 480 or 640 x 480 at 30fps as a Quicktime .MOV.
Heck, I just noticed that even my 2 year old Sony W1 will record movies at 640×480 (30fps) as a MPEG1 w/ audio.
Don’t get me wrong, I still think that there is a need for higher-end camcorders (like the Sony HDR-SR1 AVC-HD based 1080i one I mentioned a few weeks back), but for the average consumer, the ‘movie mode’ on point and shoot cameras could really eventually replace their camcorders.
Finally, as I always have to mention, notice how I picked 3 different cameras. Of course, each one uses a different codec to capture movies. Is there no end to codec hell?
Michael (November 9, 2006 @ 7:05 pm)
My camera has already replaced the camcorder except for one case: long content. A 1GB memory card holds only 5 minutes of my camera’s highest-resolution video. So for everyday usage (like quick movies of the kids), the camera’s great; but for longer recordings like weddings and birthdays, the camcorder’s still the way to go.
I’m surprised cameras take only one memory card. You’d think someone would come out with a four-card camera. Or perhaps a hybrid fast-storage (flash)/slow-storage (microdrive) system. Once you can make hour+ long recordings, then the camcorder really is dead.
Grover Saunders (November 10, 2006 @ 1:11 pm)
I agree completely. I was shocked by how good some of the video that comes out of a still camera looks these days. I will say that the video on the still camera usually doesn’t benefit from the automatic exposure controls, so this works a lot better in the day than in the night. But still when I buy my next digital still camera, I plan for it to completely replace my home camera. I’ve got the one at work for special events that require better quality.