The VholdR looks like something out of a James Bond movie. Details are a little sketchy on this wearable camcorder but it looks high tech, and here's what we do know.
At 4.8 oz and just under 4 inches long and 2 inches wide, this little guy packs some serious tech. It films at 640 x 480 at 30 fps in mpeg 4 format. It has a microSD slot for additional memory and a USB 2.0 output to get your movies onto your PC. It comes with a rechargeable lithium battery that claims to have two hours of life, and has a variety of mounting options for those X-game fanatics.
The company is taking preorders and plans to sell it at $349.
The Web site for VholdR is as cool as the product, but it is a work in progress and it seems like the company producing the camera, identified as Twenty20 on the VholdR site, doesn't quite know what it's selling as of yet. I can't find any company contact info on the VholdR site, although a Web search yields a separate site for Twenty20, a maker of helmet cams. But I am not about to plonk down $349 for a preorder when so many questions remain about the product.
I think the concept is great and can think of a bunch of sports applications for this little gadget, but if I were you I would wait until it launches so we can do full review.
SportsCam
The Worlds First Portable High-Speed Point and Shoot Camera, designed for Sports
The SportsCam is a bit of a break through when it comes to high speed camcorders. You may have seen these cameras on television when they show you in super slow motion a golf ball being hit by a golf club, or a baseball making contact with the bat. Until now these camcorders have been way to pricey and are used mainly for biomechanical analysis and research.
Fastecimaging brings us the SportsCam, a portable high speed camcorder that can film up to 500 frames per second. This is pretty serious stuff when you consider a basic camcorder films at 30 frames per second. This new bread of camcorder can easily capture thousands of images with the push of a button, review them on the built-in screen and save them to a Compact Flash card or download them via USB 2.0 to your computer system for review.
I like the fact that once you turn the camcorder on it is always filming the action and storing it in a buffer inside the camcorder, you just decide by the push of a button when you want to review something and save it. This way you never miss that sporting moment, it truly is the ultimate sports analysis tool.
At a starting price around $4000.00 these cameras are not cheap, but in the world of high speed film try finding a portable 500 frame per second camera for less. For more information visit www.fastecimaging.com.
Camcorders have come a long way since the old VHS monsters we used to lug around. The last couple of years have brought us DVD and Harddisc based camcorders which is nice, but I have noticed a troubling trend. Camcorders have become so cheap that many companies are taking away some of the features that are a must for filming sports motion. They are dumbing down the camcorders and stealing some of the features that we sports junkies must have for analysis. Whenever filming sports in motion if you want to slow it down and analyze it you must have an adjustable shutter speed. This allows you to see the motion clearly such as a golf swing. If the shutter speed is to low the golf swing is just a blur. Sony camcorders have a sports mode but that is not adjustable and in different light conditions the shutter speed will adjust it self according to the available light. I like the Panasonic line of camcorders as they have manual shutter speed up to 1/8000 of a second which is more than enough to capture your sports footage.
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