LAS VEGAS--In a surprising move, Panasonic announced just one updated HD camcorder product line at CES, its midrange consumer models. All three--the flash-based HDC-TM55 and HDC-SD60 and the hard disk-based HDC-HS60--have wider angle (35.7mm equivalent), longer 25X zoom lenses than their predecessors had, plus touch screens and wind filters. This is surprising not only because of the dearth of announcements, but because most competitors have incorporated backside-illuminated CMOS sensors into their 2010 products for better low light recording.
The TM55 has 8GB of built-in memory, but the SD60 has none; all now support SDXC. The HS60 has a 120GB hard drive in addition to the card slot. There's also the usual tweaks, such as the addition of face recognition and improvements to image stabilization. Panasonic hasn't announced pricing or availability.
Sony's top-of-the-line HDR-XR550V.
(Credit: Sony Electronics)LAS VEGAS--At last year's CES, Sony broke new ground with its prosumer camcorders. This year, the company offers modest upgrades across the product lines.
Like many competitors, Sony's rolling out its Exmor-R back-illuminated CMOS further down the product line. Plus, the company incorporates the image stabilization improvements and other features it rolled out with the CX520V in July. One potential new crowd-pleaser is a Golf Shot mode, which continually buffers video until it hears the club hit the ball, then saves the previous 1.5-seconds-worth of frames, plus 0.5 second after, for a single 22 frame sequence.
As before, the "V" models incorporate GPS, though with no improvements to make it more useful. The top-of-the-line 550 versions have a high-resolution 3.5-inch LCD. And, of course--yay!--all the models now support SDHC in addition to Memory Stick Duo.
The $1,400 HDR-XR550V drops to 10X zoom from 12X on the XR520V, gets a larger LCD, and ups the maximum bit rate to 24 megabits ... Read the full post at CNET's CES 2010 blog
Sony liberates its cameras and camcorders from Memory Stick Duo.
(Credit: Sony Electronics)It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine: Sony is not only branding its own line of SD cards, but also most of its point-and-shoot cameras and camcorders for 2010 actually have combo slots that can take SD cards in addition to Sony's hopefully-dying-soon Memory Stick Duo cards. The company's dSLRs have long been SD- and CompactFlash-friendly.
For the purposes of digital cameras and camcorders, Memory Stick has always been more expensive yet slower than its SD competitors. Though we long ago resigned ourselves to the knowledge that buying Sony meant buying Memory Stick, we still get e-mails from readers complaining that we fail to highlight the need for Memory Stick Duo as a "con" in our reviews.
And that's just the tip of the dying-media iceberg. Long in a similar position, Olympus has also added SD support to its snapshot cameras, which have been hobbled by proprietary xD-Picture Cards. While Sony ... Read the full post at CNET's CES 2010 blog
LAS VEGAS--Moving slightly upscale from its mainstream HD consumer camcorders, Samsung introduces a new flash-based S series characterized by larger 1/2.3-inch, 10-megapixel backside-illuminated sensors, and two of the new models incorporate Wi-Fi/DLNA connectivity for wirelessly uploading video and streaming directly to your TV, a potentially useful feature.
The S series is comprised of three models at as-yet unspecified prices. The lowest-end HMX-S10 has no built-in memory and lacks the wireless support; the HMX-S15 includes 32GB and the HMX-S16 has 64GB. (Samsung makes a big deal of saying it uses SSD, but flash by any other name will still record as sweet. In other words, it's meaningless to everyone but Samsung, which makes SSD.)
All have relatively large 3.5-inch touch-screen LCDs, 15x zoom optically stabilized lenses and record H.264-compressed MPEG-4 files: they do 1080p as well as 60fps 720p. Samsung has also decided to brand its image-processing engine for these models--"Victoria"--but it's not clear how it's different ... Read the full post at CNET's CES 2010 blog
LAS VEGAS--The highlight of Samsung's 2010 midrange HD camcorder announcement is the adoption of backside-illuminated CMOS sensors, one of the big trends in camcorders this year. The company bumps its H100 series up to H200 with four completely overhauled models at as-yet unspecified prices.
The members of the lineup, all of which have SDHC slots, differ only by internal memory capacity: HMX-H200 (none), HMX-203 (8GB), HMX-H204 (16GB), and HMX-H205 (32GB). (Samsung makes a big deal of saying it uses SSD, but flash by any other name will still record as sweet. In other words, it's meaningless to everyone but Samsung, which makes SSD.) While the new sensor technology offers potential for better low-light video and the sensor itself is also a tiny bit larger, the the higher resolution may offset potential quality gains: it's a 1/4.1-inch 3.3-megapixel version compared with the older 1/4.5-inch 2.2-megapixel one.
The lens also goes from a 10x zoom to 20x zoom, starting at a relatively wide ... Read the full post at CNET's CES 2010 blog
The Kodak PlaySport Zx3 is due out in April for $149.99.
(Credit: Kodak)Kodak has done very well with its Zi8 pocket camcorder, which features 1080p video capture and electronic image stabilization. Now the company is bringing those same features to a rugged, waterproof pocket camcorder called the PlaySport Zx3.
Available in April, the Zx3 will carry a retail price of $149.99 but will ship with virtually no memory (you have to supply an SD card). Like the Zi8, you'll be able capture "HD" video in 1080p or 720p, shoot 5-megapixel still images, and easily share your creations on YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook. However, what's interesting about the PlaySport is that you can take this thing underwater (up to 10 feet). While we've seen other pocket camcorders that do this, the Zx3 is arguably the first mainstream model to offer this feature.
Here's a snapshot of the PlaySport's specs.
- Waterproof up to 10 ft. (3 meters)
- Full 1080p HD video
- Electronic image stabilization
- 2-inch color display
- Capture 5-megapixel
'Tis the season to record a lot of video. And take it from me: you want a camcorder you can slip into a pocket between memorable moments, not some big, bulky thing that requires a neck strap.
Flip Video's popular pocket cams start at around $200, but right now you can grab the Creative Vado HD (with accessories) for $99.99 shipped.
I'll be the first to admit this isn't the best deal I've ever posted on an HD camcorder, but it's one of the best I've seen lately. Plus, the bundled accessories--a mesh case and a USB power adapter--would cost you an extra $45 if purchased separately.
The Vado itself can record up to two hours of 720p-quality video--twice as much as the Flip MinoHD. That's because it sports 8GB of onboard storage compared with the Mino's 4GB. Alas, there's no media slot for adding memory cards.
CNET gave the Vado HD mostly high marks, citing its strengths as solid video quality, removable battery, easy operation, and bundled HDMI cable for watching videos on an HDTV. Of course, as with most pocket camcorders, this one offers fast and easy USB-powered uploading to YouTube.
Also, the Vado features a relatively spacious 2-inch LCD. The MinoHD's 1.5-inch screen seems painfully tiny by comparison (trust me--I've got one).
I have no idea how long Creative's stock will last. But I do know the Vado bundle is also available in red--much purtier, IMHO.
Backup deal: You know what would go great with that $78 Blu-ray player I mentioned the other day? The Optoma HD20 1080p projector for $999.99 shipped. (Add it to your cart to get that price, and use Google Checkout to knock another $5 off.) It has dual HDMI inputs, so you can plug in your Blu-ray player and your game console! Drooooool.
On Sale Now: $99.95 - $103.59
View the latest prices for Creative Vado HD
On Sale Now: $976.79 - $1,199.00
View the latest prices for Optoma HD20
Ah, long live the year-end listicle. What did we ever read (or write) in December before the media came up with the idea of compiling and disseminating lists of the best, most popular, strangest and stupidest?
Here's my contribution to the tradition for 2009--oh wait, there's also my Holiday Gift Guide offering--a potpourri of camcorder popularity as based on how many people read reviews of a product since last New Year's. As you might guess, the results are rather heavily skewed toward older products, products on our top lists, and products that we've reviewed, but I've tried to provide some context and combine new and old versions of products to try to minimize redundancy.
A pre-holiday quickie 'cast on time-lapsing judgment, no news is no news, and a cacophony of contest cuteness.
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EPISODE 69
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The Motorsports HD Hero comes packaged with a bunch of bits for flexible placement.
(Credit: GoPro cameras)On paper, the GoPro HD Hero is hitting on all cylinders. It's rugged, it's compact, and--to top it all off--it shoots in five modes of video (four of which are HD) and high-resolution still photography. But then you go to use it and things start to run a little less smoothly.
The HD Hero's weakest point lies with its thumbnail-size LCD screen and pinhead-size icons. With only two buttons and a cryptic menu system, the Hero's options screen probably shouldn't be tackled without an instruction manual close at hand. How else are you supposed to know what odd abbreviations such as "ALL" or "DAT" are supposed to mean? (Here's a hint: one of them formats your media, the other is a more benign function.)
Fortunately, the GoPro HD Hero fixes a number of issues that we had with the previous Hero camera system (such as the finicky AAA battery pack), but does the good outweigh the bad? Check out our full review to find out.
