While the global economy is slowly dusting itself off from the Great Recession, camcorder makers are still pricing their products for a frugal, debt-ravaged consumer. New manufacturers, such as HP and Toshiba, have hit the market with an aggressive pricing strategy to bring Full HD camcorders to consumers at price points below $400, while the success of the Flip pocket-style camcorder has tilted the market toward flash memory-based products.
That’s not to say there’s no innovation at the higher end of the market. Sony, for instance, is breaking new ground with an interchangeable-lens camcorder aimed at the enthusiast buyer: the NEX-VG10 Here’s a look at some recent camcorder introductions.
DXG unveiled an ultra-low-cost HD model dubbed QuickShots. The $79 camcorder boasts 1,280x720p video recording at 30 frames per second (fps), a 2.4-inch flip-out LCD display, 32MB of internal flash memory with an SDHC card slot, and 4x digital zoom. The pistol-grip unit is also capable of adding four color effects to videos as well as snap 16 megapixel still photos (via interpolation). The QuickShots will be offered in a choice of silver, orange, purple, blue and red.
The company also added a model to its higher end A series. The A85V ($319) is a Full HD camcorder with a 12x optical zoom lens and 3.0-inch touch-screen display. It can snap 10MP still photos and offers simultaneous video and still photo capture. An HDMI cable is included. dxgusa.com
Pure Digital, now owned by Cisco, updated its highly popular Flip camcorder with the new Flip SlideHD. The model breaks sharply with past Flip designs by offering a touch-screen LCD that, as the name suggests, slides open. The new 3.0-inch display lets users slide (that word again) their finger across a track bar to quickly scroll through stored videos. Other than the new design, the Flip SlideHD carries much of the same components as last year’s Flip UltraHD, including the image sensor and processor capable of delivering 1,280x720p video recording and 2x digital zoom. The “designable” Slide does boost the internal memory to 16GB, enough to store four hours worth of HD footage. $279. theflip.com or cisco.com
HP entered the camcorder market with three budget-friendly HD camcorders. The top-of-the-line is the $199 HP V5560u, which records 1,920x1,080 video in the computer-friendly H.264 format. It records direct to SDHC memory cards and features a 5x optical zoom lens, 3.0-inch touch-screen LCD and 5 megapixel photo capture. It bundles an HDMI cable and offers a motion detection mode that begins recording when an object moves in the frame.
The V5061u ($169) bumps down the video resolution to 1,440x1,080 and trades an optical zoom in favor of 4x digital zoom. It boasts a pair of SD card slots for expanded memory capacity and also includes a 3.0-inch touch screen and HDMI cable. Finally, the V1020h is a pocket-style camcorder with 1,280x720 video recording, a 2x digital zoom lens, SDHC card slot and a 2.5-inch LCD. It retails for $109. hp.com
JVC bulked up its entry-level HD camcorder offering with the $499 GZ-HM340. It offers 16GB of internal flash memory, a 20x optical zoom lens, time-lapse recording, face detection and a 2.7-inch LCD display with the company’s “laser touch” interface. It also offers an SDHC card slot with relay recording, which automatically switches from internal memory to a memory card when the former hits capacity. jvc.com
Panasonic recently announced its flagship models—the HDC-HS700 and HDC-TM700. Both models feature 1,920x1,080 HD recording in the AVCHD format, a Leica 12x optical zoom lens with image stabilization, a 3.0-inch touch-screen LCD, 12MP still photo capture and “intelligent auto” mode that enables the camcorders to automatically select a video mode based on the environment. The camcorders also feature face detection with face recognition, which allows users to program faces into the camcorder so they become the object of focusing the next time they appear in the frame. The camcorders also offer smile shot, which automatically snaps a still photo during video recording whenever a subject smiles.
The HS700, for $1,399, uses a 240GB hard disk drive for storage while the $999 TM700 offers 32GB of internal flash memory. panasonic.com
Canon just announced the Vixia HF M32 dual flash memory camcorder with a touch-panel LCD, 64GB of internal memory to record 24 hours of HD video, and an SD memory card slot compatible with SDXC cards from 32GB to 2TB. It is also compatible with Eye-Fi SD wireless memory cards.
Packed in its compact, lightweight body is Canon’s proprietary imaging technologies: a Canon HD video lens; HD CMOS sensor; and a Digic DV III image processor. It also features smart auto, which automatically analyzes brightness, color, distance and movement and selects the best setting; touch & track, so users can select a subject on the LCD that will be recognized and tracked; HD-to-SD downconversion to convert recorded HD video to standard-def files while preserving the original HD video; and advanced video snapshot, which allows the capture of two-, four- or eight-sec clips while recording or during playback. When the primary recording media is full, the M32 will automatically switch from one memory source to the other. $999.99. usa.canon.com
Samsung updated its U-series of pocket camcorders with the HMX-U20, one of the first pocket-style camcorders to offer an optical zoom lens (3x). It also offers 1,920x1,080 Full HD resolution, a 2.0-inch display, still photo capture, one-touch upload plus a built-in USB plug and HDMI output. Its 7º body shape is designed to take the strain out of shooting. It comes in black, blue, red and silver. $199. samsung.com
Sony introduced a new innovation in the consumer/advanced amateur market with an interchangeable-lens camcorder dubbed the NEX-VG10. Due in September for $1,999, the VG10 is an HD camcorder featuring a 14.2MP CMOS sensor, a 3.0-inch LCD display plus an electronic viewfinder, a dual slot for Memory Stick and SD media, a cold and hot shoe, as well as manual controls for shutter, iris, gain and white balance. It will use the same E-mount lenses designed for Sony’s NEX series of mirror-less digital still cameras.
In the $1,999 package will be an 18–200mm lens boasting optical image stabilization and an aperture of f/3.5–6.3. The lens will also be sold separately for $799. There will be additional lenses and accessories for the VG10, including a 16mm lens (the SEL16F28) for $249, an 18–55mm (SEL1855) for $299, and an A-mount adapter ($199) that will give the VG10 access to the larger collection of lenses used by Sony Alpha digital SLRs. Finally, Sony will offer an ultra-wide converter (VCL-ECU1, $129) and a fisheye converter (VCL0ECF1, $149) for the new VG10. sony.com
Toshiba jumped into the U.S. camcorder market this year with a trio of Camileo-branded Full HD models under $400. Aimed at the budget-sensitive shopper, all of the camcorders include an HDMI cable in the box. Toshiba’s lineup is lead by the X100 ($399) featuring a 10 megapixel CMOS image sensor (and 10MP still photo capture), a 10x optical zoom lens, 4GB of internal flash memory, a 3.0-inch touch-screen LCD, an LED video light, YouTube upload button and an SD/SDHC slot.
The Camileo H30 also features a 10 megapixel sensor for video and stills but drops the optical zoom to 5x and zooming is only available while filming in 720p resolution. It records direct to SDHC memory cards and features a 3.0-inch LCD, an LED light and YouTube button. It retails for $249. At the entry level, the $179 vertical form factor S20 is an ultra lightweight pocket-style camcorder with a 3.0-inch flip-out LCD, 5MP CMOS sensor, 4x digital zoom and direct to SDHC card recording. toshiba.com