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You've probably heard of them at some point. (Maybe because I'm a bit of a camera geek I'm more aware.) Early this decade they first came on /.'s radar with the Dakota disposable digital camera. A $10 ($20 if you wanted a preview LCD) camera that had to be returned to the store for processing (for additional cost.)

Shortly after they came out with a video version for $30 + processing. Both sound silly today, but back then digital cameras and camcorders were still fairly pricey. Both were quickly hacked and put to use in various projects ... to spare the innocent from further slashdotting, you can go googling for people who sent these into the upper atmosphere.

I'm a little bummed to see Flip getting dumped, (though I was surprised when I saw the Cisco logo when I bought mine.) Hope someone picks it up; it's a nice no-frills camera. Press the big red button to start, press again to stop, operation is simpler than even most point & shoot cameras ... I just handed my technonoob mom mine this morning when I heard the nieces were coming over, so I'll truly find out just how simple it is.

Just read about this yesterday, looks pretty cool.

Check out the description here on camcorderinfo:

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Linksys-Does- the-Spying-for-You.htm

Used to consider the Sony brand to be an indicator of superior quality and service. Then my DCR/HC-30 camcorder began to act strangely just at the end of the warranty period.

Turns out many people were having the same problem, with the suspected cause being a bad batch of components used in part of the production run. http://www.camcorderinfo.com/bbs/t107753.html

Sony support wanted over $200 to repair it.

I politely discussed the problem and the suspected systemic flaw with multiple levels of the support staff, requesting a free or at least discounted repair.

They politely told me to go get bent.

So, none of my personal dollars, or the fairly large IT budgets I manage, will ever go to Sony again.

Good move Sony; implode at your earliest convenience.

Of course it's too expensive... consider what it is;
"The PCMCIA card is actually an array of secure digital cards designed to work swiftly and in harmony to record large amounts of data"
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Panasonics-P2 -Format-Explained.htm

It's like a Flash RAID stuck in a PCMCIA housing. Except you pay a premium for it. Which they can charge as there's no real aternative (other than tapes and HDDs)

It is a neat camcorder, but before anyone buys one thinking their home movies are going to suddenly rival the video quality of network HDTV, know that the HDR-HC1's actual measured resolution is closer to 656x480: http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Sony-HCR-HC1- Review.htm To be fair this is better than any DV camcorder but set your expectations properly.

Camcorderinfo offers a fantastic interview with stormchasing videographer Douglas Kiesling.
Douglas has captured some incredible footage and images, all available at his website (link coralized so his server doesn't melt).
Other Katrina-related sites and info at FresHDV.

-MJ

JVC recently announced a new HDD-based digital camcorder, with storage of 20 or 30GB that is good for over 10 hours of video.

http://www.jvc.com/press/index.jsp?item=461&pageID =1
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/JVC-Introduce s-Four-Hard-Drive-Based-Everio-Camcorders.htm

Sony Announces Under $2,000 HDV HDR-HC1 High Def 1080i Camcorder:
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Sony-Announce s-Under-$2000-HDV-HDR-HC1-High-Def-1080i-Camcorder -.htm

Last year at NAB, Panasonic showed off its new 'P2' camera system which records on what seem to be PCMCIA cards. From what I remember, they planned to have 32 or 64 GB drives when they finally release the full product (September 2006 according to this article).

Panasonic SV-AV100 which I own and love, but you need to rename the .MOD files it creates to .MPG. Then they are pretty much ready to be burned to DVD. Cradle interface and software sucks (and not Mac compatible), but everyone simply uses a USB2.0 card reader.

JVC GZ-MC100 Slightly bigger than the SV-AV100 but it has better optics and supports large CF storage.

If you want to stick with tapes, Sony is coming out with a fairly small DCR-PC350 which still uses miniDV tapes.

Sony already made one.

For the gender filter, just don't point it at guys, duh!

• The new XDCAM disks include 23.3 GB of storage capacity as well as random access file selection. The disk itself is housed in a rugged plastic case that increases durability far beyond the normal DVD. Worthy of note is the differentiation between the blue-violet lasers used in the XDCAM and the Blu-ray laser technology found in consumer DVD products. XDCAM is one of the first commerical Blu-ray technology products to be announced. The XDCAM format makes use of a phase-change recording material to increase read/write speeds and also allows access by two simultaneous pickups.

What you're looking for is variously called "video mixer," "live switcher," and "video switcher."

These are hardware devices, although it can be done in software. At the bottom-end they start around $500-$1000 and work on up to however much yo' mamma's house is worth, and much more.

B+H Photo is one place to start looking.

From the first referenced story:

Although the HDR-FX1 is technically the first HDV camcorder, the HDV specification is based on a compression standard first introduced in a JVC camcorderHDV specification. That camcorder from JVC was the first consumer HD camcorder, the GR-HD1. The GR-HD1 also had a companion camcorder, the JY-HD10U, based on the same technology in JVC's professional line. The key distinction between the JVC HD camcorders and the Sony HDR-FX1 is their shooting mode. The JVC camcorders shot 720 lines of resolution at a rate of 30 progressive frames per second, while the Sony shoots 1080 lines of resolution at 60 interlaced frames per second. The two rates contain nearly identical amounts of information; however, one offers the benefits of progressive scan, and one a higher resolution picture. Both camcorders compress the information into an MPEG2 signal and save it on standard MiniDV tapes. Like the JVC, the HDR-FX1 is capable of recording a standard DV signal as well as an HDV signal.

Here is some additional info comparing Canon XL2 and Panasonic AG-DVX100 Comparison.

The light sensitivity of a camcorder is proportional to the size of the pixels. The bigger the pixels the more photons they collect, the more sensitive they are to light. The cost of a camcorder is also proportional to the size of the pixels. The bigger the pixels, the bigger the CCD, and the more expensive the CCD. In a 3-CCD camera the cost of the CCD is multiplied by 3, so increasing the size of the CCD greatly increases the cost of the camcorder.

So, choose two, best picture quality, good low light capability, low cost.

Here's a Review of the model I have.

You can probably find it for under $1000 if you look around, but remember on top of this you need to buy extras to get the best out of it.

Some important highlights are....
* 3CCD optics
* Leica Dicomar lense
* 30p non-interlace mode for that film look
* 3.5 inch video display
* Proper manual focus control
* Optical Image stabilisation
* 10x Zoom
* Firewire and USB2 connections
* Video Pass trhough - Direct video to DV

It's also a 3 megapixel still camera, it has a load of onboard effects which I never use. I bought this for the image quality and it's done me well.

Actually, Panasonic has two sub $1000 3 CCD camcorders out (or soon-to-be out): check this camcorderinfo.com article for details.

Sony Ericsson P810/P900:
Club Sony Ericsson

XDA II:
infosync.nl

Digital Video Cameras:

Sony DCR-IP1 Micro MV
DCR-IP1

Samsung Digital Gadget ITCAM9 / ITCAM7
ITCAM9

Mods this is a troll or terribly mis-informed post, please moderate accordingly.

1) The only Sony Handycam that supports "True" 16:9 is the DCR-PC330 and has yet to ship, check it out so if you actually have this camera it would be interesting to find out how you acquired it. The other camera Sony sells that is in the palm camera format and does true 16:9 (not shoulder mounted) is the PDX10 which is ~US$3000.
2) If you have a camera that does true 16:9 (which is a multi-thousand dollar camera) why are you using iMovie and not a pro-level suite? Why spend all that money on a camera and expect a bundled in software package to handle the capabilities of that camera? If you can afford that camera and a new Mac then I don't think the cost of Final Cut Express or even Final Cut Pro should break your bank.

I suggest you check out camcorderinfo.com because you're losing resolution when you shoot in your camera's pseudo-widescreen resolution. If you think the widescreen format makes your home movies look cooler at least do it in post so it doesn't look like your movies were shot on VHS.

apt-get install cinepaint dv-utils kino transcode vcr

Cinelerra
Video Capture and Editing under Linux
Consumer Video Editing in Linux
Linux Tutorial: Video, DVD, TV and Multimedia

Now let's all repeat after me...
Google is my friend.

Seriously, are you people just to lazy to type 3 frickin words into Google?

Some specs:

• Camcorder: MPEG4, 1.5 or 3 Mbps, VGA (640x480)
• Digital camera (JPEG, 640x480)
• MP3 player
• Audio recorder
• Data storage
• Webcam
• Lens: Optical 10x zoom
• CCD: 350K pixels
• LCD: 2.0" LCD, 211K pixels
• Storage: 1.5 GB HDD, Memory stick
• Recording time: 66min in "Super Fine" mode
• Interface: USB 2.0
• Size: 64mm x 33.5mm x 103mm (about the size of a thick calculator)
• Weight: 185g