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Disposable Camcorder
shamowfski writes "CVS Corp on Monday began selling a disposable digital camcorder. The $29.99 pocket-sized camcorder was developed by Pure Digital Technologies Inc., a San Francisco-based start-up company. The camcorder weighs under 5 ounces and holds 20 minutes of digital video and sound. It features a 1.4 inch color playback screen and an ability to delete video, and it saves video on a memory chip instead of tapes. Can't wait till they hack this one."
http://cexx.org/dakota/pv2.htm
Might... get one myself..
As pointed out yesterday on engadget, these cameras have been out a few months -- it's just that the press release came out recently. Yep, it's from the same company that made the hacked still camera.
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The community working on hacking this new camcorder is located at:http://camerahacks.10.forumer.com/viewforum.ph
These cameras seem to have an external program memory, so it might not be too hard to hack. The forum above also has dissection pictures.
BTW, last summer PureDigital came out with a still camera called the PV2. Unlike the one that was previously mentioned on slashdot, this new one has an LCD post-view screen and it's based on a completely different chipset. It has also been hacked. I figured out the authentication mechanism on this and most of the communications. Others got the camera to work with standard drivers and are figuring out the proprietary raw format. I wrote a disassembler and have published commentary on the built-in firmware, but you'll need a camera & firmware file to make sense of it. The firmware is protected by a checksum, but that was easy to find and correct.
main pv2 forums
PV2 FAQ from the forum - a great starting place
my FAQ's
unofficial devkit for writing your own programs.
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
Take your video, return the camera to CVS, and they burn it onto a DVD for you. Erase the card, and sell(rent) it to you (or someone else) again. Just like the 'one use' still cameras.
This WILL be hacked to allow home retrieval of the video. Wonder what the resolution is?
Article's not too clear. My guess is that you can't get to the card directly, and they use some sort of super-secret connector to actually get the data from the camera to their computer at CVS, then they burn the video to a DVD for you.
It should be illegal to say that freedom of speech should be limited.
Remember the disposable cell phone?
Any sufficiently advanced libertarian utopia is indistinguishable from government.
This article refers to a disposable camcorder, not camera.
Oh, really?
Did your recruiting officer tell you that?
Lucrative gig, soldiering, eh?
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
Technically, the camera's batteries and its packaging are disposable, but everything else is recycled, so it's more a "recyclable" than a "disposable" unit.
Damn it, you beat me to it. Seriously, I paid $900 for a major brand camcorder and a year and 3 months later it's kaput - repair price exceeds replacement price. The problem - a manufacturing defect in the processor. The warranty - 1 year. That's the last time I buy expensive crap from Sony.
(Note: I have no financial or emotional connection with the company that makes the products mentioned below. I just want to point out that for a little more you can have to keep a far more flexible product.)
_ wide.JPG
h oop.asf (3.3 mb ASF video)
This week, Target is selling for $97 the non-disposable equivalent of this gimmick, the Aiptek "IS-DV."
The IS stands for "Image Stabilization."
It records to internal memory or a SD stick. A 256 mb stick holds about 60 minutes of MPEG4 video.
It is also a still camera (5 mp, but with a non-adjustable lens), voice recorder, and MP3 player. It comes with a tripod, A/V cable, headphones, and USB cable.
I've had an earlier version, the DV4500, for about six months. It's a great little toy. I bought it so I'd have a cheap camera I wouldn't be afraid to carry around everywhere. The image quality is pretty good:
http://home.comcast.net/~stefan_jones/valley_view
The video quality is "OK." Note that this film was done under less than optimal lighting conditions:
http://home.comcast.net/~stefan_jones/kira_jumps_
I bought a IS-DV so I can give the DV4500 to a relative.
Stefan
Breakfree CLP. Wonderful gun cleaning/lubricant. AR15 rifles such as they're using over there jam all the time due to the high amounts of dust and the high precision of those specific rifles. They have to clean them constantly.
Breakfree CLP is a non-oily lubricant, so it won't inherrently collect dust while still lubricating and protecting, helping prevent various malfunctions.
Considering the time they spend cleaning their guns (I would hope quite a lot, so they continue to fire for them when needed - I know the Marines do), and how long it takes to properly break down an AR15 ("M4" in military parlance, I guess), it would be greatly appreciated, I'm sure.
You could try sending them stuff like Guns & Ammo - give the magazine a call, they might be able to give you a discount rate (or simply ship a couple extras for you to send over). They're good Americans, generally speaking.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
It would be better called a "one time use" video camera: like the cameras, both film and digital of the same name.
I worked at a major camera-store chain (rhymes with 'zits') a while back, right when they first came out with one time use digital cameras. We were actively discouraged from calling them "disposable," because in reality they were anything but. In order for the company to make a profit, each one had to go out and back at least twice, I think. Probably that number went down as they made more of them, but at least at the beginning they were definitely being 'rented' out for below actual value / manufacturing cost. When they came back to the store, the photos got downloaded (through a proprietary port/interface) and then the camera body was sent back to be refurbished and repackaged.
I assume these video cameras are the same way. It's a natural extension of the technology. I just wonder what the video quality is like.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
A SureFire 6P. Add on 120 lumen bulb. The waterproof holder for a spare and six batteries. A tactical speed holster. Two boxes of twelve batteries. Shock proof bezel if weapon mounting is wanted.
http://www.surefire.com/
If you have the bux an aftermarket mount and squeeze switch for it so it can be put on an M16.
I need to find my supplier for this.
A good knife from http://www.sharppointythings.com/ the Battle Bitch is sweet but a simple Cold Steel smachet or tanto is nice. It's not an online store but an email will get a quote.
Any small card game, you'd be surprised how well Steve Jackson's games go over. They are small and portable and fun.
http://www.sjgames.com/
There is another site for really cheap cool card games but I've lost it.
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty