We love these YouTube friendly camcorders which don’t have a lot of advanced features that full fledged camcorders have but certainly offer great value for money with their simple point and shoot interface. Sony’s first attempt in this category, the NSC-GC1 was a disaster but they are back with MHS-PM1 Webbie HD which is just like Flip Video MinoHD. If you are willing to spend a bit more, you can get MHS-CM1 which has a 5x zoom lens. There no shortage of options on the PM1 when it comes to video shooting. If you have plenty of memory space, go for the high quality 1080p resolution at 30 fps. You can also shoot at 720p resolution and finally if you are on low memory, go for the VGA resolution. The label on the camcorder says ‘HD’ but is miles behind the full fledged HD camcorders which offer a plethora of features and also costs a lot more. This device was however, never made to compete with those high end devices, they are made to shoot  [...]

Flip have been known to make good compact camcorders, we were fans of MinoHD which was released last year because it didn’t confuse us with too many functions and was a great solution if you wanted to put the videos on sites like YouTube. This time, they are back with two new models Ultra HD which records at 720p video with resolution of 1280X720 and the Ultra which records at 640X480 VGA resolution. The latter is cheapest among the two in terms of price. Flip UltraHD comes with AA sized rechargeable batteries which can be charged from the unit itself by connecting it to the USB. You can also put standard AA sized alkaline batteries in to the camcorder. We really liked the options and the fact that the rechargeable batteries could be charged within the camcorder. However, there is a catch; the rechargeable and alkaline batteries are heavier as compared to standard lithium ion batteries. Ultra HD weighs 6.1 ounces as compared to the MinoHD which  [...]

Mega zoom cameras are a step above point and shoot cameras and one step below the SLRs. The latter are for professional photographers or camera enthusiasts where as the point and shoot devices are for newbies who just don’t care much about the quality, all they want is to keep a collection of pictures of their friends. When it comes to mega zoom cameras the Kodak EasyShare Z915 is got a great feature set including fully automatic and fully manual shooting options. But it is still kept simple, user friendly and has a fast performance. Kodak EasyShare Z915 lets you get extremely close to your subjects owing to the 10x zoom lens. On the top of the camera, there is zoom ring and shutter release, buttons for timer/drive, macro and flash, power button (which is tiny) and mode dial. Behind the device there is a small LCD, which has been deliberately trimmed down in size to cut costs and there are buttons for Play, Info, Menu and Delete. There is also Kodak’s  [...]

It is not often that you see a rugged cameras in the market and it is partly because people don’t need it much, they know how to take care of their gadgets and partly because the camera needs a lot of protection around it which makes the end product costly. There are also standard cameras which have water proof sold separately but they are so costly that it costs as much as the camera itself. TS1 is Panasonics first attempt at making a rugged compact device and we must say that it is very well done. It can take shocks up to 5 feet, waterproofing is up to 10 feet and it is dust proof too. Apart from this, it has some features that you rarely find in such compact cameras like wide angle lens, long battery life and HD movie recording. The camera has a 28mm-equivalent wide-angle lens and is protected by glass which can be cleaned easily. There is a shutter release button, spring based slider button for the 4.6x optical zoom and a power button. The  [...]

Sony Handycam DCR-SR47 is a down to earth simple to use camcorder but the simplicity comes at a cost of dearth of advanced shooting options. The camcorder’s highlights are megazoom lens, large storage capacity and small size. It is one of the rare units in the camcorder family which has a small touch screen LCD and is still easy to use. However, when it comes to video quality, DCR-SR47 is not among the best, the standard definition videos are pretty mediocre and it won’t be a memorable experience when you view the videos on a large size HDTV. On the bright side, this camcorder caters to the section of people who don’t care much about video quality and is priced reasonably. The gadget is available in options of red, blue or black and it is pretty small so it will comfortably fit into a coat pocket. The controls on the device are typical of a camcorder; it has a zoom rocker and button for shutter release on the top for photo mode. There is  [...]

Ultra compact cameras have their own ups and downs. On the positive side, they are easy to operate, are lightweight, small, inexpensive and the best choice if you want to shoot pictures to put it on social networking websites. However they have a lot of shutter lag, the photo quality is quite poor. We found the camera to be exceptionally slow in shutter lag, in fact this is the slowest camera that we have ever seen. If your subjects are impatient and move away from the camera within a second of the capture, you might get damaged photos. Prints look good as long as you stay inside the 4x6 size. Most of the buttons on the camera are housed on the right of the display like LCD backlight boost/delete button, menu key, four way navigation button with Function/OK key in the middle, playback and shooting mode keys, info/display button and a tiny zoom rocker. You get a shooting mode specific menu when you press the Function/OK button but we were disappointed  [...]

We don’t know if you would still buy a hard disk based camcorder when there are flash based models around. Flash models are a bit costly however they provide larger battery life and also weigh less because of the absence of moving parts. Hard disks on the other end consume more power and are quite heavy. The exterior of the device is quite similar to Panasonics flash based TM 300 but we found there were some changes done to the model like a zoom switch which is quite small and hence difficult to use. We loved the zoom button on the TM 300 but this switch disappointed us. The accessory shoe is located at the top instead of putting it on the sides. We think the video quality of this camcorder is the best that Panasonic has ever made and this model brings the quality on par with camcorder giants like Sony and Canon. The improved video and image quality is due to the presence of 3 CMOS chips which have high resolution capabilities and hence deliver  [...]

We have seen quite a lot of SD camcorders; they are still around even if they have inferior quality than HD camcorders. It is made for people who are looking for cheaper alternatives, who don’t care about quality and just want to capture no matter what. Our eyes popped out when we saw the 70x zoom lens label on the body of the camcorder. It ridiculously zooms in extremely close to distant subjects. The camcorder has optical image stabilization but there is no way you can keep the videos from shaking when you zoom the lens to the fullest. Using a tripod is the only way out. The controls on the device are typical of camcorder and nothing has been placed that will make you uncomfortable. The mode/power dial at the top of the device lets you toggle through the record movie mode, play back or photograph mode. Underneath the LCD is the menu button and the five way joystick button. If you hate going to the menu to change the options, there are buttons  [...]

Very rarely do you find that the new version of a particular product has no significant improvements over the previous one. When a manufacturer brings in a new version we automatically assume that it is better than the previous one. Same thing has happened here with the Nikon D300s which is the successor to Nikon 300. We didn’t find any significant improvements in terms of quality in this revamped product however we are not complaining much since the quality of the D300 was pretty good. Nikon has thrown in some new features here and there and has again given us the same model in the 300s. The camera is heavier than most dSLRs but the addition of weight seems good when shooting as you can hold the camera comfortably. The viewfinder on the camera is one of the best you will ever see in the SLR class. It has bright, big and gives 100% coverage and an optional display for grid and for traditional controls of shooting there is usable streamlined layout.  [...]

Canon was one of the most reliable names in the market when it came to photo capturing market. However, with new manufacturers entering the market and offering better technology, Canon has now become a second choice in cameras. Canon is now desperate to bring back those glorious days and hence it brings G11 to the market. There is still four-way switch for settings like manual focus, macro and flash and drive mode. Just like previous G9 and G7, the G10 has a four way navigation button along plus Function/Set button and it has scroll wheel close to it. The wheel is easy to use but we ended up hitting something else occasionally while using the button. On the right of the camera there is a dial to adjust the ISO sensitivity and the dial on the left gives you exposure compensation adjustment. We found the dials on the camera quite easy to use even than the physical buttons because the latter needs some navigation in to the sub-menu bars. There is  [...]