camcorders

You might remember hearing about the RCA Small Wonder EZ201 just a few months ago at CES 2007. It's the follow-up to RCA's inexpensive, extremely simple digital camcorder, the Small Wonder EZ101. It's finally shipped--just in time for Mother's Day.

The $130 camcorder's predecessor fared poorly in our tests, scoring a disappointing 5.6. Thankfully, this new version makes several improvements over that version, including twice as much on-board memory (capable of recording 60 minutes of video compared to the EZ101's 30 minutes), an SD card memory slot, and a flip-out 1.5-inch LCD … Read more

I wanted this to be a hard-disk-based model so much that I almost announced it as one. But no, Canon's HR10 records HD video to miniDVD discs using the AVCHD format introduced by Panasonic and Sony. Canon is the first outside of the format's two proponents to implement it, however.

As you can tell from the photo, in order to make it as compact as possible, Canon pretty much had to make it close to the size and shape of an optical disc, so it's a bit on the funny-looking side. The internals are nothing to snicker … Read more

It's no secret that Crave is fond of things to put on your head, but many of the items we've come across are fragile in nature. (Tin-foil hats can be so finicky sometimes.) So the survivalist in us appreciates any attempts to create headgear for extreme conditions.

The "Veecam" from U.K.-based Persides fits that bill, a battle-ready digital video camera designed for use in sports or even military applications. How ready, you say? It's waterproof up to 50 meters (164 feet) and can withstand temperatures from minus-4 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, while being … Read more

And then there were four: quadruplet Sony HD camcorders, that is. When they ship on June 27, the $1,200 Memory Stick Duo-based Handycam HDR-CX7 and $1,400 hard-disk-based HDR-SR7 will join the tape-based HDR-HC7 and DVD-based HDR-UX7 to provide consumers with an almost bewildering array of HD options.

They differ primarily by storage media. All use the same 1/2.9-inch, 3.2-megapixel ClearVid CMOS sensor, recording video at 2.3-megapixel (HD) or 1.7-megapixel (SD) resolution before downsampling and encoding to 1080i HD (1,920x540) or SD (720x480), respectively. They also shoot photos at native 2.3-megapixel (16:… Read more

From the seller's site: "Sony's HDRHC5 HD DV Camcorder makes it easy to capture perfect Digital video, every time. Capture high definition (HD) and standard definition (SD) video to a MiniDV cassette. Record every detail of every moment, with the 10x optical/80x Digital zoom and Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* lens. As you record video, you'll also take still pictures at the same time with the 4.0 megapixel still image feature. Snap spectacular 2.3 megapixel photos while filming in dual record mode. The HDR-HC5 even slows down the audio."

Read the seller's … Read more

This week, the National Association of Broadcasters converges in Las Vegas for its annual convention, a show we here at CNET usually ignore; after all, while the typical CNET reader may have a room dedicated to the worship of the moving image, we don't expect to see a TV studio in an adjacent shrine. And no, producing YouTube videos doesn't count. However, interesting prosumer news floats down every now and then, and Sony's announcement of its flash-memory-based XDCAM EX camcorder landed gently on my keyboard this morning, via Engadget.

In fact, I usually ignore Sony's XDCAM … Read more

Sanyo has announced two new compact digital camcorders, the Xacti CG6 and the Xacti CG65. Like the rest of Sanyo's Xacti cameras, the CG6 and CG65 are portable, catch-all devices that can shoot both video and still photos onto SD cards.

The CG6 and CG65 are nearly identical: both shoot VGA (640x480) video at 30 frames per second; both have 6-megapixel sensors that can interpolate images up to 10 megapixels (not the best strategy for getting big prints, but it technically works); both have flip-out, pivoting 2.5-inch LCD screens; and both have 5x optical zooms. For all intents … Read more

Budget staple Mustek just announced two new jack-of-all-trades digital camcorders. The Mustek DV700TZ and DV530TV are a pair of pocket-sized, budget-priced camcorders that record video to SD cards. The blocky, robotic-looking DV700TZ can capture both wide screen VGA (720x480) video at 30 frames per second or 7-megapixel still images. The curvier, scaled-down DV530TZ has a 5-megapixel sensor and can capture only standard VGA (640 480) video at 30 frames per second. Both gadgets sport 3X optical zooms, swiveling LCD screens, and can function as a camcorder, a digital camera, a voice recorder, a Webcam, and an MP3 player.

Unfortunately, catchall … Read more

Panasonic is releasing what it calls the "world's smallest SD camcorder," but there's just one problem: We have no idea how big it is. Pocket-lint broke the news of the SDR-10, which has a 2.7-inch widescreen LCD and a 10x zoom. It also has features that could be useful when dealing with any small piece of equipment that could easily slip from one's hand: water-resistance and shock absorption up to 1.2 meters, or nearly 4 feet. But no actual dimensions of the camera were provided, so Panasonic's size claims remain something of … Read more