Flash Camcorders

Inexpensive

If this sounds good to you then click the link below to buy one through Amazon:
" Flip Video Camcorder

This is under $150. It's inexpensive enough to given as a child's toy. I have two of these. I have an older model that only took 30 minutes of 320x240 video and I have this new model that takes 60 minutes of 640x480 video. I LOVE them!

I have duct-taped these to my motorcycle and paraglider helmet. I've flowns one on a kite. Give them to kids and don't worry if they don't come back.

The video is 640x480, so the quality is actually better than NTSC or PAL video. Of course, it's not HD, but for $130 I was astounded. For $130 you have no right to complain! This thing is built well. It takes great video even in fairly low light.

It's has a little LCD screen on the back (no view finder). It's simple to use. You turn it on and push a button to record or stop. It has a little flip out USB jack. You plug it in to your computer and download the videos. It has some kind of software for Windows and Mac, but I just download the videos like it was any ordinary storage device. It works with Linux just fine.

The camera makes no sound when it's running, so the audio recording quality is actually better than some mid-range disk or tape camcorders I have tried.

This is one of those devices that inspires love. I look for new things I can do with this camera. It's small and fits in my jacket pocket. I've used this to take video notes of computer systems that I work on.

I'm just crazy about this thing. It's like candy.

Mid Range

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fproduct%2FB000MAORM0%2Fsr%3Fie%3DUTF8%26qid%3D1184521556%26sr%3D8-1%26pf%5Frd%5Fm%3DATVPDKIKX0DER%26pf%5Frd%5Fs%3Dcenter-41%26pf%5Frd%5Fr%3D0BWP3Q2N22GVMD8ERW03%26pf%5Frd%5Ft%3D201%26pf%5Frd%5Fp%3D250314001%26pf%5Frd%5Fi%3DB000MANQJA&tag=wwwnoahorg-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325">Samsung with external lens</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wwwnoahorg-20&l=ur2&o=1" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

This isn't a perfect camera, but for the price it's nearly there. I'd buy one again. Maybe when they come out with a 1080P version in the next couple years.

This comes with TWO camera lenses. One is built into the camera body, like an ordinary camcorder. The second one plugs into the body like a microphone. I taped this to the top of my Paragliding helmet. There is a single button on the cord that turns the camera on and starts or pauses the recording. This is a good thing. It's also supposedly water resistant. I didn't test this, but it looks like the external lense is water proof. I'm not so sure about the camera body. I keep that in my jacket in a plastic baggy anyways. The video is for sure better than the Flip Video, but not astoundingly better (maybe it's more fair to say that the Flip Video takes astounding video for the price). This Samsung takes 720P video, so it's better than NTSC amd PAL and the progressive mode makes it good for sports. For no good reason, 720i mode is the default. You have to manually set 720p mode. You also have to get decent SD memory for this. If you buy cheap, slow memory the camera will complain. I wish they also had the feature to take still pictures, but they didn't add this feature. Instead, for some dumb reason, they give you a feature to play back MP3 audio like it was an iPod. OK, so this was designed by product managers and focus groups. Why do I need my camera to play music instead of take pictures?

Don't get me wrong, for a sports camera, this is probably the best out there in this price range. The video quality is very good. The camera doesn't blink a bit when I came in for a hard landing in my paraglider or when I hit a bump on my motorcycle. That is the beauty of solid-state, flash based camcorders.

High End

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FPanasonic-HDC-SD1-Definition-Camcorder-Stabilized%2Fdp%2FB000LO92EK%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Delectronics%26qid%3D1184522794%26sr%3D1-1&tag=wwwnoahorg-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325">Panasonic Flash Camcorder</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wwwnoahorg-20&l=ur2&o=1" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

This isn't my style. When I was seriously looking at camcorders for making paragliding videos I did some research into the high-end for flash-based cameras. This camera looked about the best, but in the end I decided I didn't want to spend this much money on a camera I might destroy in a bad landing. These cameras are the future to be sure, but the future isn't here yet. Most of the High Definition camcorders are only 720P. I don't consider this to be true HD. That's only a little better than the $130 Flip Video camcorder! You need 1080 to be true HD. This camcorder features a 3 CCD image sensor and 1080i recording. I have not found any flash camcorders that do 1080p. 1080i is the same resolution (1080 pixels high), but the frame rate is interleved. In other words, it is not as good for caputing smooth, fast action motion, which is really what I needed for Paragliding and Motorcycling. 1080i is probably fine for weddings and the like. I'll pass until 1080p is available.