Cameras

Reader Letter: A Good, Cheap Camcorder

Chris Gampat
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04/09/2010
2 Mins read

Last Updated on 04/09/2010 by

Former writer Vincent Pastore recently reached out for information on camcorders. If you’re searching for one for summer fun or just one in general, this may be a post to take a look at.

Here’s Vince’s letter:

“So….got anything on video cams? prof showed us a small HP vid cam that dbls as a still cam. 5MP, $130. Know of anything better and just as affordable?”

When I asked Vince to fill me in a bit more, he clarified that he wanted a video cam (not still cam) meant for doing web videos and with digital zoom.

Choices

First off, don’t choose any HP camcorders or still cameras. The reason for this is because our first family camera was an HP. It was littered with issues: terrible battery life, overheating, needing to use a dock to import photos to your computer, timeouts, the lens motors making weird noises while recording videos, etc. From this experience, we’ve chosen not to buy their cameras anymore. In fact, HP stopped making them for a while and suddenly came back into the game recently and hopefully they’ve solved this problem and battery life is more efficient as the company has pushed man green initiatives. Other HP products though are top-notch.

You’ve got a couple of choices from B&H that will do quite well for your needs. Here’s the rundown in the intended price range:

Samsung HMX-U10

1080p HD video with 10MP stills and direct to YouTube uploading.

Flip Video MinoHD

720p HD video with the ergonomics of most cell phones. One of the most popular choices out there. The mino has a small and thin form factor.

Flip Video UltraHD

A bit beefier than the Mino.

Sanyo Xacti VPC-CG10

Perhaps the best choice as far as ergonomics goes. 720p HD with optical zoom. That’s something rare for something in this price range.

Sony Bloggie

Meant specifically for bloggers. It also has a tilting lens and shoots full 1080p HD video.

Kodak Zx1

This has been very highly reviewed and has a nice, compact form factor as well.

If I had to choose one, it would be perhaps the Sanyo, Samsung or the Flip UltraHD.

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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.