Is that a Projector in your Camcorder (Or are you Happy to See Me?)

How many times have you been asked this lately? Well, if you are the proud owner of the BenQ DV S11 then you may get this a lot. But if not, then you may seriously want to look into one of these wonderful little pocket camcorders for yourself. Measuring up to be a size quite similar to your household cell phone and the all-famous Flip Mino HD camcorders, this little guy can shoot 1080p video right out of the box. It is fully touchscreen and provides a great LCD for viewing content for later. But one of the biggest tricks up it’s sleeve is the fact that all within this incredibly tiny package of a camcorder they managed to fit a tiny little projector. I actually hesitated to say the work “tiny” because when you turn it on it’s anything but tiny. This built-in projector can display up to 50” of all your prerecorded glory. The days of huddling around a single individual in a hallway or at the kitchen table are over. Now just sit down on the couch with a few of the relatives and whip out your camcorder after a full day of shooting. Dim the lights, find a big, flat, and preferably whitish wall and enjoy the show. You won’t even need to get cables and wiring to hook it up to a TV. Any flat surface will do, as long as it is semi-dark. This camcorder is also hooked up to take awesome looking photographs. You have the options of 5 or 16 MP and the photography is great looking but it still really is much more of a camcorder device due to it’s screen. 

So looking at this you may be wondering where could this guy go wrong. Well, the fact that it is all relying on a touch screen and no physical buttons that the screen is going to get just a bit smudgier than usual. Also the camera has no real zoom with that wonderful 1080p lens taking up most of the room along side that projector. You do have a 100x Digital Zoom for video and a 60x for photos but do not be fooled. That is simply a way to get uneducated consumers excited about a Zoom that is like a telescope and will look as clear as one too. What it really does is just stretches out the image 100 times and calls it a zoom. So you lose a good bit of quality from a 5x digital but being it’s 100 it probably wouldn’t be worth it to get your kids soccer game from all the way inside the car. And other then just a few minor setbacks as in people who are used to an autofocus and manual controls can go somewhere else, the camera looks to be holding itself in a very great place right now. The camera is currently available in Hong Kong for $2,399 HKD which comes down to about $300 American. The ETA for one of these showing up in the states is unknown to a lot of people. If you can find a way to get one on the web then you will definitely have to send us the link so we can all get one too. Like I said, you would be a proud owner with one of these.

Canon EOS 500D Review

The Canon EOS 500D (also known as the T1i in the USA) is a midrange Digital SLR from Canon. I picked mine up for just $1200 AUD online, and boy for that price it's an awsome camera for both semi-pro and amateur photographers like myself.

Features: The 500D offers great features like full HD 1080p video recording at 20fps or (if you want some more fps) HD 720p at 30fps, other features include; a DIGIC IV processor for ultra clear pictures, an ISO range of 100 to 12,800(expanded), a 15.1 Megapixel image sensor and a 3" 640x480 lcd. The camera also has a 9-point autofocus system, live view and a 1 second boot up time.

Connectivity: The 500D has a fair amount of connections including/l mini-HDMI, A/V-out, mini-USB, 2.5mm jack (for a remote) and an SD card slot that supports SD and SDHC. An 8 GB card will store about 1400 pictures in JPEG, 380 pictures in RAW or 50 minutes of 720p video (the battery lasts about 1:15 recording video).

If you are on a budget but still want to have SLR features, then the 500D is for you. It's a great camera and I have had no problems with it in the 4 months I have had mine.