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.

Unboxed: Kodak Zi8 Camcorder

Kodak’s pocket 1080p camcorder looks like a sweet competitor to the Flip cameras. I use a Sanyo Xacti VPC CG10. This is not a pocket camcorder, but it is compact enough. I believe the Sanyo has better quality, but I will save that for another video.

We are planning to do a few videos for comparisons between different cameras and modes that it does to give people a better understanding on what they should buy.

If you look at the video above you will see that Kodak impresses us with what they include in the box. Having a HDMI cable is heaven since most cameras just include the basic composite cables for a standard definition TV, while most people own a HDTV with support of HDMI.

Overall my first impressions of the device are that it is lightweight, feels a bit ‘plasticy’ but I like the feel of it. It feels like a thicker BlackBerry. Stay tuned for more coverage on this pocket HD camcorder. Please go visit our YouTube channel for more technology content.