Bye bye camcorders

[Dos_Box]

I'm currently testing one of these:

 

http://www.sanyo-dsc.com/english/products/vpc_ca6/images/top_image01.jpg

 

It is totally amazing. MPEG 4 movies (640x480 @ 30fps) and a 6 mega pixel camera. It takes SD cards (upto 4GB) and is USB. The image quality is fantastic and it is the most tiny wonderful device I've ever used. If your schools are after new cameras\camcorders then get these. At £200 they are an absolute steal!

[john]

Sounds Ace, can you suggest where to get them from ?

[Dos_Box]

We got ours from Oliis (http://www.oliis.com/solutions/). Most online sites selling these won't deal with schools and some add quite a bt of premium on there. TBH, If I was replacing my camera in the next few months I would choose this. It is simply fantastic. It will fit into your pocket so easily that you would forget it is there!

[Ric_]

Did you figure out how to get it to stand up?

[plexer]

Just to add that these are available from probrand i.e theitindex.

 

I think the price they quoted me was £185 plus delivery but I'll check tomorrow and correct if need be.

 

Ben

[eean]

I bought a class set of 11 of the older model (xcti-c1e) last year. (Got them on amazon for £180. RM were selling them for £400!).

My 6 year olds have no problem using them. The lense cap is a bit tight, the wrist strap gets caught in the docking station, the flash is too bright and they don't focus that well. But apart from that (and those things aren't really that major) they are good litte cameras. The sound is particularly good.

One potentially major problem with the c1e is the connector between the docking station looks very fragile. I got around this by making a digital camera storage (like laptop storage). Each camera has it's own lunch box (very hard to find one exactly the right size!). Everything is in that (docking station, usb, power adaptor) already pluged in a cable tied down. The kids can plug this box into the computer or, when they are finished, they plug it into a double height drawer. This drawer slides into a lockable cupboard which has a power strip in and it charges them all up! - It's quite neat, if I say so myself! If anyone is interested in doing something similar, I'll post some photos and details.

 

Also, it takes movies in quicktime, which is no good for movie maker. I made a little program so that when you plug the camera in, it brings up an extra option on the autoplay menu. This calls another little program that copies them into the user area and converts it to avi. Again, if you are interested I can post the MSI (which also contains the required DivX codecs).

 

They are used loads right across our school - definitely a good value buy.

[plexer]

eean: sounds excellent please share your wares with us all.

 

Ben

[eean]

Will take some pics on monday.

[eean]

Some pictures of my digital camera storage, upload and charging system. Works pretty well.

[eean]

Hit max of 3 attachments, so here's the last one.

 

If you need details just ask. Also have a little program that assists the uploading.

[SuppliesSaviour]

if you think this is good, check out the genius g shot,

 

Product Description: Genius G-Shot DV610 - camcorder

Product Type: Camcorder with digital player / voice recorder

Dimensions (WxDxH): 3 cm x 7 cm x 10 cm

Weight: 0.1 kg

Webcam Capability: Yes

Flash Memory: 16 MB

Sensor Resolution: 3.0 Mpix

Lens Aperture: F/3.0

Focus Adjustment: Focus free

Digital Zoom: 8 x

Camera Flash: Built-in flash

Display: LCD display - 2" - colour

Supported Battery: 1 x Li-ion rechargeable battery ( included )

 

For more professional function, the brand-new package of G-Shot DV610 has added two functions - motion stabilization and date printing.

 

 

dont think its weather proof but its pretty nice eh?

 

I reckon you will find these for around £180

[webman]

Apparently the G-Shot can only support SD cards upto 512MB.

[Dos_Box]

I had a play with one of these last week.....

 

http://www.sanyo-dsc.com/english/products/vpc_hd1a/images/top_image01.jpg

 

I'm in love, HD straight to SD card with an absolutely fantastic image quality. £500 price tag, but damm I want one.

[ChrisC]

that's a whole lotta product placement eh?

 

Does look nice, shame its not 1080p/i and only 720, but for a camera thats good!

 

Not a bad price tag for that sort of spec of camera though!

 

Chris