Shopping for cameras and camcorders Video

Shopping for cameras and camcorders Video Transcript

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>> Hey there, I'm Rich Demero [assumed spelling] with CNET TV. And you are tuned to the Holiday Gift Guide 2007, where today we're talking digital imaging. You know, cameras and camcorders. So many to choose from, how do you do it? Well senior editor, Lori Grunin [assumed spelling] is here to help us do just that. And we're gonna start with your first pick, the Cannon Power Shot SD850IS, a camera I had a chance to play with, and I really liked it. Why do you like it?

>> Because it's just a really good camera. It's one of the fastest in its class, it's got a very nice design. It's not quite ultra compact but it's small, still fits in a pocket. And it shoots really nice pictures.

>> Now I know you don't like to harp on megapixels cause they're all pretty much good at this point. How many is this though?

>> Eight megapixel.

>> Eight megapixels. Okay, and it's not gonna break the bank?

>> No, probably you can find it for between three and four hundred dollars. Not a cheap budget camera, but it's a nice gift. [ laughter ]

>> Okay, well that is a nice gift. All right, let's move on. This is a camcorder, the Sony Handy Cam HDRSR7. And Sony's, they had like the first camcorders out there, didn't they? Or one of the first?

>> Well you're going back a long, long ways. You're actually going back also to beta, and I don't think we want to get into history here.

>> No, we don't want to get into betamax versus VSH. But anyway.

>> But they do have a long history in camcorders, and they do, they do produce some of the best ones. The SR7 is an AVCHD camcorder, which means it uses a special format for recording HD video.

>> Oh, HD now.

>> Yes.

>> Now people are kind of little too clear on HD sometimes, don't they? Are families gonna see themselves?

>> It's not like watching you know, somebody, a movie star who's you know, on a big close-up on a huge HD television. So I don't think your family will really worry about their close-up too much with this camcorder. But still it shoots very nice video, definitely something you want to have around family gatherings. And because it records to a hard disc, you can record you know, seven to fifteen hours of video.

>> Wow, hard disc, so no more tapes.

>> No more tapes.

>> So what do you do? You just plug it into your computer and upload everything?

>> Yes. That gets to your hard disk. If you want to edit the video, gets a little more complicated, and really if you're thinking about doing heavy duty editing, or you know, you're giving this as a gift, you don't want to give it somebody who is a technological newbie. You really want to give it to somebody who likes to play around, and knows what they're doing, and if they want to edit the video can figure out what software they need, etcetera.

>> Probably a little conversion that needs to go on there. But otherwise, if you just want to watch it back on your television, you want to save these -

>> It has an HDMI connector, you plug it right to your HD TV and the video looks great.

>> Yeah, I'm assuming and it's wide screen, so that's nice.

>> Yes.

>> Because you have these nice new HD TVs everywhere.

>> Yep.

>> Okay. Flip Video Ultra, this is the opposite end of the spectrum. This is a tiny little camcorder -

>> The sublime to the ridiculous as it were.

>> Yeah, this one directly uploads to like YouTube, so the video quality's not that great, but it's fun and small.

>> Yeah, it has a USB connector right on it, so you flip it out and you plug it right into your system, copy the video, directly uploads to YouTube and AOL Video. Does record low resolution video, you know, it's not something that you're gonna want to save forever, it's really for stuff that's of the moment, video blogging, things like that.

>> Like baby's first steps will look like the first step on the moon with this video.

>> Yeah, you don't, it's not for preserving family moments. It's really, it's a really good choice for the college student, high school student in your life who likes to share their videos with friends. That's really, it's inexpensive, it's about a hundred and fifty dollars max, you know.

>> And simple to use.

>> Yep.

>> Very easy. And everyone's uploading video these days, so it's always good to have that ready to capture.

>> And that's what makes it a really nice gift.

>> All right, Olympus Stylus 790SW. Now I'm gonna, this is the SW, this is the one that's like shockproof, waterproof, you can freeze it. Why do you recommend this as a gift? Are we just all klutzes? [ laughter ]

>> No, but I'm sure you know, especially in the wintertime, you know, people who like to ski, they go on vacations, they like to snorkel. You can take the camera down to as deep as ten feet. It, you know, because it's freeze proof and shockproof, you can take it skiing without worry, I mean you may never find it again if you drop it in the snow, but at least if you run over it with your skis, it'll probably survive.

>> Right.

>> So it's not the best snapshot camera in the world, but it is one you know, pretty much the only one if you're an adventuresome sort who likes to -

>> Rugged.

>> Yep.

>> Why not? I mean these -

>> Yeah.

>> - electronics we have are so fragile, you don't want to sit on them, you don't want to throw them, you don't want to drop them. This one you can do it all and it'll still work.

>> Yep. And you'll still have pictures of your vacation.

>> Exactly. All right, Lori Grunin, thanks so much for your holiday picks.

>> No problem.

>> Happy holidays. [ background music ] And hopefully you'll find the right camera and camcorder in the aisle of your favorite electronics store. I'm Rich Demero with CNET TV, see you later. ^M00:04:48 [ music ]