Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I gave it 5 stars not because it's a great camera, but because it's great & handy for the price.
My new pocket Digital video camera (DVD quality) I just got for Father's day (a week early) I take everywhere. The camera has headphone jacks & a built in speaker. It doubles as an mp3 player & is a great little still camera too. It can also play the role as an external disk drive to hold or transfer any type of files.
The camera is about the size of a pack of U.S. cigarettes which easily fits in any pocket. It encodes video into MPEG4 compression format, the same format used in HDTV broadcasts. So with a 512MB card (not included) if I don't have any stills or music loaded in it, I get 90 minutes of DVD quality recording time on it. The catch is it's only 10fps at DVD resolution. But still looks very good. It has several lower resolutions too, including VHS resolution at 30fps for smoother motion. But at that resolution it still looks better than standard VHS tape. No tape noise, grain, jitter, saturation, sync or color dot problems. It has no moving parts except for the buttons & the swing out screen. Everything is recorded digitally onto a memory chip.
Of course most computers are much higher resolution than most TVs. So the slightest flaws or artifacts will be more noticable on the computer than on most TVs. Burn them onto VCD, SVCD, or DVD to play them on your TV. If your graphics card has s-video output or better, just plug that into your TV.
On the lowest video resolution, also 30fps, it looks like those small low bandwidth online streaming videos you can watch on the net, not good at all but usable. If you're planning on sending video on limited bandwidth or file sizes the lowest resolution will be handy.
On that low a setting it'll record for hours or until the batteries die, making it great as a hidden spycam or nanny cam. It also is a net cam too.
It takes only 2 AA batteries so you won't have to keep running to the charger with expensive short-lived battery packs. I'm using Sony 2600mha newer rechargables I already owned. They lasted till the memory was full with a readout of 80% of battery life still left. So I have no experience on how long ordinary cheap AA batteries would last. The specs say 60 minutes with ordinary AA alkalines. I threw in a pair of 2000mah rechargables I got cheap in a 20 pack from Amazon. It recorded 90 minutes of video with plenty of power left over. When plugged into the USB port, it'll use the USB power, not the batteries, averaging a current draw of about 300ma.
The included video editing software is better than software that I already had that cost almost as much as the camera... & it's easier to use. It will work for editing any video, not just the ones made by the camera.
The camera & software are specifically designed for XP. But because without the software, if you plug it into the USB port, any computer will recognize it as an external drive. You can tranfer your files off or onto the camera as easy as you can move files from 1 disk, folder, or drive to another. Doing it that way, without the included software you can watch or burn your videos & pix on any computer, even a mac or linux machine. I tried it, it does work. Your computer will need an MPEG4 player to play the video. It will list video as AVI files, but if you ever had MPEG4 files before, it usually lists them as AVIs.
If you have the memory card, the computer will recognize it as 2 drives, the card & the internal memory.
Oh, it also includes jacks to plug it in to your TV, VCR, external burner, or stereo, & play your images, movies, or music without a computer.
Digital cameras need a lot more light than their analog tape or film sisters... this one too. It has a flash for still pictures, which works well, but no built in light for video. For indoors video you'll need all your ordinary house lights turned on their highest setting, or be near a good window in the daytime. Outdoors, there was plenty of light even on the cloudiest days even after sunset at dusk. Shortly after that, there won't be enough light.
It also comes with a mini pocket tripod, cheap but useful.
I experimented by duct taping a fairly bright 7-LED flashlight to it to video in a dark nightclub. I still had to get within 3 feet of my subject to get a fairly lit image. In the future I may build an infrared LED illuminator for it & video in Black & white in the dark... yes it has a B&W setting.
No optical zoom, digital zoom only, so any more than a tad of digital zoom,
& your images will look like the lowest resolution settings.
Bottom line, this is not a great camera. It's a cheapie. But for ease, portablity, flexibility, you can't beat it for the price... very handy, you can take it anywhere, & I never leave home without it.
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Product Description:
The Pocket DV4500 is a multi-functional DV camera designed for capturing previous moments anytime, anywhere. It's equipped with a maximum resolution of 4 Mega-Pixels and a1.5" color LCD screen.Record video inMPEG-4 VHS quality with sound.On top of all this, it's a voice recorder,mp3 player, andweb cam. This product comes with 16mb of internal memory, and has a built-in SD card slot that can hold up to 512MB (Card not included). It ships with a tripod/stand, usb cable, av output cable, camera bag, and headset. Requires Microsoft Windows 98SE/ME/2000 /XP;Direct X8.0 or above, 128MB of Ram, 64MB Video Card, 4x Cd-Rom.
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