Video Cameras

Anyone inspired the often hilarious adventures of Antoine de Maximy but looking for a somewhat lighter and less cumbersome video camera rig may be interested in the launch of a new version of the Looxcie always-on wearable cam. Version 2 is 20 percent lighter than the original wearable, always on video cam and has twice as much onboard storage. Companion apps now offer a choice of capture quality options and the new Looxcie 2 comes with four adjustable earbuds and two earloops. Read More

ZionEyez are a Seattle based company bringing to market a Ray-Ban-like pair of sunglasses equipped with a micro video camera that delivers first person video recording in 720p. There's 8GB of flash memory inside the frame, a micro USB charging and data transfer port and the Eyesz can also connect to a computer via Bluetooth. If only Don Johnson had a pair of these ... those Miami drug lords would have had no chance. Read More

It's been a good while since Olympus added to its LS-series of portable audio recorders, but it looks like it was worth the wait. In a company first, the forthcoming release of the LS-20M will see the marriage of full 1080p high definition video capture with 24-bit/96kHz Linear PCM stereo audio. Unlike many pocket-camcorders and similar products like the Zoom Q3, the design sees the autofocus lens positioned between two microphones on the top of the unit at a right angle to the 2-inch color screen on the front. Read More

Medigus has developed the world's smallest video camera at just 0.039-inches (0.99 mm) in diameter. The Israeli company's second-gen model (a 0.047-inch diameter camera was unveiled in 2009) has a dedicated 0.66x0.66 mm CMOS sensor that captures images at 45K resolution and no, it's not destined for use in tiny mobile phones or covert surveillance devices, instead the camera is designed for medical endoscopic procedures in hard to reach regions of the human anatomy. Read More

Despite the killing off of the FLIP there's still some movement left in the Pocket HD camcorder market. Samsung's latest release is a shock, water and dust-proof rugged unit capable of recording full high definition video and snap 5.5 megapixel stills. The bright lens and LCD screen are coated to help keep videos blur-free and the sensitivity is twice that of previous models thanks to the inclusion of backside-illumination technology. Read More

In one of the most astonishing bits of news we’ve seen in a long time, the iconic Flip video camera was officially pronounced dead earlier this week. Cisco, which paid US$590 million for the business from Pure Digital just two years ago, has decided to kill the entire company. In an unprecedented scenario, the Flip has been killed outright while holding United States video camera sales market leadership (marginally ahead of Sony and roughly double the share of third-placed Kodak). Why Cisco didn’t sell the brand rather than kill it is probably more to do with showing analysts it is serious about remedying its ailments, though if I were a shareholder, I’d be asking why some effort wasn’t made to extract value from a market leading brand and retaining the jobs of hundreds of people. The good news is that the Flip 4GB Ultra HD is already down to US$130, which makes it a worthwhile buy if your phone doesn’t yet shoot 1080p video. Read More

HDSLR cameras are taking off in a big way as cheap video rigs with quality interchangeable glass – but the more you get into SLR filmmaking, the more obstacles you find yourself working around. One of those obstacles is that you can't stick your eye to a viewfinder – you have to watch an LCD screen. And in harsh sunlight or wide aperture conditions, that makes it very difficult to get a tight focus on the action. And that's exactly why Zacuto's Z-Finder EVF was built; it's an alternative plug-in LCD screen for your DSLR that can be mounted on a frame or held separate to the camera. It's got higher resolution than your camera's screen, it's got a rubber eyepiece to block out ambient light, and a bunch of other pro video-friendly features that help move your DSLR closer to a proper video camera form factor. Read More

Tiny video cameras mounted on the end of long thin fiber optic cables, commonly known as endoscopes, have proven invaluable to doctors and researchers wishing to peer inside the human body. Endoscopes can be rather pricey, however, and like anything else that gets put inside peoples’ bodies, need to be sanitized after each use. A newly-developed type of endoscope is claimed to address those drawbacks by being so inexpensive to produce that it can be thrown away after each use. Not only that, but it also features what is likely the world’s smallest complete video camera, which is just one cubic millimeter in size. Read More

Watch any of those Caught on Tape!-type shows, and you’ll know just how valuable an in-car “black box” camera can be. Not only does it provide a visual record of who was at fault in an accident, but you can also use it to record any other questionable activity that takes place in front of your car. While most of the “sensational” footage comes from cameras in police cars, civilian versions such as the CarCam Voyager and the envisionCAM are available for us regular folk. You can go ahead and pay US$100 to $575 for one of those ... or you can shell out 99 cents for the iCar Black Box iPhone app. Read More