Recreation Guy

There are a lot of video cameras to choose from. You can spend a lot…or a little. You can spend hours going over the specs of all of them figuring out what features you want and don’t want. The other day I was looking at a $4000 Sony Prosumer video camera, and after I stopped drooling I started thinking about why I wanted to buy a new camera. What was I going to use it for?

Bye, Bye Camera

You see, not long ago I had a a nice compact DV camera. It wasn’t the best, but I had spent around $600 on it. Well, it was stolen after I had put it down and turned my attention to something else. After I had my temper-tantrum I decided the time had finally come to get a new camera.

What Would I Use The Video Camera For?

The thing is, I didn’t use that video camera much at all. I wanted to shoot more video but it was kind of a pain to carry the camera around, even though it was fairly small (not like the camera my grandparents had back in the day that took a VHS tape…e-gad). So I decided I wanted something that I could keep with me in my pocket and still had a decent picture. The picture and audio didn’t have to be the best since I was only going to put the video up on the web. It also wasn’t going to be used to film a marketing video for camp (it’s best to hire professionals for that kind of project). Oh, and I didn’t want to spend another $600.

Compact and Inexpensive

So my options were limited. After talking with a few friends and reading some reviews I narrowed my search down to the Flip MinoHD and the Kodak Zi6 HD. They were both very compact and inexpensive. The one thing I didn’t like was that neither of them had image stabilization. So the picture is kind of shaky, but having something small and inexpensive was more important to me than image stabilization. So now I wanted to know how the picture and audio of the two compared. Then I found this video on Vimeo…

Flip Mino HD vs Kodak Zi6 on Vimeo.

And the Winner is…

So I decided to go with the Kodak Zi6 HD. Besides having better video and audio (at least as far as I could tell) it’s less expensive, uses flash memory cards (so I can film more footage depending on the size of the card), and comes with rechargeable AA batteries. That way if I am out and about and the batteries die, I can just slip in a couple of AAs and keep filming. The Flip MinoHD has an internal battery so you have to plug it in to a USB port to recharge it. That doesn’t help me if I’m at an amusement park or bowling with the kids.

Why You Should Have a Pocket Video Camera

• It’s under $200.
• You can keep it in your pocket, ready for action any time.
• It’s easy to upload the video and do some basic editing on your computer.
• It’s very easy to use.

So grab yourself one and have one or two available for staff to use. Let the kids/campers make mini-movies with them. Use them to post a daily video for parents to watch on your camp blog. Take it on a field trip or to the ropes course. Hold it as you go down the zipline. Attach it to the handlebars of a mountain bike. Use your imagination and go have some fun for cryin’-out-loud.