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Mini Movie Makers
Smaller and cheaper than ever, the latest camcorders take the hassle out of recording home videos
By: Les Shu; Photographs: Levi Brown
Published: February 2009 [ Updated: Feb 13, 2009 - 3:22:54 PM ]
Filming your family's history with a digital camcorder on Christmas mornings, during birthday parties, and at soccer games never feels like a chore. But afterward, all those hours of unedited footage seem as ominous as rain clouds when they're hanging over your precious weekends, waiting for you to polish them into gems.
Enter a new category of iPhone-size digital camcorders such as the best-of-category Kodak Zi6 ($180, kodak.com). Designed more for capturing snippets to share online than for creating long, well-curated films to watch on a television, these devices capture better footage than any camera phone, increasingly shoot HD-quality video, and are much easier to work with than a digital camera or camcorder. Most don't have more than a few buttons and are so simple to operate, you'll probably never need to read the manual.
The Flip Mino takes simplicity to its effective extreme with just three buttons: Play, Delete, and Record ($180, theflip.com). Its screen seems unfortunately minuscule alongside the Zi6 though, and HD technology--which is standard on the Kodak--costs an extra $50. Both designs place the screen and lens on opposite sides of the device, limiting your ability to take self-portraits.
