Camcorders

The ContourHD and ContourGPS sports cameras are compact, rugged, and (most importantly) inexpensive action cameras that are great for recording epic videos of extreme sports. We use a few of them (along with the competing GoPro HD Hero cam) to record segments for our Car Tech videos and we see them all of the time at motorsports events suctioned to the hoods and roofs of high-powered race cars and auto enthusiasts' daily drivers. Not to rest on its laurels, Contour is adding an upper tier to its line of sports cameras with the Contour+, a prosumer level HD camera that … Read more

The camera market might be dominated by giants such as Canon and Panasonic, but a small start-up founded by a surfer in Half Moon Bay, Calif., has persuaded venture capitalists to invest.

GoPro, maker of the diminutive Hero line of cameras geared to record action video of snowboarding, base jumping, mountain biking, scuba diving, and car racing, announced the funding today. The "substantial strategic investment" of undisclosed magnitude is from Riverwood Capital, Steamboat Ventures, Sageview Capital, Walden International, and U.S. Venture Partners.

The company has found a niche for its products--including a range of accessories such as … Read more

In my more cynical moments, I'm convinced that camera and camcorder manufacturers conspire to make buying decisions confusing by overwhelming us with unnecessary choice. Example: Canon currently lists 20 HD camcorders on its site, eight of which are 2011 models, 11 from 2010, and one is older. All are still available, and the overlap in prices--not to mention the $50 price increments--is enough to make your head spin.

Today's befuddling trio of camcorders in the $650 to $800 (list) range are the Canon Vixia HF M400, M40, and M41. They're pretty much the same, except the M400 … Read more

Back on April 19, I suggested that people hold off on buying a Flip minicamcorder after Cisco decided to close the business. Cisco's public relations gave me a wishy-washy answer about support for current and future users, saying it would have a transition plan "in the coming weeks" instead of, you know, immediately. Thankfully, weeks turned into days, and Cisco now has a plan in place for the future of Flip.

Sadly, there is still no plan to sell the business to another manufacturer. But, you're safe to buy up the models currently available with full … Read more

You might think that pocket video cameras are doomed because of smartphones and the iPhone, but there are some things those devices just can't do. The Samsung HMX-W200, for example, can survive a 6.5-foot drop, a swim down to 10 feet, and it's dustproof. It joins competitors from Kodak and Panasonic, among others, that are rugged, not just waterproof.

The W200 is essentially the same as the company's P100 pocket video camera, but rugged. It has a backside-illuminated 5-megapixel CMOS sensor for better low-light recording; records in full HD (1,920x1,080/30p) in MPEG-4 AVC/… Read more

Editors' note (April 26, 2011): Since this post, Cisco has announced it will continue to support Flip devices within the terms of the company's one-year warranty. Technical support for both the video cameras and the FlipShare software and sharing services will be available until December 31, 2013. Sharing services will also end on this date. As long as they're still available on the market, you may want to consider buying one and if not, here are some alternatives.

When Cisco closed its Flip business last week, I was treating it just like any other product that gets discontinued … Read more

Like most people who follow tech, I didn't see Cisco's killing of the Flip pocket video camera coming. Not right now, anyway. While smartphone and iPhone owners continue to say it was a dying category, that's simply not true. It might not be growing as rapidly as it was a couple years ago, but it's not declining.

However, Flip was the leader in the category, and for good reason; it never strayed far from the original idea of quickly and easily capturing high-quality video for sharing online straight from the device. Many of the early copycat … Read more

First, congrats to Kyle of Astoria, N.Y., for winning last week's Seagate Slim drive. Now onto this week, which has an extreme theme.

For those who are into shooting action sports--or just like the idea of a wearable camcorder--we're serving up the ContourGPS, a tube-style HD video camera that's helmet-mountable. When we reviewed an earlier version of it a couple of years ago, we liked its design and thought it offered great performance for a helmet cam (other mounts are also offered) but was a little lacking in the features department.

Well, since then Contour has … Read more

I remember a time not too long ago when my pockets were stuffed with my cell phone, a digital camera, and my MP3 player. Oh, and the glove box of my car housed a GPS device. No longer. Thanks to the functionality of a smartphone, I've been able to carry just one gadget for all of my chit-chatting, photo-taking, music-playing, and navigational needs. Thank goodness, because those pockets were getting bulky and it was getting expensive to continually update each device.

The accompanying video below is all about those gadgets that you no longer need to invest in--for example, … Read more