Pocket video camera

Today social networking applications and web sites (Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, etc.) very often are the first steps for teenagers to discover computing and also sharing information with their friends and family.

In the past, it was very complex and sometimes cumbersome to capture and share videos. It is true that the cell phones were able to capture some pictures and video, however the quality and quantity and ease of use were not at the "rendez-vous" for most of the users.

Also, at the same time the price of Flash Memory dropped during the last month and year.

With that in mind, a new category of "digital gizmos" showed up, the pocket video camera.

The idea is to capture movies and to share them on the Internet easily.

This new category is not established yet and many companies have been releasing products at the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009.

Some products :

1- Kodak Zi6 Pocket Video Camera (www.kodak.com)

2- Creative Vado HD Video Camera (www.creative.com)

Key specs to take a look at :

1- Size of the LCD screen

2- Quality of the video (number of frames per second and resolution)

3- Memory (Internal and also External capabilities)

4- Battery life (A plus will be to be able to use either AA batteries or rechargeable)

5- The size and also the ease of use and transfer (Some of them have a USB connector)

6- Some of them enable you to capture still pictures

A typical Pocket video camera will have :

1- A LCD screen of at least 2"

2- Able to capture HD (H.264) and standard video

3- Have at least 128MB of internal memory and a SD Card extension

4- Ni-MH rechargeable battery

5- Dimensions 2.5 x 4.5 x 0.9 in and a weight of 3.8 oz with a USB connector built-in