We recently picked up a new toy, pictured at right. When Robin got her new phone, with the built-in flash video camera feature, we found ourselves taking quite a bit more video. It’s very convenient to just pull it out and start filming, and it’s very easy to get the resultant video out into a form where you can do something with it.
Robin has also wanted for some time to do some video therapy for Katherine. She learns very well based on what she sees on video, so Robin wanted to get the therapists and our family on an instructional video they could use to do some of this type of teaching. If we had gone with our original tape-based camera we’d be sunk; it would be very difficult to get the video off the tape, convert it, and get it edited.
Enter the new Handycam. We knew we wanted a flash-based camera (no tapes or mini-DVDs), and since we already had what amounts to a flip camera built into Robin’s phone, we figured we go for something with good optics and image stabilization. We are extremely happy with the new camera. It’s very light, very easy to work with, holds charge for a long time, and takes great-looking video. We’ve probably taken more video in the week we’ve had this camera than we used to take in a year with the old one, and it’s incredibly easy to get at the video.
There’s no way we’d ever go back to a tape-based camera — once you use a camera that stores directly to RAM and links via USB to your computer, you’ll never look back!