{ Pure Digital Point-and-Shoot Camcorder: Review }

Published by Shai | Filed under Multimedia Resources, Reviews (Books/Products)

One of my current favourite creative gadgets is the Pure Digital PSV-351 30 Minute Point-and-Shoot Camcorder. It’s inexpensive, handy, and very simple to use. Even if you’re not very techie, you can still make cool videos with this nice little gadget.

Some other features include:

• It’s called a point-and-shoot camcorder for a reason. You really do just need to turn the videocam on, point it to your subject/s, and start recording.
• The built-in microphone functions quite well.
• It has a zoom function, although it’s limited. But then, it’s probably best to stay away from zoom functions anyway.
• You can instantly playback videos. If you don’t like the clip, just delete it.
• It runs on just 2 AA batteries.
• The camcorder can connect to your PC (also works on a Mac, I believe) through a built-in flip-up USB arm. The built-in software also has a viewer enables you to watch and save the videos on your computer.
• The software also has a movie maker capability so you can do “auto movies”.
• A couple of other perks from the software: Email sharing and upload to web (via Grouper)
• The pack includes a cable that connects the video camcorder to the TV. And, I was really surprised at how good the quality of the TV playback.
• If you’re in North America (I’m not!), I believe you can take your camcorder to a Pure Digital-certified retail location and get a DVD made for you.

One feature - the built-in memory (512 MB for 30 minutes of footage; 1 Gig for 60 minutes of footage) - is both good and bad. It’s good because you never need to buy tapes any more. Hopefully, this will encourage regular downloading and saving of your video footage. Of course, the bad bit is that it’s not extendable. So, if you want to take more videos, you can’t until you unload the memory. So, it’s not great if you think you’ll take long video clips on a regular basis.

Other not-so-good stuff include:

• The video output is only 640×480, so it can be too pixelated when shown on a bigger screen. But, for basic home videos and videos to show on the web, this shouldn’t be an issue.
• When using the zoom, you can actually hear some clicking on the footage. Another reason to stay away from the zoom button.
• The built-in software that makes movies is quite inflexible. It can only do an automatic randomised “movie”.
• Since the lens doesn’t come with a cap, I get worried about the possibility of it getting damaged.
• If you want to create, edit and burn DVDs yourself, you still need to learn at least a basic multimedia software. But, it shouldn’t be too difficult with something like Windows Movie Maker and/or Quicktime Pro.

Overall Rating: Considering price and function, I’d say 9 out of 10.

If you want to get in to video making without buying expensive equipment, then Pure Digital PSV-351 30 Minute Point-and-Shoot Camcorder is a gadget that comes highly recommended.