Switched On: The camcorder's disposable, but the memories aren't
It's small, white and plays video, but it costs only $30. One look at the
Pure Digital one-time use (that's
marketspeak for "disposable") camcorder and you'll feel dumbfounded as to why the camcorder industry has been so slow
to embrace flash memory the way that digital cameras and digital audio players have. Sure, JVC has its tiny hard
disk-based Everios, and Panasonic and Sony push
their respective flash card format agendas with products such as the SV-AV100 and
Cybershot M1. For the mainstream of digital camcorders,
though, the transition underway is from MiniDV tapes to mini-DVDs. These provide the easiest path to living room
playback since the days of the original VHS camcorders, which were employed by junkyard operators to crush sedans back
in the day.
In contrast, the Pure Digital camcorder is perfectly pocketable. Operating it is a joy; its interface is a case study
in ease of use, lacking so much as a menu button for options. It's far less expensive than even an analog camcorder and
eliminates worries about having a charged batteries or film around. Saving only twenty minutes of video may not seem
like a lot, but it proved more than adequate for capturing highlights from a week-long vacation.
At roughly $50 for a finished DVD (the only way to get output from the camcorder), the camcorder costs a lot more
than a disposable camera plus film development, but Pure Digital has innovated far beyond what you get from most
disposable cameras. The DVD that you get back from CVS Pure Digitals exclusive partner for now not only plays back
on TVs and PCs, but boasts one of the best solutions available for sharing video online. Simply pick your clips, choose
your email addresses, and the Pure Digital servers will offer your video in an appropriate format for the viewer. If
youre sending to a dial-up Mac, it will serve up low-bitrate QuickTime. If youre sending to a broadband Windows PC,
it will send high-bitrate WMV. Why cant other camcorder companies make sharing video this seamless?
Pure Digital claims it can offer the camcorder at such low cost because the servers that it sells to its retail
partners perform sophisticated video processing. In essence, theyve taken the intelligence out of capture device and
put it in the processing device. While the camcorders processed video may indeed beat what you get from a hacked Pure
Digital camcorder, though, there are critical limits to its magic.
Pop the DVD into your DVD player and youll be struck by a thick black border around the video as its low resolution
would look even worse scaled up to the full screen. On the PC, the full quality videos are convenient to save to your
PCs hard drive without any ripping software, but are akin in quality to what youd expect from a webcam.
Despite recent attempts from purveyors of Mickey and Mighty Mouse to convince us that low-resolution video is cool,
the Pure Digitals output compares poorly to what youll get out of the latest models of most digital cameras. This is
especially disappointing after the input process has been so fun as you feel as if youve been subjected to a
bait-and-switch. Despite the devices charm, I couldnt recommend it to anyone who cared about preserving any kind of
special event.
Still, the future of the Pure Digital camcorder is bright. As flash memory vendors adroitly follow Moores Law, the
disposable camcorders of the next year or two should be able to capture video at double the resolution and frame rate.
Pure Digital has set the standard for digital video convenience and ease of use, but ultimately a quality video
experience must include quality video.
Ross Rubin is director of industry analysis at NPD Techworld, a division of market research and analysis provider The NPD Group. Views expressed in Switched On, however, are his own. Feedback is welcome at fliptheswitch@gmail.com.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Alex @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM
It's also possible to make this thing into a re-usable camera as well. http://www.maushammer.com/systems/cvscamcorder/index.html has an in depth tutorial on how to DIY. I'm in the process of trying it myself.
Shippy @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM
The latest versions of this camera are not re-usable b/c Pure Digital fixed the bug that allowed access to the camera.
gosh_d @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM
the newest versions are still hackable. now, it just takes shorting between two points on the board (once) before the camera can be made to work with a PC. it's not hard (i followed the instructions on camerahacks.10.forumer.com/ and did it myself no problems).
Reese @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM
You have the wrong one pictured. Thats the camera, not the camcorder
morcheeba @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM
The native recording resolution is 320x240... but since the sensor is actually 640x480, people have gotten it to record ~5 minutes at the higher rate. Despite what PD says, the camera is quite sophisticated inside. It performs XviD/Divx encoding in -- as far as I can tell -- all software. It uses a full-blown embedded operating system, unlike PD's other cameras. Storage is a single 128MB flash chip.
When you remove the non-essential stuff, the camera can be made to weigh 21 grams (not including battery) -- so it's great for hobbyist projects.
I had a lot of fun hacking through the software (I wrote the disassembler, traced the code, and first unlocked it), but it appears they closed the wide-open hole they left in its security. I haven't followed it too much recently, but people are getting better at the shorted-wire method.
b0neman @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM
You can get similar cameras from www.aiptek.com for cheap cheap cheap. I've been using one of their DV cams as a cheap and easy travel camera. I don't care if it gets stolen because it's easily replaceable. Also, the feature set from even the barest of the models is much greater that what I see here and no hacking needed.
Richard @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM
The camera has 128 megs of memory onboard. I've hacked mine to do about 12-15 min of 640x480 of video. It works great, runs on regular batteries that I can pick up anywhere, offloads with the USB connector I soldered into it, and never leaves my messenger bag. I love it. It's honestly the best gadget (from a useability standpoint) I've bought in 2005. I even purchased a spare that's still in the pack just in case something happens to this one.