Pure Digital's Point & Shoot Video Camera

If you're not sure you want to spend $30 for one of those single-use video cameras -- with the prospect of spending another $13 for a 20 minute DVD of your footage -- but still would like to do some video on the cheap, Pure Digital is releasing a standalone version of their video camera for a mere $130. The new Point & Shoot Video Camcorder bumps video storage to 30 minutes, and includes a USB connector to offload video to your PC using included software that can email clips to friends and relatives. There's also a TV connector cable to watch clips straight off the camera, or you can always drop off the camera to have a DVD made, the difference being that you get the camera back this time. Now available at Target, the camera still isn't going to do much more than a decent digital camera or phone can pull off these days, but it doesn't seem a bad option for the tech-phobic or in risky situations you wouldn't want to stick your $1000 camera into.

[TZK @ May 2nd 2006 9:08PM]

OR, you could just google "hacking the pure digital video camera" and do it all yourself quite easily. Cost me about $9.

[Joe Smith @ May 2nd 2006 9:12PM]

Hey, I had an idea like this for the iPod. What if the iPod had a camera, but there were lenses on BOTH SIDES of it, so you could use it to take pictures AND as a video conferencing vidcam? The iPod would switch between the two lenses just by flipping a little mirror in the periscope mechanism inside the iPod. And all controls are accessed with a touchscreen!

[Torien @ May 2nd 2006 9:18PM]

I had a similar Idea, but i figured cellphones were the obvious choice. But instead of mirrors they use a twistable or rotatable ccd housing, its cheaper.

[bliss @ May 2nd 2006 9:34PM]

hmm..looks like a fun little device.. but I'd go with #1's suggestion :P

[Mar @ May 2nd 2006 10:07PM]

I actually picked something up similar at a Rite Aid near me just for the heck of it, and it's pretty neat. The one I got was $30, but it didn't have a USB connector. You just have to send it back to any Rite Aid and they'd load the videos onto a DVD for you. It's a good gadget for people who don't want to spend money on a video camera or digital camera.

[alex garcia @ May 3rd 2006 12:32AM]

yea i too also agree with #1 but it's still illegal

[Special_K @ May 3rd 2006 12:47AM]

6: How is that illegal? It's your property, they hold no reign over what the owner does to his/her property. All he's doing is forgoing their DVD-dump service- it's far from a crime.

[Ipod Guy @ May 3rd 2006 12:56AM]

Yea its not a crime, lol

but anywho thats pretty cool for people that cant afford a good camera, or even older people that just need somthing realy simple and cant tell the difference between a HDTV and a pocket TV.

New ipod?: www.sagags.com

[TIMMAH! @ May 3rd 2006 1:15AM]

Wow $130, that's really expensive for what's essentially a 30 minute VGA camera. But I guess they didn't want to cut into their drugstore rental business.

[Liam @ May 3rd 2006 1:59AM]

This would be kind of cool, for skating videos, and stuff like that. And I can't imagine people buying it for much else.

[eCom @ May 3rd 2006 3:36AM]

A compact, affordable, easy-to-use solution for creating and sharing high quality home movies. Nice device!

[Coolty @ May 3rd 2006 3:52AM]

for that price you could buy a 4 mp camera with a video feature.. and probably 10x better
But yeah i've hacked a few one time use video camera's before.

[me @ May 3rd 2006 9:19AM]

Who would buy this? Don't we have that kind of camera on cell phones?

[Ima Pseudonym @ May 3rd 2006 9:28AM]

shame you can't find it on Target's website. Looks like they are asleep at the switch.

[gko @ May 4th 2006 1:43AM]

Problem with trying to hack the original $30 camera is the firmware version you'll likely get now hasn't been properly cracked yet.

[chris @ May 5th 2006 5:09PM]

just downloaded some sample vids and this thing seems to have a lot higher quality video than my kodak 4MP cam. same resolution and fps, just better color and brightness.

"do one thing and do it well" seems to apply here

[Digi @ May 5th 2006 10:12PM]

That's a good news to hear. It may give the camcorder producers some pressure to reduce the price. I really want to try it!

[stefan @ May 10th 2006 1:13PM]

i was surpised at how good the quality was - a lot sharper than expected if lightings good. Perfect for everyday web use. You can download cheap or free dvd burning software that would pay for itself w/i two or three visits of the DVD sevice.
does anyone know the specs on this puppy - frame rate, resoultion, etc? the little pamphlet didnt have any info.

[Ray @ May 17th 2006 2:31PM]

I actually purchased one a couple days ago and so far I am very pleased. I put a review up at thetechteachers.blogspot.com . The quality is good enough for everday use and the thing is tiny. I never use my mini dv cam - aside from storm chasing because of the size. The price is now $100 from target/amazon.

[mitch @ May 17th 2006 6:29PM]

my question is if it possible to maybe crack this thing open, switch out the flash memory for something higher capacity? maybe you could take this $100 camcorder and give it a capacity with like an hour or so of video?

wouldn't it be a matter of opening it up and switching the flash memory out? possibly?

[Greg @ Aug 21st 2006 4:17PM]

We have both - a hacked C200, and the retail version from Target.

The retail one has 30 minutes instead of 20 minutes capacity, and the video image is double the size of my hacked unit (how can this be?).

The retail unit comes with some really great software, and the image quality is phenomenal considering the price, and the fact it's only got 512MB of flash in it. We make "movies" in Windows Movie Maker from the retail version all the time, burning them to DVD or rendering them for email/web consumption.

The hacked one was fun to do, but the added features and image quality of the retail one is worth every penny - do the DVDs yourself, and you have one dynamite little camera that costs as close to nothing as possible. Oh, and it runs almost forever on a pair of rechargeable AA's.

Sure, my Sony camcorder takes higher quality video, but it sure doesn't fit in my shirt pocket like these little camcorders! I can't wait for the 1GB or SD equipped one (hint hint, Pure Digital)!

[Nash @ Jun 13th 2007 3:26PM]

Just purchased one of these and it's a great little gadget... especially for taking action shots of the kids on a day to day basis. However, once the video files are downloaded and I go to "make a movie" it does not let me edit on my own. Does anyone know if this camera would be compatible with other editing software? If so, any suggestions?