I don’t usually rave about products on this blog, but I can’t contain my enthusiasm for this nifty new gadget that we bought our daughter for her birthday. It’s the Pure Digital Point-and-Shoot Video Camcorder. It’s the size of an iPod and every bit as simple and ingenious. You just point and shoot. It’s that easy. There’s nothing to learn. (It’s also cheap…$125 at your local Target store or on Amazon). There’s a record button, a play button, and a delete button. And a little rocker button that doubles as a zoom and volume control. You can watch videos instantly on the tiny color screen. The Point-and-Shoot runs on two AA batteries, holds 30 minutes of video, and plugs into your computer with it’s built-in USB cable (and, if you like, automatically loads easy-to-use video playback, management, and emailing software on your hard-drive). Within seconds, and I mean seconds, you can email your videos all over the planet. It’s amazing. One minute after she unwrapped the present, my daughter became the next Sofia Coppola, directing epics all over the house. I don’t understand why this wonderful product hasn’t become the Next Big Thing…or am I so out-of-touch that it already has and I missed it?
I wouldn’t say you’re out of touch I’d say the rest of the market hasn’t caught on, yet.
I think if Apple goes this route in the future then the flood gates will open.
A lot of them work this way now. My Canon still camera will also shoot up to 3 minutes of video per take. iPhoto grabs dozens of baby videos along with the baby pictures whenever I plug the camera into my laptop.
Ain’t nuthin’ new for Apple users, but it’s still really cool.
At that price, at that size, and that easy to use…I’m not exagerrating when I say that this could create some major societal changes. There’ll potentially be a video record of anyting that happens.
Keith,
Does the Canon record audio, too? This baby does. My daughter has shot a couple dozen videos already. She’s in love with this device.
Lee
happy birthday to Madison!
Yes. Picture and sound. Like so.
Keith,
The picture and sound quality on the Point & Shoot is MUCH better than that.
Lee
Yeah Lee, you did kind of miss the train on this one. Pure Digital started this deal with a “disposable” digital camera a few years ago. You “buy” it from the story for $11, shoot 25 pictures with it, and then exchange the camera for your pictures. I have one of these right now, because some intrepid spirits figured out that while the camera has a proprietary port on it, it’s still USB, just not form-factor. I have a USB cable with a special end that someone hacked together for me, and now I just own the camera rather than taking it back for pictures.
A couple of firmware tweaks and it holds about 50 pictures rather than 25, at about 1.2 megapixels. For $11, it was the best deal ever.
Pure Digital then came out with the product you bought, only it was under the same retail model as the Dakota cameras. $35 or something like that, you take it home, use it up, then exchange it for your video. It was hacked (in the true physical sense of making something do something it wasn’t meant to) and people were able to get video off it at home without ever taking it back.
PD must have given up and just started selling the sucker retail sometime in between when it first came out, and right now.
If only other companies had the good sense that PD does..
I’m sure it is; video quality gets better with each generation. This is a 2-year-old camera shooting in a dark room.
Point was: That functionality has been around for a while. But it’s still very cool.
Hey, be careful with those things, web cams and similiar devices are one of the prime ways now-a-days pedophiles get to children! You wanna say your daughter’s too smart to fall for that, don’t underestimate the groomming of a pedophile. Just make sure you know Who your daughter’s sending videos to and What Of!
Just a friendly warning, sorry, part of my line of work. Don’t mean to put a damper on your parade. 🙂
I appreciate the warning. She can’t send or receive files on her computer — she has to use mine.