Switched On: The Camcorder’s Disposable, But The Memories Aren’t

Ross Rubin at NPD Group pens his regular "Switched On" column on disposable camcorders at engadget.com. Rubin takes a look at the $30 Pure Digital one-time use camcorder and asks "why the camcorder industry has been so slow to embrace flash memory the way that digital cameras and digital audio players have."

The Pure Digital camcorder offer ease-of-use simplicity, twenty minutes of video, and no worries about running out of juice, and all in a pocketable form factor. Rubin writes that the DVD "you get back from CVS — Pure Digital’s 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 you’re sending to a dial-up Mac, it will serve up low-bitrate QuickTime. If you’re sending to a broadband Windows PC, it will send high-bitrate WMV."

Rubin points out that the video quality "compares poorly to what you’ll get out of the latest models of most digital cameras," and doesn't "recommend it to anyone who cared about preserving any kind of special event." However, he does believe there is a brighter future in store for memory-based camcorders:

As flash memory vendors adroitly follow Moore’s 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.