NEW YORK -- As toy manufacturers try to please gadget-hungry kids with consumer electronics that don't constitute a major investment, parents may wonder about product quality.
This looks like a miniature video camera -- it even has a flip-out LCD screen, making it the only camera in the test that can play back what it captures.
Of course, it doesn't use tape, but stores the footage on a memory chip. The built-in chip will store seven minutes of video, and SD memory cards can expand storage.
The problem with the VCamNow is the image quality, which is unaccountably poor considering the decent 320-by-240-pixel resolution. A $200 still camera with a movie mode will record better video, and some cell phones will too.
The VCamNow does have an advantage or two over a cell phone, in that it has a tripod socket and a video port that allows it to play back on a TV set.
This little camera has neither viewfinder or LCD screen. It attaches to the side of a helmet with a strap and a glue pad -- aim it by turning your head. Ingeniously, it shines a red laser beam to help you aim, but the beam is almost invisible in daylight, and it turns off in any case when you start recording.
Image quality is not great, but probably acceptable. Strap any camera to the head of a skateboarder, and you're going to get wild, nausea-inducing camera movement, so image quality is a little secondary. It would have been nice if the frame rate where higher, though, to reduce jerkiness. Also, considering that you can't really see what you're capturing, the uptake angle could be wider. Digital Blue says they're working on a fisheye lens adapter.
Almost the best part of the package is the software, which has a simple interface and includes stock footage of Hawk. To liven things up, you can include sound effects, stalking aliens, zooming UFOs and other sweet nonsense.
The whole idea is that the camera is supposed to record a homemade music video but the included microphone doesn't connect to the camera -- it connects to the computer. To make it worse, the camera also needs to be attached to the computer when recording with sound.
Simon Cowell would say: "No, Paula, someone has to tell this video camera how bad it is. In all my time in show business, I have never met a video camera as bad as this. Seriously, this is a video camera for the blind."
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