They wrote camcorders off when the iPhone came out, which was as stupid as any of the stunts by the Chuckle Brothers.
I feel Playfull...
The Flip cam was singly one of the biggest hits for casual video producers, because you could just hit record, nail some great movie sequences, and even upload them to YouTube simply by clipping them in to the USB slot on your PC.
Times were sweet. And then Apple took a big bite from the market and we were left with the choice of a Kodak Zi8 or a Kodak Zi8 in a different colour.
And then Zi8s vanished from most stores altogether. The cheeky little camcorder shop disappeared, and that was that. Until…
Until this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. While Microsoft got all uptight and stole headlines by ranting about this being its last year in the spotlight, Kodak stole under the headlights with the announcement easy videos’ back in the hot seat.
The Kodak Playfull looks like a real eyeful. 12MP camera, full HD 1080p video capture at 60fps, and a Xenon flash.
But here are the two draws that made me unequivocally delighted. The external microphone input from the Zi8 has been retained, and this one has built in WiFi so you can instantly upload photos and video to your social network of choice (as long as it’s YouTube or Facebook, at the moment).
I say at the moment – the Playfull isn’t actually here, yet, but bet that we’ll be letting you know when it is.
If you’re more of a trad content creator, keep an eye out for the Kodak Easyshare M750 with a 16MP module, 3-inch capacitive touchscreen, 5x optical zoomthe same WiFi goodness.
Both let you use your Android, iDevice or Blackberry as a wireless access point with an app.
No prices mentioned yet for the Playfull, but expect a late spring release.
About Dave Thackeray