Greatest Techie Christmas Gift

[Gregg Lengling]

Got the greatest techie gift for Christmas...never owned a Video Camera in my life...just too big and cumbersome...but now I have a really need HD Video Camera (720P) and can record up to 2 hours at at time. It's call Flip Video and it's a Cisco Company....found it at Costco for $199.00 and I'm blown away at the quality. It's also the first device I've had where the included software is in the device..no Cd-ROM and not only did the usb drivers install perfectly but the that and the software took less than 5 minutes to perfectly install and start working. Check it out

[Bebop]

Speaking of 720P video, I got a panasonic ZS3 for $240. It has 12X optical zoom which can be use while in video mode.  It's a little bigger than a deck of cards.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001QFZMCY/sr=8-1/qid=1261943018/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1261943018&sr=8-1

[duncantuna]

Here's my question for both of you on those models:

How is it indoors?  

I ask because I have a 18 month old camera .. my 4th video camera .. and it's by far the worst with "low light" situations.  "Low light" is a misnomer, though, as you'd think it described filming in a closet.

I'm talking, indoors, with lights on, after dark.  "reasonable light" is what it should be called.

How are your models?

[Gregg Lengling]

The Flip has been fantastic, every light level I've tried it at gives a great picture, no external lighting needed...

[Bebop]

As long there is regular room lighting, the picture is pretty good. The nice feature about the ZS3 is the zoom.

The ZS3 does not include a Memory card. A 8GB class 6 SD card holds about 60 minutes of HD video.

Here are some samples from youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_QQ5OhaeSI&feature=related

I'm sure there some samples for the Flip there too.