Pocket Camcorders: Here Today Gone Tomorrow?

With Flip camcorders being brandished by the likes of Dizzee Rascal, Pixie Geldof and even the Obamas, and the Kodak Zi8 cropping up in David Guetta’s latest music video, pocket camcorders—or pocketcams—have become the latest must-have accessory. The Flip has been an incredible success in the US with almost 2 million models sold, and with results like that, other manufacturers have been quick to follow suit with their own versions. In passing, it’s interesting to note that Kodak, one of the major players in the new market for pocket camcorders, is traditionally a stills camera specialist rather than a camcorder manufacturer.

The pocket video camera has seriously shaken up the rather drab world of camcorders. Research institute GfK recently showed the camcorder to be the least-used electronic device in the home, as they’re often bought for a specific occasion like a wedding, christening or birthday, and then kept in a cupboard until the next big event comes along.


But with the explosion in popularity of sites like YouTube and Facebook, video is now all about shooting and sharing, and the market was crying out for a pocket device, quicker and easier to use than traditional, bulky camcorders.

This more dynamic user environment could go some way to explaining the slowdown in sales of regular camcorders, a product category that’s been pretty stagnant over the last year. The pocketcam is also a product that shows just how society has changed; it’s the product of an age when everything we do has to be recorded, showed off and shared on social networking sites.

This trend was confirmed by a study carried out by YouGov Plc on befhalf of Cisco (the owners of Flip), which showed that over 60% of 18- to 34-year-olds record video on a mobile device, and that 40% of the same 18- to 24-year-olds do so with a mobile phone. The study also showed that although a great many users now share their videos on a home TV, computer, or via e-mail or websites, most of them find the video sharing process complicated. So along comes a simple, affordable, all-in-one pocket device, specifically designed for shooting and sharing video clips: the pocket camcorder ticks all the boxes.

Interestingly though, the pocket camcorder is no technological masterpiece. The sensors are often fairly average in quality, they have no image stabilisation system and they only feature digital zooms. But then that’s really not the point of the pocket camcorder either, as it’s the ease of use and practicality that’s got customers queuing up to buy them.

The Flip revolution

The pocket camcorder has been around for about five years now, and was first seen as a super-cheap digital camera, equipped with a fairly rubbish but quite handy video mode. Sanyo brought out the Xacti, then Aiptek and Toshiba launched the Amilo range with its quirky ‘pistol-cam’ design. But it was the Flip that really brought the pocketcam market into the spotlight. When Pure Digital Technologies launched the Flip Mino in the US in 2007, it was an instant success. With its candybar design, no zoom, resolution of 640 x 480 pixels and MPEG-4 recording, there were certainly better camcorders out there in terms of quality. In fact, the Flip Mino had the kind the spec you’d expect from a free gift with your magazine subscription, and I’m not even exaggerating!

Very quickly, though, it became a must-have in American youth culture. With its start/stop recording button, integrated USB plug for quick and easy connection to a computer, a video format instantly compatible with YouTube, and an integrated video sharing tool (VideoShare), it was the perfect solution for hassle-free shooting and sharing. It quickly took off among skaters, who ended up unwittingly promoting the product by posting clips of their moves online. First came the skaters’ flips and grinds, and then came videos of drinking sessions, hanging out, messing around etc. etc. The Flip generation was born, helped along the way by an intense amount of media hype. In fact, it seems that anyone who’s anyone has been snapped out and about Flip in hand, and the Flip website’s very own ‘hall of fame’ features shots of Flip flaunting from Paris Hilton, Sharon Stone and, well, Ice the Gladiator…

With the Flip Ultra and the MinoHD really taking off, things couldn’t have been better for Pure Digital, whose products were fast becoming some of the bestsellers on Amazon.com. When Cisco purchased the company in 2009 for some $590 million, the Flip Video media monster had all the resources it needed to embark on world domination.

It looks great, at least!

Flip MinoHD

Kodak Zi8

Creative Vado HD

Sony MHS-PM1

Objectively speaking, the quality of the videos captured by this first generation of pocket camcorders was dubious to say the least. The first models from Flip and Creative were only really suitable for posting clips on YouTube, and even then the quality could have been better. The arrival of high definition with the Flip MinoHD, Ultra HD and the Kodak Zi8 improved quality somewhat, but with no image stabilisation or optical zoom, they’re output is still pretty much limited to YouTube HD or a 22-inch home monitor. What’s more, upgrading candybar camcorders with quality-enhancing features would inevitably make them more expensive, and no manufacturer is willing to compromise one of the main factors of the pocketcam’s success compared with regular camcorders.

Sony, JVC and Samsung have been quick to release models to compete with the two market leaders, Kodak and Cisco. They boast HD recording, a practical and easy-to-use design, and each has its own distinguishing feature to help it stand out from the crowd. Sony’s Bloggie, for example, has a swivel lens with a snap-on accessory for 360° filming: a great gadget that’s sure to appeal to teens. Over at Kodak, they recognise that it’s too early yet to try and improve on current quality levels. However, ‘there are ways of developing and building on what we’ve already got: for example, the integrated editing software, performance in low light, sound quality, underwater filming and the likely arrival of digital stabilisation,' said Vincent D'Hondt of Kodak.

The McCamcorder

So who exactly is the pocket camcorder aimed at? Kodak and Sony claim to be targeting 18- to 30-year-olds, but towards the older end of the market, the pocket camcorder seems to be more of a product for occasional use than a lifestyle choice. It’s an accessory to take out now and again, to own alongside an existing HD camcorder, or even for professional use. In fact, you’ll often see on-location journalists with a pocketcam to hand in case the main camera isn’t ready to capture the action. Given that it’s open to different types of use, Sony is convinced the pocket camcorder has something for users of all ages. Kodak, on the other hand, is trying to reach out to sports and outdoors enthusiasts with the Playsport shock-proof and water-proof mini camcorder. Or perhaps that’s just a cunning way of getting snowboarders and other (young) extreme sports fans to jump onto the pocketcam bandwagon and start shooting and sharing their moves? Cisco is already one step ahead on that front too, with the Flip camcorder now sponsoring French freestyle skier and world champion, Kevin Rolland.

In fact, what’s really being targeted with this type of product is online video and photo sharing platforms, from YouTube and its 13 hours of video posted each minute, to Facebook and the huge amount of multimedia content passed from user to user every week, with no less than 10 million videos shared each month. So it’s only natural that the pocket camcorder should be designed to appeal to those who use this type of site most frequently—young people. They’re designed for users looking to film short video clips rather than record their best friend’s wedding from start to finish. They’ll help you capture the moment with videos that are easy to shoot and easy to share online, a trend that originated and developed with the video recording capabilities of mobile phones. This quick, cheap, easy and almost ‘fast-food’-style consumption of media in turn requires a quick, cheap, easy and ‘fast-food’ kind of product: enter the pocket camcorder. In fact, the only other type of device that can be used in a similar way is the high-end mobile phone. However, models such as the Apple iPhone, the Nokia N900 or the HTC HD2 are all costly devices that are likely to come with a contract signing you up to a mobile phone network for 12 or 24 months, and that’s not exactly attractive when you’re 18 years old and strapped for cash. But for around £150, younger users with less disposable income can pick up this new pocket device without having to shell out a fortune or tie them or their parents into a costly contract.

So with no Wi-Fi or Bluetooth on offer, the relative lack of functionality of the pocket camcorder is more than made up for by the social links it can be used to create via online video sharing platforms.

The shape of the future?

For a long time, specialists and manufacturers both thought this new generation of pocket camcorder would eat up the market for regular, entry-level camcorders, particularly the least expensive SD-card models. Technically, however, the products are quite different, with the classic camcorder featuring an image stabilisation system and an optical zoom, whereas the mini camcorder has a relative lack of functionality, which is made up for by its low price and extreme practicality. ‘In the end, the wipe-out some were predicting during the first few months didn’t really happen in its entirety,’ said Fabian Gumucio, head of Sony’s camcorder division. ‘It’s a niche product that has instead developed its own market, a bit like how the netbook made itself a space in the laptop market.’ With this worry out of the way, major camcorder manufacturers like Sony and Samsung can launch into the pocket video camera market without having to worry about their existing ranges. It’s interesting to note that although these brands do launch mini camcorders as part of their ‘camcorder’ ranges, internally at least, they still consider this type of product to be a distinct phenomenon, separate to regular camcorders. For manufacturers, then, the pocket camcorder is in some respects seen as the black sheep of the camcorder family.

But with the 25% to 50% increase in pocket camcorder sales predicted for 2010 set to eat away at a stagnant number of total predicted camcorder sales, mini camcorders are a black sheep not to be ignored.

Check out some of the most popular camcorder tests on DigitalVersus

Sony HDR-XR500

Sony Xacti VPC-HD2000

Kodak Zi8

Canon HF S21