Homemade Journalism

In the era of iReporting and Youtube videos cell phone cameras are as important to the news industry as any on scene reporter it seems.  Yet, jumping forward, as technology often does, the video camera in and of itself is attempting a come back in more ways than one.

I’m a video person myself, own a standard canon camcorder, but I applaud the camcorders attempt to skip into the hearts of others.  In the ever emerging world of “pocket camcorders” Kodak looks to be making a splash into the pool.  Pocket camcorders appeal in their size relation to cell phones, and their often superior picture quality.  Kodak announced today its Zi6 Pocket video camera, that claims both HD video and instant Youtube uploads.  It should hit the market in September.

Who doesn’t want better online video quality and on the scene photos?  Keep your cell phone in one packet (for calls) and your camcorder in the other.  Convenient, no?  Also convenient is Samsung’s new SC-MX20 which claims a specific mode of shooting for better Youtube quality (thus less conversion once the footage is downloaded).