Question on Videocams:

I want to get the new Creative DiViCam 525D. It's a small, thin video camera (really, it's extremely small for a video camera) that can record at 640 x 480 video resolution for 2 hours 30 minutes (with a 2GB SD card), and it also doubles as a video player, MP3 player, voice recorder and Webcam. Pretty impressive.

Unfortunately, Creative's past video cameras, the 428 and more specifically the 316, have failed to meet expectations. So is the 525 going to be different? So far people on the Net have been praising the camera without even physically touching it. Can you shed some light on this?

Is this camera all that it's cracked up to be? Or should I not waste my time on it?

Submitted by Reader

Answer:

Like you mentioned, most of the writers are praising the camcorder based on its specs... and the low price you pay for it.

But what's on paper may not necessarily be reflected in real life. Look at the specs: The vidcam uses digital zoom which means your videos will look pixlated if you do use the zoom feature. The provided ISO range of 80-200 is also less than the industry average for point-and-shoot cameras (50-400); this means less flexible shooting options.

So is it all it's cracked up to be? Well, you get what you pay for. If you want a dSLR-quality camera, you ought to be paying far more.

S$279.30 for this set of features is quite a worthwhile deal as long as you are not looking for top-notch performance.