Hello everyone,

I love to shoot good video but many times I don’t because I simply don’t have my camcorder with me. I also love to shoot quality still photos but many times I don’t because I simply don’t have my camera with me. Do you see a pattern here? The biggest problem is actually having both camcorder and camera with you!

I’m a bit older so I still remember those over sized, monster, and outdated camcorders that recorded to VHS, SVHS, VHSc, SVHSc, Hi8, Betamax, Digital8, DVCam, 8mm video tape and Beta tapes. You had to lug the thing around in a huge case. Not only that – in another huge case you had to carry your Single Lens Reflex camera in order to take a still photo.

Nowadays I don’t have much of a size/quality excuse because modern technology has produced incredible, extremely small, and even pocket sized HD camcorders as well as tiny digital point & shoot cameras for still photos. The video quality from the camcorders is suberb (720p/1080p) and the image quality from the digital still cameras is phenomenal (very high resolution photos).

But I still have the same old problem – I don’t always have them both with me!! So today I want to tell you what I think is a great solution: TAKE BOTH CAMCORDER AND CAMERA IN ONE DEVICE!!! Profound right? Why carry around a dedicated camcorder? Why bring both camcorder and camera? Forget the camcorder!

The new digital cameras shoot HD video and take great still photos. Just think – a great, super small point & shoot camera + 720p high definition video fitting in the palm of your hand. It’s a “no brainer” and even more so when you consider the inexpensive price!! My camera of choice is the Canon Power Shot SD780IS. I’ll not go into a product review here but if you are interested you can check it out at http://digitalcamerainfo.com – the Power Shot SD780IS is absolutely incredible.

Just in case your wondering, I have not forgotten about the pocket sized dedicated camcorders like the Flip UltraHD and the Kodak Zi8 (the two that I recommend – they both take quite good HD video but have poor image stabilization and the still photos are very poor). I think I’ll talk more about them tomorrow

Professor Randy says: Why carry around  both camcorder and camera? Forget the camcorder! Take high definition video and high resolution still photos by just using the camera alone!