On Consumer Video

I think the camcorder vendors are about to make a lot of money. First, there’s the advent of affordable consumer HD. Obviously, the consumer product has all sorts of problems, most notably the lack of high-def players. But if you care about what you’re shooting, this is the first-ever archival-quality option, and that matters. The real reason is that, increasingly, there are a lot of people—I’m one—with a wide-screen TV and a camcorder that can’t fill it. The basic value proposition—take movies that look good on your TV—ain’t there. At one level, it would be really tough to upgrade to 16:9 and not go all the way to HD. But that camera Pogue wrote up (It’s called the “HDR-HC1”, but Sony’s site, gimme a break, I am not so foolish as to link to URIs beginning sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD in the hope that they’ll last); anyhow, that camera, you’re paying a whole bunch and there are issues. It’s going to be interesting times.