HD pocket cam with stereo mics is aimed at concerts, would be great for panels at conventions

via samsontech.com

I'll readily admit to being a voracious gear queer and I strive not to let my blogging become an endless sequence of frothy-mouthed enthusing over this or that new gadget, but here's an exception.

First of all, I'm not going to buy this as I have an iPhone 4 and can't afford to attend enough conventions that I could justify buying this thing here, which really I also can't afford.

I own a Zoom H4 'handy' recorder which likewise boasts stereo mics, but it's a tad on the large side, tremendously plasticky and looks like a clunky hand phaser from Star Trek TNG. It came with a spherical wind filter which I have on more than one occasion used as an impromptu clown nose.

Sadly the power supply seems to be busted so I can only use it on batteries or via USB, and until I found a more dedicated solution its primary function was to connect my XLR condenser mic (on a super cool swivel arm) to my Mac for at-home 'studio' recordings.

I brought the thing to the panels I gave at Eurofurence, but due to a number of annoying factors I wound up not using / not being able to use the audio feed from this thing to enhance the videos.

Now THIS thing. Tiny, compact, and yet presumably endowed with the very decent, robust and portable quality microphones Zoom have built a reputation for. It doesn't matter that much that the video quality isn't likely to be excellent; at the very least the 1080p sensor should allow it to be sharp.

This is perfect for recording panels and SIGs at conventions. The stereo mics on my Zoom H4 do a great job of capturing the room's sound clearly and spatially, and I kind of assume this HD-capable sibling is no ugly little cousin in that family.

In fact, wouldn't it be fab if conventions actually provided these in panel rooms? Anchored securely at the back of the panel room, plugged into the mains, with a fresh pre-labeled SD card being plugged in for every panel...

The camera records in the widely compatible H.264 format and can be therefore immediately uploaded to YouTube (in 15-minute increments) or Vimeo (500MB / week for the free account, 5GB for the paid account) or simply embedded on the con's webpage.

How cool would that be?