Well, what happened was, Big Lots! is selling a video camera at the ridiculously low price of $16.89. I'm thinking of buying two at that price. But I get out there and they sold out of all of them. So I buy an inexpensive Kodak video camera for $39.95. It has a built-in battery so I won't have the problems I have with the DXG, which uses three AAA batteries. (I have rechargeables and a charger, but it always seems to run out of batteries no matter how many I have around.)
On the left are the controls, the right is the lens and the object in between is a penny for size comparison. It provides for video or snapshots, can switch between vGA and HD images, has a zoom, and on/off button. When off, if plugged into a USB socket, it recharges the battery; when on, it acts as a 2 GB hard drive with the standard folder DCIM used to hold the folder containing the images.
One minor problem with the Kodak: no bottom mounting hole. Almost every decent camera has a standard mounting hole at the bottom to allow you to screw it to a tripod. (The DXG has one, but the DXG was a $70 camera, too.) It comes with a 2 GB miniature SD card.
Here you can see the bottom is open where the USB connector and memory card sit. The battery is not replaceable.
Here is the USB connector extended.
There is one other problem, the time limit. For a 2 GB card, it will only allow you to record about 27 minutes at VGA quality and about 12 at HD. And the display, fortunately, will show you the approximate amount of time remaining. It's not kidding either: I recorded an 11 minute video while rolling to the laundromat, and in VGA format the video is about 750 megabytes.
But for forty bucks it ain't bad. I saw an RC helicopter on TV that I could order for the same $39 plus $12 for shipping, that includes some pick-up baskets for carrying cargo. I am thinking I could put this camera in there and record some video, say, flying over my house to see what the roof and back look like. This would be a better idea than risking my much more expensive DXG. I thought of it from the Citibank commercial where a guy attaches his digital video camera to a weather balloon.
Seeing what Kodak did with an inexpensive HD video camera for under $40 retail, I can understand why Cisco got out of the retail digital camera business.
