March 11, 2008

Ask Eric Episode 11: Cameras!

HD! High definition. We know it means at least that much. But what does that mean, for you? When you take a video in HD, how can you really tell the difference from a video recorded the "old fashioned way," in "standard definition?" Well, the difference really comes in size, which, in this new world of flat screen TVs and computer monitors, is really important.

An HD image is a minimum of 3 times larger than an image at standard resolution, and can be up to 6 times larger. When you watch normal TV on an HD monitor, it gets blown up to the size of the screen, so it can be hard to tell the difference if you're not searching to see the extra pores on the cheek of your favorite movie star. On a computer monitor though, the difference is a lot more important, because the image isn't being expanded at all.

There's tons of new HD cameras coming out this year, and most record to a card just like your digital camera has now. That means easy uploading at super high quality, so I went to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to test out all the new HD cameras.

The cameras I looked at were:

• Kodak Easyshare 1273
• Panasonic HDC-H59
• Canon HF-10
• Sanyo Xacti HD-1000
• Sony DCR-SR300

Feel free to click back through the video if you want to check out individual features on these new HD cameras. Also, keep in mind that this is a sneak preview - you won't be able to buy these until early summer.

Write in with any questions you have about this stuff, and if you do go to buy an HD camera, the most important thing is to remember what your priorities are: there's a lotta bells and whistles out there, and you wanna make sure you are getting the ones that are right for you.