First of all, the landscape of cheap video cameras has changed dramatically. The Flip Video Ultra is available at around $125 and has more storage in the same basic form factor. The original one appears to be widely available on eBay for under $100, and there are a bunch of inexpensive, small, flash-based camcorders in the $100 – $175 range available with similar features.

So here’s the update on my experience with the hacked CVS camcorder:

Pros

1. It worked; pretty well in fact. I actually bought a second one a couple of weeks later and hacked it too.
2. It turned out to be a fun thing to play with since I wasn’t afraid of destroying an expensive camera. The kids and I rigged up a cardboard and fishing-line harness for it and sent the camera skyward on a parafoil kite. The video could give you motion sickness in about 10 seconds but it was a really fun little project, and one we would not have done with an expensive (and heavier) camcorder.
3. The project itself was a lot of fun from a sheer DIY / geeky / hardware hacking perspective. Sometimes it’s just fun to take things apart, solder stuff together, play around with hacked firmware, etc. (if you’re into that sort of thing…)

Cons:

1. The software end of things left a lot to be desired, at least as of a few months ago. I have to hand it to the folks who made it all work – their kung fu is much stronger than mine. I wouldn’t have a clue how to decompile the firmware on one of those cameras and reverse engineer the security, encryption, etc. So kudos on making it work. However, documentation pretty much consisted of inconsistent forum posts scattered across two or three websites. Matching software versions to camera to forum-post-how-to, etc. was a much bigger pain than most people would put up with.
2. I already had the USB cable, the old Palm III cradle, the soldering gear, etc. If you didn’t, and had to purchase that stuff, you’d be halfway to buying the “real” Flip (or Aiptek, Vivitar, Canon, etc .) by the time you bought what you needed.
3. The video doesn’t easily lend itself to editing in your usual editing software. Since it was going to take a bit of research, transcoding, etc. I never even went down that path. I just grabbed stuff off the cam and whatever was there was fine.
4. I built a new PC and went to Vista. I thought this would be the death of the interface software, and while I did manage to get it working it just turned out to be more of a pain than it was worth.

So at the end of the day it was a fun project but in all honesty I haven’t even had the cameras out of the junk drawer in at least six months. However, it did make me think about shooting video in a different light, and I have ended up shooting a lot more of it in the last 12 months as a result of the project. Occassionally I’ll bring the camcorder along and shoot some “real” video, but more often than not I’ve just shot stuff using a point-and-shoot still camera. I’ve got a Canon G9 that does a surprisingly good job, and while I wouldn’t use it to shoot a feature film it’s just fine for little family movies. Plus it’s small, it’s usually with me whenever I’d want to shoot something, and it takes really great still photos (which almost no video cameras, especially the cheap ones, can claim).

So if you want a fun DIY weekend project the CVS camera hack is worth a shot, but if you’re actually wanting to get a reliable, functional video camera that you can depend on I would steer you towards spending a bit more and buying the real thing, or giving your point-and-shoot a try.

I purchased a Canon G9 a couple of weeks ago and have been very happy with it. It is essentially a prosumer grade point-and-shoot digital camera. It’s about the size of a 35mm P&S, making is much larger than something like the Canon SD1000 (which is about the size of a deck of cards). However, it is a whole lot smaller and more portable than my DSLR (a Nikon D70) and so far I’ve been extremely happy with it. You can put the camera into full manual mode, which gives you control over aperture, shutter speed, etc. It’s got a macro mode, let’s you manually focus, shoots a very decent video clip, and has a hot shoe in case you want to attach a small flash. It’s certainly not for everyone, but if you’re looking for a small / portable alternative to a DSLR that gives you all the controls in a much more compact package, the Canon G9 is great. Check out this review for more info.

I just posted some new photos to Flickr. Just a random set of stuff taken this month around LBC.

I just posted a new set of photos on flickr. These were shot at the recent Belmont Shore holiday parade – basically just me playing around with light and motion.

You can find us in the iTunes podcast directory by searching for either of our names, or by searching for “Exposure”. We’re having some sort of technical difficulty with our graphic logo and iTunes not playing well together, but otherwise everything seems like it’s working perfectly.

A bit of exciting news: I’ve been working on a podcast with my friend John. It’s now online at http://exposure.chilipeppermedia.com and is available in the iTunes podcast directory! Check it out and let us know what you think. If you’re new to podcasts you can read about them on Wikipedia.

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Originally uploaded by nacuff

I just posted a new photo set to Flickr. These are some shots of the fall harvest in central California. Enjoy! (if you see any you like send me an email and I’ll send the full-rez pic)

UPDATE: I posted an update that you might want to check out. The update was written a year after this original post and has some thoughts on the project after using the camera.

I got a CVS one-time-use video camera for my birthday a couple of weeks ago. They make for a fun hardware hacking project as there are a lot of sites on the internet with instructions for hacking them. Once you’ve completed the hack you get a re-usable, semi-disposable video camera for $30. There are a bunch of other great additional hacks you can do once you’ve unlocked the camera, like making it waterproof, etc.

It’s a fun project, but you’ll need to be comfortable soldering things together, working with open source utilities, etc. If you’ve got some free time and a penchant for that sort of thing you should give it a shot.

New pics posted to give you non-west-coast folks a sampling of the morning traffic joy in LA.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nacuff/sets/72157602434624231/

Some new pics are posted to Flickr of the coliseum, etc. in case you’re interested.