It is frustrating going to conferences without Roger Bindl, as it is difficult to produce ViodiTV with just one person.
I was encouraged when I stumbled across the Supacam booth at NATPE, as they were selling relatively low-cost, solid state, digital video camcorders. These are full 720×480 resolution camcorders with the added bonus that they will provide high-resolution still photos. Read on for the rest of the review and be sure to watch the following video captured with this $328, palm-sized device, the Supacam SS.
It is important to note that the following comments I spent less than 5 minutes of hands on time with the camera and have edited only one file. I did not get a chance to stress the compression by filming high-speed action. It compresses the file to some sort of MPEG-4 wrapped in an .AVI file format. The above file started as about 31 Mbytes for 1:15 duration. After editing down to 56 seconds and rendering into an MPEG-2 file, the file expanded to 43 Mbytes.
The nice thing is that is uses a standard SD memory card format, giving it portability between devices (e.g. I recorded on my SD memory card) and expandability. The interface was very intuitive and, like the Flip Video camcorder we reviewed, plugs into a PC with a standard USB 2.0 cable. Like the Flip Video camcorder, one can simply upload files to a web site. They have a Supastream web site where they provide storage and streaming. Most of their web site seems to be centered on this streaming service.
It is apparently possible to edit files on the Supacam without requiring third-party software. I was able to import its file into Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0 and InterVideo, WinDVD Creator 2. Vegas 6.0 would import the audio, but not the video portion of the file. The above video is representative of the quality of the output that I saw from the raw file.
One thing I noticed is that there seems to be an issue with auto-focus, especially when the focal point of the video changes. This particular video seems a little washed out. The tradeshow floor did not provide an optimum condition for filming, but I shot another video a few minutes earlier at a nearby booth using the Flip Video camcorder and the quality of that video seems better.
With things like face recognition and resolution of up to 12 Megapixels, the photo feature is a highlight of this camcorder. I did not have an opportunity to test the photo feature, other than look at the results on the Supacam web site. As a stand-alone video camcorder, this device is expensive relative to other options. When combined with the 12 Mbyte photo feature and face recognition, then this device is worth a closer look.
A comment on the up-conversion from 31MB MPEG-4 to 43MB MPEG-2. I’d be curious to see a side by side comparison of the video’s. The people at Adobe once advised me not to convert to higher bit rates and to stick with even multiples on frame size reductions.
The reason for not going up in bit-rate was because the encoder had to insert bits, or basically errors. I forget the logic behind even multiples 720 – 360 – 180 – 90, and sorry I couldn’t find it before making this comment. I searched the net, but didn’t have good results.
Editing MPEG-4′s is a concern I’ve have with the compressing of a compressed file when rendering. I’m curious how to get around that, or perhaps it’s not a big issue with web viewing, but it’s not for HD TV.
I think it looks pretty meet to be honest. Soon they’ll have cameras this size in Full HD!!
Looked like there was some visual issues but I guess it’s one of those things you’ve got to try out yourself.