Pentax Optio W60

Pentax Optio W20

Pentax Optio W10

Casio Exilim EX-Z750

Casio Exilim EX-Z4

Casio Exilim EX-Z4U

Nikon CoolPix 950

Sony DCR-TRV20

Kodak DC-120

Apple QuickTake 100

In the weeks before Burning Man 2000 I decided to purchase a digital video camera so that I could do more than just taking still pictures of my son, Isaac.

I was in a flaming rush, so I checked out the word on the USENET newsgroups (still the best source of chatter from folks trying to solve the same technical problems as I am), and in magazine reviews on the web, and wound up buying a Sony DCR-TRV20. It was very hard to find; they were flying out of the stores. Stock would be put on the shelves on Saturday morning to be completely sold out a few hours later. Hopefully this means we'll be seeing a lot of good independent movies, although perhaps we'll be inundated with bad home movies.

Features which were attractive: a built-in mega-pixel still camera and FireWire connectivity. (I also bought a FireWire hard drive to store the digital video during editing.)

The first thing I notice is that the still images are 1152 by 864 pixels, smaller than my workhorse Nikon CoolPix 950, which creates images which are 1600 by 1200 pixels. Quite a significant difference.

On the day I bought the camera I inadvertently took a picture while trying to figure out the controls. It shows my calm demeanor under pressure, working on grokking the camera while trying to not look like an idiot nor tripping over my feet on a step San Francisco downhill. I'm not sure Isaac is impressed.