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Alba Pocket Camcorder
by cath_del
My family inititally bought this for my little sister, who loved taking my digital camera before we got this and recording things and taking pictures. So when we were stuck as to what to get her for her birthday, we purchased this Alba Pocket Camcorder. We didn't really know much about it before we bought it, only that it was one of the ... cheapest available and seemed to look like it would do a decent job of filming random moments. (Although we may have said this was a present to my sister, it was also a little present for the rest of the family really!) We bought it for around £30 with about £10 taken off due to it being a Christmas special.
The setup of this video camera was really easy, as all I had to do was charge it for about 2 hours, and then turn it on by flipping the screen out. Once it was turned on, it required no details to be entered on which was a great bonus on the morning of my sisters birthday, as it meant no fiddling about with all the random preferences that usually show up at this point. Even using it was really simple, as all you did was flip it open and press record.
What was great about this camera is that it is so small and fits right into the palm of your hands. It is really easy to just slide into your bag to without taking up loads of space like other video cameras might.The screen flips out the side of it, and you can see what your filming through this tiny screen. On the design of the video camera, there are 6 buttons, the record button, the camera button, the rewind button, the fastforward button, the volume button and the playback button. These are all quite tiny and don't make the video camera seem bulky at all, like they have done in other models I have owned.
The buttons are pretty easy to handle and always responsive, even though they are so tiny. What I really loved though was the ability to plug the video camera into the TV, as then we could watch all the movies that had been recorded easily, without the hassle of having to download it to a computer and then burn it onto a disk like we previously had. There is also the USB cable to plug into your computer to allow for saving your videos and a charger input, which is pretty obvious what thats for.
When the screen is turned on the display is really clear and bright and everything is displayed perfectly. It is a HD 720p Camcorder, and you can really see the difference between our previous camcorder and this new version due to the fact it has made our videos much more clearer and more improved. The display itself is really handy in the fact that it tells you how much time you have left to record to, as usually I would find myself using previous models just having the entire card black out and say Memory Too Low. Along with a battery level indicator and if you have a memory card inserter, this makes managing your camera much easier.
The battery is of good length for a camcorder as my sister recorded about 4 hours straight on it as soon as she got it. It doesn't even take that long to charge, as we found it only took around 2 hours to fully charge back to normal. There arent't that many features, but you do have the option of making it into your webcam. Also, whenever you are recording or taking a picture, the camera will automatically stabilise it for you, to stop on those annoying shaky photograhs!
It's great for recording as it provides a really clear picture, and this feature is great also for those that want to take pictures to, as the camcorder combines itself to make for a relatively low quality but decent camera. The sound quality is great from this camcorder, as throughout all the videos taken of my family we can hear each other really clearly.
Overall this is a great camcorder for just carrying around on the go to catch those moments in your family you won't want to miss. It has really clear graphics and the fact its just so compact makes it a well rounded product everyone should have, due its low price.
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Alba Pocket Camcorder
by Diva1983
I was looking for a camera to keep in my baby changing bag to catch magical moments and thought at the bargain price of under £40.00 this camera not only looks great but came fully loaded with functions.
So what do you get for the price? A small pocket size camera that has a 8x digital zoom, the option of taking stills (saved ... as jpegs) and features such as fade and auto focus. So pretty much everything you would expect in a camcorder suitable for a beginner. It runs on AA batteries, and how much you can record at any one time depends on the size of the memory card. Internal memory isn't that big (we got a few seconds of filming onto it) so the larger the memory card the more you can fit onto it. This camcorder takes SDHC or SD cards, which can be purchased online at quite a reasonable price.
So what do I think of the camera. It's a great camera for beginners-if the beginner is a child. It's straight forward point and shoot technology makes it easy to use for children and say those who have never used a camcorder before in their lives. The quality of the filming and photos is average, however for the price you cannot expect to get mega quality photos to convert poster prints. I think if you put the functions and price into prospective this camera does exactly what is says on the tin. The sound quality leaves a to be desired, but then for the price perfect crisp sound isn't really an option. Batteries will need frequent changing so it's best to buy the best you can rather than the cheaper ones that run out quicker.
Easy to use, ideal as a back up camera, but not as a main camera to catch things like Birthday parties.
Buy it for your little one, but don't take it too seriously as it would be better branded as a children's first camcorder.
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