Looking for a durable little video camera

July 22, 2011 1:58 PM

I'm looking to get a video camera, specifically a quick, durable thing for using with and around a new baby. Super bonus points for being water proof. Details and thoughts inside.

Baby light thief will be arriving in a month, and I'm getting excited about capturing all his ridiculous and adorable hijinks. I have a dSLR (Nikon D3100), and a pocket camera (Canon PowerShot SD850 IS), and I might be getting a film SLR (Nikon N75, buying used, specifically for the two lenses the person won't sell w/o the body).

I saw this question and browsed the suggestions from there, when I saw a number of waterproof/shockproof camcorders (GE DV1-GG and Toshiba Camileo BW10 specifically) and got all googly eyed. So now I'd like input from MeFites who have shopped for and used such cameras, and the prior threads seem to be a few years old, and not focused on the durable side of things.

posted by filthy light thief to Technology (8 answers total)

Only camera that matters is the one you have with you, and you won't be up for toting lots of extra crap with a newborn. Switch your phone to an iPhone 4, since it has the best video quality of the major smartphones, and get a good case for it to make it a little more waterproof. Every good video of my 5-month-old was taken on an iPhone or Nexus S; the "real" cameras are never handy.
posted by anildash at 2:05 PM on July 22, 2011 [2 favorites]

I just asked a similar question. Today, after another few hours of research, I bit the bullet, went out, and bought the Kodak Playsport zx3. You can take it underwater up to 3 meters. It also has HD at 60fps. What do I think about it? Well, I've only had it an hour or so, but it seems pretty reasonable. Especially because it was dirt cheap. And despite being $150 or so, it feels very solid, very dependable. I tentatively recommend it.
posted by special agent conrad uno at 2:17 PM on July 22, 2011

Babies do things quickly. Phone camera's video ends up capturing all.
posted by k8t at 2:18 PM on July 22, 2011

Response by poster: Ah, on the phone front, I have an old Droid from Verizon. I might be able to get an upgrade now, but are there any good waterproof cases? My Droid takes only so-so pics, and the camera is painfully slow (compared to my Canon or Nikon).

My current push to a handy thing is for Baby, but we have kayaks, and I've left my cameras on dry ground, for fear of ruining them. So I figured now would be a great time to get a durable video camera.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:24 PM on July 22, 2011

I'm in the same boat, but bought an HTC Evo 3D phone for the same reason k8t and anildash mention. The 3D camcorder is actually pretty impressive, plus you can slap in a microSD card with as much storage as you want. I can't imagine operating it well through a waterproof phone bag though, but it does have physical camera and 3d/2d control buttons on the side.
posted by benzenedream at 2:34 PM on July 22, 2011

There's durable, and there's replaceable. You can get a Flip for $38 these days.
posted by fake at 2:58 PM on July 22, 2011

And a waterproof case for said Flip for even less.
posted by dolface at 4:09 PM on July 22, 2011

I am a little late to this thread but Kodak has a tiny little camera that is somewhat rugged and is waterproof Kodak Mini Its pretty barebones but quality is decent. A step up is the ZX3 that was linked above.
posted by tgelston at 7:08 PM on August 18, 2011