Ready for your closeup?

by SOPHIE LORENZO • July 2007

Grandparent friendly

If you just want to email your kids' antics to family and friends or let grandma post videos on Myspace, the ultra-affordable RCA SMALL WONDER EZ201 is for you. With its blissfully basic controls, all you have to do is point and shoot. It can store 30 minutes of VGA-quality video, comes with an expandable SD memory slot and has a slide-up USB port that allows you to upload in a snap. Best of all, there's a rotating LCD screen so you can put yourself in the picture while you shoot. All this for just $130. mysmallwonder.com. Available online at amazon.com.

Waterproof wonder

Snorkellers and parents of water babies rejoice: you can finally stick a camcorder under water on the spur of the moment. Sanyo's XACTI VPC-E1 can function two metres underwater for up to an hour. It stores an hour and 20 minutes of VGA-quality video on a 1GB SD memory card, and even has a 16:9 widescreen setting so you can watch your underwater foray on a high-definition TV. It comes with a flip-out LCD screen, a 5x zoom and it can snap 6-megapixel stills. Best of all, uploading to your computer is a cinch . Just don't take it scuba diving. $549. sanyo.com. Available at Centre HiFi, Henry's, Audio Warehouse, Advance Electronics, A&B Sound, NCIX and Dell.ca.

Shutterbug combo

Home movies and impromptu travel documentaries are great, but do you really film often enough to invest in a camcorder? If not, try the Canon POWERSHOT TX1. Packed into the tiny frame of Canon's popular Elph camera is a high-definition camcorder with stereo sound. The camera takes super high-res 7.1-megapixel photos and boasts a 10x optical zoom, face detection technology, image stabilization, red-eye correction, and an ISO that can reach 1600 for dim-light shots. What more do you need? $649. powershot.com. Available at Future Shop and Best Buy.

For editing junkies

If you want to spend as much time splicing together a masterpiece as you did shooting the video, then opt for a miniDV camcorder. You can't pop its digital tapes directly into your DVD player, but this is the best format for editing. And the Sony HANDYCAM DCR-HC96 is a great choice if you want sharp VGA footage with strong colours and great contrast, even in low light — but you don't want to fiddle with menus all day. It boasts Dolby two-channel sound, a 12x optical zoom and a Carl Zeiss lens. And you can shoot in either standard 4:3 or 16:9 wide-screen format. Plus, you can still connect to a DVDirect burner and bypass your computer entirely if you want. $799. sonystyle.ca. Available at The Sony Store.

This article was accurate when it was published. Please confirm rates and details directly with the companies in question.