pocket HD camcorders

While the SD980 has the longer zoom, it doesn't have a viewfinder, which I find indispensable on the hill. The display tends to get washed out, and trying to find your subject when fully zoomed can be a trick onto itself.

Keep in mind that amount of zoom is useless unless knowing what the focal length is. In the case of the 980 it goes up to the equivalent of 120mm lens. I hear all this stuff about 5000x zooms, but unless you're going to bring a tripod with you, or have some REALLY good stabilization (ie, think $750+ cameras), I think it's sort of a moot point.

You originally said you wanted to "capture some skiing now and then.  ....just something I can put in my pocket and forget about it unless a good shooting opportunity comes up." Trust me, between the small size, nice 12+mp stills, 720 video and a price at about $225, this is a laugher.

Sanyo makes something called the Exacti E6 which really will fit easily into your pocket so you're likely to have it with you when that great photo opportunity occurs. It has image stabilization and is waterproof to boot for about $175. Limited zoom though and I'm not sure about its highest resolution but still great for recording occasions you would probably not get otherwise. It should be great for shooting your skiing for movement analysis etc and will shoot stills as well.

Sorry for the late.

Here are two links, both videos recorded using the Flip HD.

http://www.vimeo.com/6957044
http://www.vimeo.com/6958030

Both have HD on Vimeo, but the site compress then...
if you want, PM me with your mail and I'll send you the files exactly as they were recorded.

Cheers!

 Great thread.  I'm in the same boat as a few others - looking for a camera to take videos of clients that I can zoom in and really point out what is right and wrong with their skiing. Because I'm also a strength and conditioning specialist, my goal is to also video them during a functional movement screen where I can assess asymmetries and dysfunctional movement patterns.  The hope is that I can show people the relationship between their specific muscle stability/mobility imbalances and the problems they are having on snow and then provide them with corrective exercises that will clear up the imbalance and thus fix the skiing.

Soooo...I need good enough quality that I can zoom in and get a good look at a few turns but don't need to be able to watch it on a big screen HDTV.  

The guy at the camera shop suggested that I need one of the Canon HD models that are in the $700+ range, but he kept talking about how I could play the video on my big screen TV.  I kept trying to explain that I don't need that but then he said that I still want that for what I'm doing.  

Do you think I could get away with a flipHD?  Sure prefer the price!  

Hey Thiago, I just tried to PM you but don't think it worked.  Can I take you up on that offer to see the original?  I want to see what it looks like zoomed in.  coach AT elsbethvaino DOT com

thanks!

Elsbeth

 So in spite of the no viewfinder I bought a Lumix ZS3 from Amazon for $280, a 16GB card and a backup battery.   I had just too much problems with the custom video format, conversion on the Mac took forever, so I think I'll just use the MPEG, it's bigger, but I can still get an your on a 16GB card.

Now I need to buy a new MacBook PRO (they have built in SD card slots.) :)

 In case anyone is following this, I ended up getting the new Sony WX1 camera.  I bought it more as a new pocket still cam than as for HD, but it takes pretty decent 720p video too, so I will try it skiing this year and see how it goes.  

Now, anyone know about devices that can be used in conjunction with my ski pole as a camara mount?  Someone should make some kind of pocket sized clip on or clamp on thing that can latch on to any ski pole and provide a simple monopod for the camera.  I couldn't find one when I googled around though.

I hope you get a good response or two to this question as I've been wondering the same thing.

Have you seen the Gorillapod?  Looks like you could snap off the top bit and fashion a way to mount it to you ski pole.

 Well I've seen some basic clamp mounts like this:

   http://www.highsierramfg.com/

But I am hoping there is something that either is designed for a ski pole or will work a little better with a ski pole with less futzing around.

Pedco-UltraClamp

http://www.amazon.com/PEDCO-P-UCA-Pedco-UltraClamp-Assembly/dp/B000ABB4HC

Hey Elsbeth,
just sent you an e-mail with a link in which you can download the file, exactly the way it was recorded with the Flip HD.
weird that you tried to PM me and it didn't work...

Hope it helps!
Thiago.

We like our TZ5 but the lack of a optical viewfinder is a big negative on snow.