American Idol Digital Camcorder Impressions

Posted by Charles Leake Categories: Cameras, Product Reviews

Okay, we know that when you first hear that an American Idol Digital Camcorder exists, your first reaction might be to leave the site, never to return.  However once you actual see and play with Digital Blue’s American Idol Digital Camcorder, you discover how wrong your first reaction was.  You see, the product is powerful and yet easy to use from both a hardware and software standpoint. This is the camera I dreamed about having when I was a kid.

The American Idol Digital Camcorder is not that fancy or as powerful as a standard 3CCD digital camera. In fact, the camcorder is just a few steps above the Intel Web Camera as it shares the same Intel-based technology. It’s 100% cordless, and with a click of a button it can record over 5 minutes of footage without the use of tapes or memory card.  Adding to it’s ease is the fact that you just need to hit one button to bring the footage to your PC via USB. This makes it a perfect camera for children.

Surprisingly, the movie editing software is also fairly powerful.  You can add special effects and sound effects, move filmed clips wherever you want, add stock footage, text, fades, wipes, and a whole host of other common movie editing features. Again, as it is a product focused on children, everything is just simple to use. Within 3 minutes I was able to create a 10 minute film using the stock footage in conjunction with a few minutes of pre-filmed footage.

The only major issues I see with the American Idol Digital Camcorder is the fact you can only use the special effects, stock footage, and sound effects that come with the camera and its software.  Right now this limits the use of the camera to making only films that star you in an episode of American Idol. It may sound fun and all, but after a while Ryan Seacrest does get old.  The Digital Blue representative I talked to said that they plan to make it possible to import in your own stock footage and special effects into the editing software in the near future.  They also said they plan to make it possible to import in other movie footage that was not filmed with the American Idol Digital Camera. 

If they do the above and create a user community for people that own the camera to people able to share films and home generated special effects and stock footage, Digital Blue will have a huge a hit on their hands.