Killer Potential new Mac product - maybe call it... iVideo?

[Redbeard25]

So Apple's gotten everyone to pony up $150 for an iSight and $400 for an iPod, right? How about a $199 device that docks both of them together, runs the iSight off of the iPod battery, and includes a hand strap, on-off switch and 2.5" LCD screen, giving you an Apple branded consumer camcorder? Just dock the iPod back at the desk and your video is transferred right into iMovie. There would have to be a minimal amount of electronics to get the video stream decoded and on the monitor. Or, be chintzy about it and don't include a video viewfinder.

Steve J., you can just email me to get my address to send me my royalty check.

What do you think?

 

[OutThere]

Sounds good to me, but there would have to be a dedicated piece in the adapter that would allow you to specify the video quality, as it is being recorded onto a hard drive instead of a tape, as well as a form of a processor to encode the video. There would also be the problem of space, while there is no problem storing MP3s on the iPod, full quality DV video is 250 MB per minute, so 1 GB every four minutes, then for the 40 GB model you would only be able to record for less than 160 minutes. This doesn't seem too bad until you take into account the fact that you can't change tapes, so someone taking their camera on vacation would be limited to 160 minutes of recording for the entire vacation, unless they had a laptop (which not everyone does). Then there would be the problem of quality. At maximum quality the iSight is 640x480, which is only 307,000 pixels in each frame, whereas most consumer cameras have upwards of 450,000 pixels in each frame. The high end ones have upward of 1.3 megapixels (million pixels). Apart from this it seems pretty good.

 

[Phatpat]

I think it would be clunky. 3 parts? I know Apple's got some mad design skillz....but I think it would be difficult to keep all these together in one easy to hold format. And the price is getting up there...might as well buy a quality real camcorder

 

[MoparShaha]

The iSight has good quality for a webcam, but it's nowhere near good enough for a camcorder. And as mentioned before, you could pick up a much better quality DV camcorder for about the same price.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by OutThere761
Sounds good to me, but there would have to be a dedicated piece in the adapter that would allow you to specify the video quality, as it is being recorded onto a hard drive instead of a tape, as well as a form of a processor to encode the video. There would also be the problem of space, while there is no problem storing MP3s on the iPod, full quality DV video is 250 MB per minute, so 1 GB every four minutes, then for the 40 GB model you would only be able to record for less than 160 minutes. This doesn't seem too bad until you take into account the fact that you can't change tapes, so someone taking their camera on vacation would be limited to 160 minutes of recording for the entire vacation, unless they had a laptop (which not everyone does). Then there would be the problem of quality. At maximum quality the iSight is 640x480, which is only 307,000 pixels in each frame, whereas most consumer cameras have upwards of 450,000 pixels in each frame. The high end ones have upward of 1.3 megapixels (million pixels). Apart from this it seems pretty good.

The number of pixels in a video camera doesn't mean very much because video has a fixed resolution (720*480). The physical size, and number, of the CCDs is much more important than pixel count.

I think the biggest hurrdle is making something that's more than just a very expensive gimic. It would also kill battery life because the iPod would have to power the camera as well as continously write to the HDD. I would like to see the iPod be able to act as a playback device though when hooked up to a TV. Make a dock connect-to-RCA and/or S-Video and away we go.

Oh, and Redbeard25, if someone was going to get a royalty check for this idea it wouldn't be you. This has been on people's "wish list" sense the iPod was first released.


Lethal

 

[Spock]

iSight for the iPod would be cool plug a small camera into the iPods dock connector and record video right to the iPod HD I like it.

 

[benixau]

Just another all-in-one stand that has a dock connector on it so when you plug it into the iSight, the FW port is linked to the FW on the iPod. You then just have an upside down iPod and the thing looks and feels like an upright DVCam.

just for quick shots.