Creative also claims that there has been some improvement to the audio recording quality, which was a weak point of the prior generations. Other feature additions include:

* Improved quality of video in low light or brightly lit conditions with manual exposure adjustments
* External stereo microphone support for better audio recording
* Headphone output for private listening
* Motion Detection Mode enables users to program the camera to begin recording as soon as motion is detected
* Out-of-the box Mac and PC compatibility
* Still Photo Capture Mode

The camcorder will be available mid-December for $US180 (and in a whopping five colours). Since that gives you plenty of time to shop, check out our pocket camcorder comparison guide before making a buying decision. [Creative via epiZENter via Engadget]

Crumpler Industry Disgrace neck strap Fancy cameras, especially German ones, are heavy. Fancy lenses bolted to fancy cameras? It’s like lugging around a (fancy) dump truck. Normal camera straps are thin and cut into your neck. Crumpler’s Industry Disgrace neck strap is fat, super padded and breathable. And they come in patterns. 50 Australian bucks. [Crumpler]

Lensbaby optics Crazy lenses for DSLRs, like tilt-shifts and fisheyes, can be ridiculously expensive, way too expensive for a starving artiste who must save their pennies for vintage boots. Enter Lensbaby, which produces cheap, quick and dirty single-effect lenses and adaptors for DSLRs. While their quality isn’t exactly bulletproof, they do deliver the special effect shots Flickr whores crave. The core lenses do variations on the whole small area of focus, lots of blurriness surrounding it, while the optics system lets you swap out inserts for different effects, like fisheye or pinhole. Prices vary. [Lensbaby]

A 50mm prime lens Back in the day, a 50mm prime lens is what photogs cut their teeth on. No zoom, no wide-angle, no image stabilisation to fiddle with. Just sharp focus. Meaning it’s pure composition on the photographer’s part. If you’re buying for a DSLR that’s not full-frame – basically anything other than Canon 5D Mark II or D700 – you’re gonna wanna grab a 35mm lens (with the crop factor, it becomes about 50mm, give or take). They get pricier as they get faster, but you can score a 50mm for a couple of hundred, and a cheap(ish) 35mm for a bit more. Price varies.

Joby GorillaPod A cheap tripod that’ll fit in a hipster messenger bag, for long exposure shots. $30-$50 [Gizmodo, Maxwell]

Crumpler camera bags Most camera bags aren’t very befitting of actually cool photographers. They’re boring. Corporate. Ugly. Crumpler’s 5 Million Dollar Home holds a DSLR, an extra lens and flash and is sunny sky blue. Stepping up a model, the 8 Million Dollar Home has more space for more stuff, if needed. $135-$220 (Australian). [5 Million Dollar Home, 8 Million Dollar Home]

Diana F+ CMYK lomo camera Real artsy photographers shoot with cheap lomo film cameras to produce vintage-y lo-fi photos, with crazy saturation, exposures and optical effects, perfect for Vice Magazine. Don’t think, just shoot. And the super bright CMYK paint job? You know what it is. $200 [Lomography]

Leica M9: The ultimate photographer gift. Picking up a Leica camera instantly turns anybody into a Photographer. While holding a Leica, it is impossible not to shoot perfect, artsy photos. Even if you try. The M9 is the latest, most exquisite piece of German photographic craftsmanship yet, with an 18-megapixel, full-frame sensor that delivers the most amazing photos of all time. $US7000 and worth every penny. [Leica]

Superzoom Cameras: They’re not DSLRs, they’re not pocketable point-and-shoots, and they’re definitely not artsy. They’re for tourists, and for the money, you could easily get a way better cheap DSLR or vintage film camera.

Make your own recommendations in the comments.

All Giz Wants is our annual round-up of favourite gift ideas, including amazing attainable objects and a few far-out fantasies. We’ll be popping guides catered to different interests several times per day for the next week, so keep checking back.

The latest rumour reads like it’s August all over again, but it does have one particularly disappointing aspect. According to the source, the iPod touch camera will match the not-so-hot quality of the nano’s.

Here’s to hoping the engineers can somehow stuff the iPhone’s camera into an iPod Touch. Sure, there’s not much space to work with in the Touch, but we can believe. [The Examiner via 9 to 5 Mac]

We’ve seen cameras do all kinds of crazy things. DIY 3D photography, augmented reality, and now this demo by Qi Pan shows how an ordinary webcam can model objects in 3D.

I’m in no position to discuss the amount of technical wizardry in play here, but I do think the interface is really great. Look at how it overlays scanned textures on the person’s hand to create a transparency effect. Neato!

It’s definitely a whiz-bang application, but like augmented reality, I’m not sure how much I need it. Someone needs to figure out how to scan and print a sandwich. Now that would be something. [Pro Forma via Boing Boing]

The H3DII-50 MS records four shots in a row by “moving the sensor by one pixel between each shot to record full RGB values at each position”. Hasselblad Australia is currently advertising a price of $32,995 on its website (normally $40,995). It might take fantastic pictures, but that price tag is still tough to swallow. [Hasselblad via DP Review via Engadget]

Maximum PC’s how-to uses 3D picture synchronisation software called StereoData Maker, a non-volatile firmware update based on the Canon Hack Development Kit (CHDK).

You’ll then need to build a mounting rig and use a small enclosure (such as an Altoids tin) to build a simple USB switch remote. Free software called StereoPhoto Maker is used for post-processing. And yeah, you’ll still need a pair of red/cyan glasses. Still, it looks like fun. Full instructions at: [Maximum PC]

The official challenge: “Slow Shutter.” As always, interpret the theme however you’d like to give us the best shot that you can.

For a little inspiration, check out the photos by Barry Underwood. And if you’ve never shot long exposure photography, don’t let that stop you. Check out examples using the technique in different ways here.

The rules:

1. Submissions need to be your own.
2. Photos need to be taken the week of the contest. (No portfolio linking or it spoils the “challenge” part.)
3. Explain (briefly) the equipment, settings and technique used to snag the shot.
4. Email submissions to contests@gizmodo.com.

Send your best entries by the end of SUNDAY (yes, we’re moving the contest days) at contests@gizmodo.com with “Slow Shutter” in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs or GIFs at 800 pixels wide, and use a FirstnameLastname.jpg naming convention using whatever name you want to be credited with. Include your shooting summary (camera, lens, ISO, etc) in the body of the email. [Life]

It’s designed to withstand multiple drops from 2m, work underwater at depths of 3m for 60 continuous minutes and has a number of action-shooting modes. It records wide-format movies at 848 x 480 resolution (30 frames per second).

The EX-G1 will be $US300 in December, and available in either black or red. Just in time for the summer holidays.

Pocket camcorders (aka mini cams or budget cams, or sometimes Flip cams after the pioneer of the category) are simple gadgets. They’ve got one job to do: Shoot watchable video, often for uploading to streaming video sites. They’re also very close to the end of their lifespan, with perhaps only a year or so left before smartphones make them obsolete, but right now they’re the easiest and cheapest way to take quick and dirty videos. I tested seven of these diminutive camcorders, or more accurately six camcorders and one capable PMP, in five categories: Outdoor, indoor, low light, macro and sound.

The criteria for judging fell mostly to smoothness of video during motion, image sharpness, noise and colour reproduction. Specs like storage capacity, screen size and battery life are mostly the same across the board, although overall, compared to last year, this crop of mini cams are faster and stronger with beefed up memory and HD sensors. All save the iPod Nano take 720p video (or better) and add HDMI ports and more memory to accommodate the higher-quality footage. Yet I wasn’t really all that thrilled with any of the camcorders — the bar for these cams is so low you could trip over it, and several of them actually did. Battery life was disappointing across the board, as none could break two hours of filming. Anyway, on to the results!

Results

Choosing between the Kodak Zi8, Flip Mino HD and Flip Ultra HD is tricky. The Zi8 is unreliable, but when it’s good it’s unbelievably good; the Mino HD is diminutive, solid and stylish, but overpriced and with lousy touch controls; and the Ultra HD is a reliably good shooter with a low price and the best controls of all, but physically unappealing (read: fat as hell). In my opinion, you should never judge a book by its obese cover, so the champion is… the Flip Ultra HD!

Flip Ultra HD: First Place

Flip’s Ultra HD is the best overall choice. It’s one of the cheapest cams around (at $US150, it’s $US70 less than it’s younger brother, the Mino HD), but it tied for the highest score in our lineup, and it features nice tactile controls that I much prefer to the sleeker Mino HD’s touch-sensitive exercise in frustration. Unfortunately, the Dom DeLuise HD is upsettingly fat — about twice as thick as the Mino HD, but even that doesn’t really get across how truly large it feels in the hand. It’s not particularly heavy, but it is by a long shot the thickest pocket cam here. On the plus side, that girth hides a useful battery — Flip includes a rechargeable pack, but the John Candy HD can also use two AA batteries, which is great since pocket cams have generally abysmal battery life (usually about an hour, though of course they’re often rated for double or triple that). Replaceable, cheap batteries are really nice, but some will have to decide whether the William Howard Taft HD’s girth is worth that feature. Given its price, I think it is.

Video quality is just fine, above average if not particularly impressive on every test, and it, like the Mino HD, is extremely user-friendly. Although that simplicity yields less flexibility and a barebones feature set compared to the Kodak Zi8, it’s a good distillation of the aims of pocket camcorders, and its 100 per cent tactile controls are a welcome change from the Mino HD. If you’re not superficial, it’s a very smart buy.

Flip Mino HD: Second Place

Flip’s Mino HD is the best-looking and best-feeling camcorder I tried. Its aluminium body feels solid and expensive, which might be because it is — at $US230, it’s the priciest camcorder I tested. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it sells the best, even though it’s not the greatest deal, because it looks (and is) simple, cute and functional. I won’t rehash my review, except to say that I hate those goddamn touch buttons more and more every time I use the Mino HD. They’re incredibly sensitive and I guarantee that you will accidentally trigger the playback function more times than you can count.

Besides that, it’s totally serviceable: It did well on all of my tests, it’s thoughtfully designed and stupid-easy to use. But it’s definitely overpriced, and I have a hard time recommending it over its physically awkward yet substantially cheaper older brother, the Ultra HD, just for its looks.

Kodak Zi8: Third Place

Wider and taller than the Flip Ultra HD, though not nearly as fat, the Zi8 packs a 1080p sensor and the largest and best screen of the bunch. The controls are easy and tactile and aside from flimsy-feeling plastic covers over the ports (one of mine already fell off), the hardware is high-quality. The Zi8 snagged the bronze medal, because while its highs were higher than either of the Flips, its lows were lower — and given how focused and simple this type of gadget is, reliability is worth more than flashing moments of greatness.

The Zi8 absolutely rocked in two of my tests, outdoor and macro, with perfect colour reproduction and excellent clarity, and it even takes pretty decent still photos (think point-and-shoot circa 2006 quality). But the conditions need to be just right to get the most out of this guy — I first tried it in 1080p mode (neither of the Flips can break 720p) and while picture quality was amazing, scenes with lots of motion were pretty jerky to the point of being distracting. But even in 720p, it was still head-and-shoulders above the competition — but only in outdoor and macro testing. In the indoor test it proved to have difficulty focusing on objects closer than 3m but farther than 0.5m away, and low light shooting was distinctly tinted red and a bit dark. It wasn’t unusable in any test (unlike the similarly uneven Creative Vado HD) and at $US180 it’s fairly priced, so I’d still recommend it — but you and I are likely to be more forgiving of the Zi8’s flaws than, say, your mum, who just wants a camera that works pretty well all the time. For her, go for a Flip.

The Rest

The Creative Vado HD scored pretty high, only a point lower than the bronze medallist Kodak Zi8, but while its design is fairly middle-of-the-road (albeit nice and teeny), its abilities were all over the place. It was one of the worst in standard daytime shooting (it has a hard time with sunlight, a serious problem for a pocket cam) and macro, but was the best at indoor, and while its low light video was a little dark, it was the clearest and smoothest of the lot. It also, likely due to Creative’s background in stellar-sounding PMPs and sound cards, boasts excellent sound quality. At $US150, it’s very fairly priced, but I can’t recommend a camcorder that mangles sunlight the way the Vado does.

Apple’s iPod Nano is the only “camcorder” in this roundup to peak at VGA resolution, and aside from a surprisingly strong macro performance, it shows. It turned vibrant colours dull and lifeless, washed out detail and made everything seem darker than it was. It can’t compete with the Zi8s and Flips of the world, but it’s still usable and incredibly priced at $US150/$180 for 8GB/16GB — if you’ve got a Nano already, you probably won’t need a dedicated cam. Convergence killed the video star, I guess.

The JVC Picsio GC-FM1 sucked. It’s spectacularly ugly (think Ed Hardy-inspired) and feels cheap with a confusing button layout (unforgivable in a pocket cam) and a high price ($US200, or $US178 at Amazon). Besides all that, it scored poorly in every one of our tests. Avoid.

And finally, the worst — Aiptek’s PenCam HD. I wanted to like it, I really did &mdash ;it’s got a tongue-depressor-like design and came with a sweet tripod that attaches to a bicycle’s handlebars — but it bombed in almost every one of my tests. The 1.1-inch screen is nearly unusable and battery life barely topped 40 minutes, so it’s definitely the loser here.

Don Nguyen assisted with this Battlemodo.