I have always prided myself in that when I or my team test a new camcorder or other gadget, we do it in a way that fairly represents how an end user would treat it. On occasion we have done what  we would call ‘laboratory’ reviews where the specs of a camcorder have been verified, but in the main, we prefer to take them into the wild for a complete blooding so to speak.

To date we have had camcorders in aircraft, in cars on motor racing circuits, in boats (and on land) while fishing, jumped with parachutists, attached to surfers, skiers, dogs and horses and even crossed the country from West to East attached to a windcsreen.

I see our job in this area as giving solid advice to potential buyers based on this usage; is it sturdy / waterproof / drop resistant? Does its specifications live up to the reality of using it in the real world? Are there any ‘gotchas’ that can make this item less than desirable?

Only a proper test can find these things out. In a lab test, the fact that adding a lanyard to a camera can be a bit of a fiddly affair may not be such a big deal, but if you are trying to do it with wet and cold fingers, it certainly is! An LCD screen might be fine in fluorescent light, but under the Aussie sun it might render the camera useless. Batteries may freeze at Mt Charlotte, or humidity kill a camera in Fiji or Darwin.

I am not suggesting a majority of reviews of items are less than ideal, but I did come across a situation just recently where a less than perfect reviewer did make an error, and a later investigation of the said product has found what seems to be a serious flaw that the initial reviewer didn’t pick up.

And that saddens me as we owe it to our readers to do the best we can on their behalf. And this was unforgiveable.

So as a mistake of such largesse was made, I consider to have given myself an uppercut, repented and will be re-writing the review of the said product as soon as information is received back from the vendor as to why this could happen and the fix.

In short, this camera, when writing to an SD card, doesn’t tell you when the card is full. It simply deletes the first file written and starts again. Second, in a particular mode, 8GB of SD card will only hold 30 minutes of 720p video.

Less than ideal compression.

The point is, only a decent extended test would have picked this up.

For New Year then, I’ll be trying a little harder and asking my writers to also be extra cautious and thorough. It is our personal reputation and that of the magazine on the line after all and I readers trust us to do this job properly on their behalf. They pay good money for that they do.

And now, as a consequence of this slip, I have sod all video imagery of the trip across from WA to Sydney. That really hurts. If I had bought this camera on MY recommendation for such a trip – you know what I mean – I’d be seriously pissed off and want to give me more than an uppercut.

By David Hague

David is the owner and publisher of AusCam Online. He has a background in media dating back to 1979 when he first got involved with photojournalism in motorsport, and went from there into technology via a 5 year stint with Tandy Computers. Following that, he ran a software distribution company on the Gold Coast and was one of the first to recognise the potential of Microsoft Windows.

Moving back to WA, David wrote scripts for Computer Television for video training for the just released Windows and Office 95 among others, and was then lured to Sydney to create web sites for the newly commercial Internet in 1995, building hundreds of sites under contract to OzEmail including Coates Hire, Hertz Queensland, John Williamson, the NSW Board of Studies and many, many more.

He went back into full time journalism as the Managing Editor for Channel 7's 'Gadget Guy', Peter Blasina's publications VideoCamera and Pixelmag, before starting Australasian Camcorder magazine when these publications were shelved. He lives at Sydney's Avalon Beaches nearly on the ocean front with dog Budweiser and in his spare time is a nut for motor sport, road safety, fishing, science fiction - especially Dr Who - and technology.

David can be contacted via david@auscamonline.com