GE has now entered the world of video cameras with a toe in the water – literally – with the DV-1, a full HD 1080p 30 frames per second micro camera. Oh and it’s waterproof to 5 metres and shockproof to 1.5 metres.

If you want to shoot stills, it’ll do that too at 5 megapixels.

About the size of the average mobile phone, the solidly built DV1 has a 6.5cm screen on the back, set above simple push button controls surrounding a familiar record on/off button-cum-navigation controls circular affair. An on/off switch is on the right side above the SD card slot with an HDMI, USB and battery slots on the left side of the unit. A USB cable with duckhead charger is supplied, but (sigh) an HDMI cable is not. Nor is any type of SD card.

Important tech specs of the DV1 include:

• ½.5” CMOS
• Focal Length 5.5mm
• F2.8
• Electronic image stabilisation
• 4x digital zoom
• Red eye removal, auto brightness, auto scene and face detection are built in.

Documentation is adequate with a 22 page paper manual taking you through the basics.

A variety of colours is available including silver, black, lime green and yellow. And here’s a tip, if you intend snorkelling with the DV1 get one of the bright coloured ones as it will be much easier to see if you drop it as it will not float. And a major oversight for a camcorder such as this is there is no provision for a wrist strap.

The RRP is a very reasonable $199.

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