DESCRIPTION

Video buffs in need of a powerful but small digital camcorder should focus on Sharp's VL-FD1U Digital Viewcam. The compact 1.2-pound camcorder captures full-motion and still images and uploads them to a PC over a zippy IEEE 1394 (FireWire) connection. Decked out with a 3.5-inch swiveling touch screen, the Viewcam lets you edit and organize video clips inside the camera by indexing them in thumbnail format, making them easy to identify and retrieve. It's also loaded with cool features, including a 380, 000-pixel progressive-scan CCD, all the standard connectivity options, and 10x optical and 200x digital zoom. The color LCD Touch Viewscreen allows a user to write on screen with a touch pen. The information inputted via a pen on screen can be different colors and shapes or just your own handwriting and saved to tape. The VL-FD1U will also display small thumbnail images on screen, if the thumbnail image is touched the tape will auto index to that location on the DVC tape.