BenQ Camcorder M1 launched
BenQ has launched their first every digital camcorder – and its a full HD 1080p. We have a little problem with the name though – they call it the Benq Camcorder M1. That just does not sound right, does it?
Photo: BenQ Camcorder M1, priced USD 280 approx
That is reason to rejoice, and while there is no indication of the price yet, BenQ says that it is not expensive. Update: Price of the M1 in the Taiwan market is close to US $ 280. All we have to do now is for BenQ to export it to the USA and Europe! Here in India, BenQ products make their appearance quite fast due to our partiality towards cheap products.
The Benq Camcorder M1 records 1080p video, at 30 frames per second.
The image sensor of the M1 is a Aptina 10 megapixel 1/2.3-inch CMOS, and you get 5x optical zoom – good enough? Of course.
The viewfinder LCD screen is a 3 inch, 16:9 aspect ratio affair and offers touchscreen functionality.
The BenQ Camcorder M1 is relatively lightweight, weighing in just 300 grams without counting battery and SD card. Interestingly, there is no internal storage, but you can use SD cards up to 32 GB. Does writing to the SD card is noticeably slow compared to writing to a HDD in more expensive cameras? At this point, we have no idea. Whatever that may be, there is a chance that the BenQ camcorder M1 is the cheapest full HD, 1080p camcorder you can find. Do let us know in the comments if we are wrong.
While none of us have seen the new camcorder yet, BenQ’s product literature makes some interesting claims indeed. For example, touch the object you want to focus on on the touchscreen, and focus locks on it. Also, actual recording starts 3 seconds before you hit record, so you get a little bit of the action which you would miss if you are one of those whose reflexes are a bit slow.
The preview screen of the Benq Camcorder M1 swivels through 270 degrees to make shooting yourself easier. You can even connect the camera to a TV to preview the scene on a large screen if you wish. Image gridlines on the preview screen are helpful in composing your shot.
Ten megapixels are, unless BenQ mess it up, good enough for great still photos too. Max shutter speed is 1/1200, good enough for most purposes.
Lens:
f = 6.1 ( W ) ~ 30.5 ( T ) mm
F=3.49(W) ~ 3.59(T)
(f = 35mm ~ 175mm, 35mm equivalent)