Easy to Use DV Camcorder Perfect for any Novice

One of Sony's latest DV camcorders, the DCR-SC100, is an easy-to-use point-and-shoot model with a FireWire jack, mike and headphone jacks and a 3-inch LCD monitor for easy viewing while shooting or playing back your videos. Other features include SteadyShot electronic image stabilization, 10:1 optical (120:1 digital) zoom, Control-L, six digital effects, titler and audio/video dub. (800) 222-7669.
Suggested retail price:$2199

Focus Enhancements has recently released two new external encoders for outputting computer graphics to a TV, monitor or VCR. The TView Gold offers users support for non-interlaced resolution of 1024x768, allowing users to precisely fit any image to any TV screen, including the new 16x9 letter-box formats, without dropping lines of video data or altering video resolution. The TView Silver is a low-cost option offering 800x600 resolution and proprietary TrueScale(TM) image compression technology. (978) 371-2000.
Suggested retail price: TView Silver, $249; TView Gold, $399

Move Mountains with Bryce 3D

MetaCreations' new Bryce 3D, the latest upgrade in the popular Bryce series of 3D design tools, includes an easy, intuitive way to create impressive 3D animations. In addition to the award-winning Bryce interface, version 3D includes keyframe animation control over primitive objects and terrains, camera moves, materials and textures, and the sky and fog palette. Also available are a new set of Hypertextures, enhanced environment controls, editable pre-configured motion paths and a new selection of primitive shapes. (800)459-5188.
Suggested retail price: $199

VHS Editing Deck from Mitsubishi

From Mitsubishi comes the HS-U680, a VHS editing deck with several features intended to give camcorder owners a little more editing control than is available on the average home VCR. Features include jog/shuttle control, audio/video dub, flying erase head and Mitsubishi's Twin PerfecTape® recording optimization system. Also included is Mitsubishi's proprietary Active A/V Network system for interactive linking between a Mitsubishi television and VCR. (800) 332-2119.
Suggested retail price: $600

More Deposition Gear from Martel

Martel Electronics has recently expanded its Videomaster line of complete deposition videography systems to include four new models. Pictured here is model V456-2, which features a Panasonic AG-456 S-VHS camcorder, a Shure M367 audio mixer with 6 microphone inputs, a 9-inch color VCR/TV, and plenty of storage space for tape, microphones, accessories, etc. (800) 553-5536.
Suggested retail price: $7250 P>

Hi-Resolution Digital Printer

Whether you want to create instant photo albums, design personal business cards or just print out copies of your favorite still images from video, the new Panasonic PV-DP2000 will help you get high-quality still images from your camcorder onto paper. Users of DV camcorders and frame grabbers will like its 16.7 million colors and 480x1280 resolution, as well as its choice of composite or S-video input and ability to manipulate camcorder-created titles. (800) 211-PANA.
Suggested retail price: To be announced

Video Capture for Laptops

Making use of the new ZoomedVideo standard that allows digital video to be played on a laptop computer, iRez's new CapSure PC Card allows full-screen, 16-bit, 30-frame-per-second video capture for Apple PowerBook 2400/3400 and Toshiba laptops. Up to 27MB per second can be delivered directly to the laptop's PCI bus with the CapSure, leaving the computer's CPU free for other tasks. (612) 939-9299.
Suggested retail price: $150

Colorful Scene Stealer

Dubner International, Inc., is announcing the Stealer-in-Color, a videotape logging system based on their original automatic scene detection technology. The new system offers frame-grab options for working with color or monochrome video thumbnails on a project-by-project basis. Video images are grabbed and stored with cutpoints automatically marked and timecode recorded. (201) 664-6434.
Suggested retail price: $960

Need a Computer Screen? Just SnagIt

From TechSmith Corporation comes SnagIt 4.1, a software program that grabs images, text and/or video directly from your computer screen. Applications for videographers include the ability to put demonstrations of computer operations onto an instructional video, or direct input of graphics into a nonlinear editing program. (800) 517-3001.
Suggested retail price: $40

Digital Video Storage from Castlewood

Castlewood's ORB, a new low-cost 3.5-inch removable hard drive, stores up to 2.16 gigabytes at 12.2 megabytes per second sustained data transfer rate - a speed which the company claims is the fastest of any removable media product available today. Designed for editing and storage of content that requires high data rates, the ORB is a perfect fit for computer-based multimedia and nonlinear content creators. (510) 224-9900.
Suggested retail price: ORB Drive, $200; 2.16GB ORB Disk, $30

Customized Video Labels from DogByte

If you've ever wanted to customize your own colorful video labels with your home computer, DogByte's Custom Video Labels and Covers might be what you're looking for. With themes for many occasions such as weddings, family reunions, anniversaries or the birth of a child, these labels will help you organize your collection of special moments reserved for posterity. (800) 936-4298.
Suggested retail price: $10