Pause: Overcoming CAS

Why does the average camcorder owner shoot for only seven hours a year?

Why do most wait for special events to prompt them to take their cams out of their closets? By definition, special events seldom arrive. Why do others put off shooting new material until they have "edited all the footage" they've already shot? They know this never happens.

These are symptoms of a psychosomatic disease. Experts call it Camcorder Avoidance Syndrome, "CAS" to make it sound properly obscure and clinical. When an inspiration comes into your head to take out your camcorder next weekend, it is CAS that makes you forget the thought within minutes. If you jot down the idea before you forget it, CAS makes you forget to charge the batteries on Friday night. One way or another it will not let you open the closet to get your camcorder. It will stop you with this: "It's just too much trouble."

We put depth technophobia psychologist Karlheinz Sigmund Farnsworth on the case. According to Farnsworth, CAS is nothing more than an assumption, rooted deeply in the patient's psyche, that camcorders are for video production. "Video production is a 'big deal' in most people's minds. We believe it requires much time and effort. We hesitate to embark on it, like mountain climbing, until we feel sufficiently prepared and energetic. The CAS patient is simply one paralyzed by the prospect of such a big project. If we can only get the patient to see the camcorder for what it is, he could drop his fear and approach it with a peaceful heart. A camcorder, after all, is nothing more than a recording mechanism." Thus spake Farnsworth.