Lake Success, N.Y.
– Coby Electronics said Wednesday
it is jumping into the digital camcorder market with the introduction of three
budget-friendly models in the company’s new Snapp line.
Designed to go up
against the likes of Pure Digital’s popular Flip camcorders, Coby’s “pocket” camcorders bring an even more
aggressive pricing proposition to the market. Each model is priced to sell for less
than $100 and will be available at the end of July.
Michael Paladino, Coby’s
senior product manager, told TWICE that the company has reached a deal to
distribute the camcorders through Walmart Canada, as well as many of the
company’s regular e-commerce partners including J&R Music World It is
working on expanding the distribution to other accounts now.
“Our opportunity
is in our price points,” Paladino said. “Our customer feedback is telling us
that there is no one really out there with the product at the price points that
we have. With the economy the way it is, we think people are stepping down and
being a little more cautious in their spending. A lot of people don’t want to
spend the money for a Sony or Flip at $150, where you can get two of these for that
price.”
The highlight of
the trio – the CAM5000 SnappHD – will carry a $99 suggested retail and features
a 5-megapixel CMOS sensor with 2,584 by 1,936 pixel resolution. It will capture
HD videos in MPEG-4 at up to 720p format, with 1,280 by 720 pixel resolution at
30 fps, the company said.
The unit has a bar-style
body design and includes 128MB of built-in flash memory and an LED lamp for
low-light shooting situations.
Included is a
2-inch LCD viewscreen, a 4x digital zoom, SD/SDHC card slot that is expandable
up to 8GB, an integrated USB port and removable/rechargeable lithium-ion
battery with two hours of battery life.
For those really tight
on cash, Coby’s entry Snapp model – the CAM3000 mini digital camcorder – will
carry a $40 suggested retail.
It also features a
bar-style body and includes a 1.5-inch TFT LCD view screen.
A 1.3-megapixel
CMOS sensor (1,280 by 960) will capture video in AVI format at standard
definition VGA (640 by 480) resolution.
Included is an LED
for low-light shooting situations, a 4x digital zoom, 32MB of built-in flash memory,
SD/SDHC card slot expandable up to 8GB and a USB 2.0 port. It is powered by
four AAA batteries (included) that will provide more than four hours of battery
life.
The step-up model
CAM4000 will carry a $60 suggested retail and includes a vertical grip design
with a flip-out 2.4-inch LCD view screen, a 3-megapixel CMOS sensor (2,000 by 1,504)
that will capture video in AVI format at VGA (640 by 480) standard-definition
levels. A photo flash is added for still images shooting in low light.
Also included is a
4x digital zoom, 32MB built-in memory, SD/SDHC card slot expandable up to 8GB
and a USB 2.0 port. It is powered by three AAA batteries (included) with more
than 1.5 hours of battery life.
Arcsoft Media
Impression for editing and uploading video to YouTube is included in all three
models.
