While searching for the perfect video blogging camcorder I came across the Insignia® – 5.0MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with 3″ Swivel LCD Screen. The two features I liked about this product was the swivel LCD screen (I like to see myself while recording) and the $99 price tag.
Here is a picture of the pre-opened merchandise.
Let me tell you, it was a pain in the buttox (as my daughter would say) to open this thing. Once I was finally able to get it open I was ready pretty much out of the box, all I had to do was add the memory card, battery and start recording. So far so good, not so fast, it went downhill from there. I did take a few videos and was able to upload them very easily to my computers hard drive and YouTube. The two biggest draw backs though are the quality, which was terrible and the recorded files are .avi. The .avi files are able to upload directly into YouTube but are very slow. Once uploaded I tried watching a 30 second video of my daughter dancing, it stopped to load every few seconds making watching extremely annoying. I converted the file which helped but was a pain and a process I do not want to do. The main reason for my new camcorder search is because of the file conversions and importing, all things I don’t know how to do or don’t want to deal with. I want something that can’t point, record and upload direct without having to fuss with.
Lastly I want to say that Best Buy service is terrible. I figured I would be able to go into the store, ask for some guidance and they would be the experts, especially Insignia which is manufactured exclusively for Best Buy. WRONG, they did not know the answers and really couldn’t steer me in the right direction. The only reason why I purchased this product was because of the $99 price tag. Camcorder and accessories came to a total of of $139.07.
Needless to say the discounted price was not worth it and I am returning this back to the store as soon as I am done with this blog post. Good news, I have done more research and am taking the advice of a few blogger friends, I am going back to get the Flip Mino HD. It will record the files as MPEG4 which is ideal for YouTube and my video blog. I’ll be sure to post a review of that over the weekend.
And to answer the question a few will ask, why not go with a web cam? I want to go with a camcorder over a web cam because I like the portability. With portability I can record whenever and wherever I want.
Well at least you know what you want now and hopefully it will make recording and uploading much easier. It’d be nice to see a video post or two per week from you.
LOL Patrick – All department store “geniouses” are stupid, EXCEPT at the Mac store – Then again I am bias because I am a mac liar and Mac doesn’t make any non web cams
But anyways, I have had very similar experiences with along with my family at all the major department stores including Best Buy 
If you have seen ” The Big Bang Theory “, Sheldon points out the fact that the people working at electronic stores are complete idiots. Glad you found the right camera for ya eventually.
LOL Days – Yeah, most people working there are college kids or right-out-of-college kids who are looking for a more permanent job. It’s not the industry every kid dreams to go into LOL. So they don’t know shit, they only pretend to in order to make a sale