Talk Nerdy To Me: Camera or Camcorder?

Although digital cameras have been able to shoot video and camcorders have been able to take decent-quality stills for a while now, the stakes have been raised recently. If you haven't thought about buying one device to rule all your imaging needs--both moving and static--then now's a great time to start.

That's for a few reasons: thanks to high-capacity SDHC cards and storage-friendly video formats such as AVCHD, digital cameras now have both the storage capacity and the video chops to record high-def video without you having to swap out the storage card every few minutes.

On the other side of the fence, more and more camcorders are ditching the tapes (thanks to larger-capacity flash drives, SDHC cards, and beefy on-board hard drives) and pushing up the megapixel count for still-photo resolution. What's more, flash- and SDHC-based camcorders are getting smaller and more battery-efficient, thanks to a lessened dependence on internal moving parts and tape bays.

That said, these hybrid cameras may not be quite there yet. An intriguing option on the camcorder end is Sony's $1400 Handycam HDR-SR12, which packs in a 120GB hard drive, 12x optical zoom, and the ability to shoot 10-megapixel stills. On the digital-camera side is Panasonic's Lumix DMC-TZ5 ($275), a 10-megapixel point-and-shoot camera that has the ability to shoot 720p high-def video. Samsung's NV24HD is another sleek 10-megapixel camera that shoots 720p high-def video; it's decently priced at $350, but it only supports SDHC cards of up to 8GB in capacity.

A tweener option with some unique capabilities is Casio's Exilim Pro EX-F1 ($1000), a bulkier advanced point-and-shoot with 12x optical zoom. In addition to the ability to shoot 6-megapixel stills and full high-def video, the EX-F1's main draw is its super-slow-motion shooting mode. It can take up to 1200 shots per second, which makes it a good option for sports photographers and moment-of-impact style shots. Still, it's bigger than many of today's camcorders; we're currently testing it out, so check back for the full review.

For many videographers, it's not even about high-def. In this video-sharing age, one big drawing point for any device is the ability to easily upload clips to YouTube, which explains the popularity of devices such as Pure Digital's Flip Video Ultra and Casio's YouTube-geared Exilim cams.

So here's the question: would you rather have a high-def camcorder that takes good stills, or a smaller point-and-shoot that takes good high-def video? Or maybe you support the separation of church and state when it comes to cameras and camcorders?

We want to know what's on your mind, so vote in our poll and let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

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