The next step in disposable cameras: Camcorders

The guys that where behind the first disposable digital stills cameras are at it again - They're about to release the world's first disposable camcorder. As you would expect, the device won't use tape but will instead record direct to flash memory:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - CVS Corp. on Monday began selling a disposable digital camcorder which the No. 2 U.S. drugstore chain hopes will boost its photo lab business and be as popular as the single-use film and digital cameras.

The $29.99 pocket-sized camcorder was developed by Pure Digital Technologies Inc., a San Francisco-based start-up company.

Jonathan Kaplan, chief executive of Pure Digital, told Reuters in an interview the camcorder's launch made CVS the nation's first retailer to offer such a camcorder but it would eventually be distributed widely as other retailers sign up to sell it under their own store brand.

The camcorder weighs under 5 ounces and holds 20 minutes of digital video and sound. It features a 1.4 inch color playback screen and an ability to delete video, and it saves video on a memory chip instead of tapes but it has no zooming capability.

More from Reuters here.

I can't expect that the quality of the video will be up to much, but it'll be nice for those moments when you want to capture moving pictures, but wouldn't want to use your expensive new camcorder (stag nights etc). And I'm sure it won't be long before someone manages to hack the device, in much the same way as they did with CVS's stills camera.

Discuss!