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Instant Upload vs. Painstaking Edit

But while our lab-based video tests provide a good indication of how the different devices will perform under the same conditions, this isn't entirely an apples-to-apples test: They are all different enough that you must take their features into account to understand how they'll work in different settings.

For example, the Elura 100 has a 20X zoom lens -- above average for a camcorder, and considerably more powerful than anything else we looked at for this review. It also has two weak LED lights that help the exposure in dim settings, if your subject is within a few feet of the camcorder. It has a 2.7-inch wide-screen display, and it shoots in wide-screen mode, too -- great for viewing output on a wide-screen TV (though it's still a standard-definition camcorder). It does not capture video in low light as well as other camcorders do, but it's far and away the best here in dim settings. You'll have to use a video editing app or a conversion utility to compress your footage.

Unlike some digital cameras, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2 will adjust the exposure as you shoot a movie, but the focus remains fixed, and you can't zoom while you're in movie mode. If you limit your movie's duration, or if you reduce the quality setting, you may not have to recompress it; otherwise, you must start up the video editing software.

The Creative Live Cam Optia has a spring-loaded clip for attaching it to an LCD screen. The Webcam rotates 270 degrees, so you can take videos of yourself or of someone in front of you, and you can adjust exposure settings manually with an on-screen utility. However, you must twist the lens to adjust the focus, and hard light caused flaring. The Webcam works only when it's attached to a computer. But YouTube allows you to upload video directly to its servers if you are using a Webcam, with no software required; that is about as easy as it gets.

The Palm Treo 750 camera phone has few mobility constraints, but it has a fixed lens with no focusing capabilities and only digital zooming. You can upload to YouTube directly via MMS (Multimedia Message Service), but we found that we couldn't upload videos longer than 5 seconds at the phone's best resolution, or longer than 10 seconds at 176 by 144 resolution, because the Cingular service it was using limits files sent via MMS to 300KB. (Verizon limits MMS video transmissions to 350KB, and Sprint limits them to 15 seconds). For our tests, we chose the higher resolution, transferred video to a miniSD card, and then copied our movie to a computer before uploading it to YouTube.

I had a difficult time finding the Digital Blue American Idol Digital Camcorder at my local Best Buy store -- but I was too embarrassed to ask staffers where they kept it. It comes with fun, kid-focused software and an external microphone (though you can connect it to your PC only, not to the actual camcorder). When you're capturing video, you must keep the capture button pressed down -- up to a limit of 4 minutes at its best-quality setting, or about 6 minutes at its worst setting, unless you connect it to a PC via USB, as we did. You can also use the Idol to upload directly to YouTube, if the device is connected via USB, though the quality isn't nearly as good as the Optia's.

Multitaskers Win

Using a MiniDV camcorder requires the most effort if you want to post videos online, but most other devices don't make things much easier, unless you accept compromises. But I'm willing to sacrifice if the price is low (in the case of a Webcam) or if the device excels at other tasks (as in the case of a digital camera).

Meanwhile, the blogosphere has yet to notice my videos. Fame is fleeting and fickle.