Quest for the perfect camera for the Primary School classroom of 2010

Posted on by primaryt

I want to find the perfect camera for your classroom, I don’t expect to find a one size suits all type solution.

Challenge CLC have been extremely kind in funding this project and Bradford schools have been more then happy to write a review based on their experiences with the different cameras. My plan is to rotate the cameras between schools and classrooms to get multiple reviews on each camera.

We are buying 10 cameras and reviewing them over the next few weeks. Also thanks to @Raff31, @LordLangley73 and @DeerWood for their input. We will be using this document for suggestions on ways to use these cameras.

Our shortlist (of which we probably need to remove 1/2):

  1. Kodak Zi6 (£90)
  2. *Kodak Zi8 (£120)
  3. Toshiba Camelio P30 (£115)
  4. Panasonic SDR S15 (£160)
  5. +/ Apple iPod Nano 8GB 5Th generation (£105)
  6. / Zoom Q3 (£200)
  7. Veho VCC 002 (£100)
  8. Panasonic SDR S26 (£163)
  9. Kodak Zx1 (£70)
  10. *Sanyo VPC CG10EBK / Xacti (£145)
  11. / Mustek DV316L (£38)
  12. / Samsung U10 (£83)
  13. Veho VCC-001 (£90) (Not sure on this one because its designed for youtube)
  14. m/ Sony MHS-PM1 (£130)
  15. / Creative Vado (£54)
  16. / Creative Vado HD (£90)
  17. Vivitar DVR 545 (£70)
  18. +/ *Flip Video Ultra High Definition Camcorder 8GB (£120)
  19. +/ Flip Video Ultra Camcorder 2nd Generation 4GB (£90)

And a bit controversial:

  1. Actioncam Action Video Camera (£28)
  2. +Veho VCC-003 Muvi (£50)

* = Comes highly recommended
/ = Stunning design
+ = Built in memory (Enough to record video)
m = Special memory required

Which would you remove? Has anyone seen any info on an action video camera being used in a classroom before? Does this seem completely silly? I like Silly, do you?

Removing the first bunch..

Getting my list down was painfully difficult, I wanted to try as many cameras as possible but some where too expensive or not suitable and my budget is limited!

Here is are the camcorders I removed and reasons for removing them:

  1. Panasonic SDR S15 (£160) — too expensive
  2. Panasonic SDR S26 (£163) — too expensive
  3. Zoom Q3 (£200) too expensive
  4. Vivitar DVR 545 (£70) — out of stock
Total amount to spend is now only £1440 for cameras and £195 for memory cards! Bargain for 17 cameras! Now to see if we can get that level of funding! 🙂

4 thoughts on “Quest for the perfect camera for the Primary School classroom of 2010”

  1. I am a fan of SD card based cameras, because once a learner has finished filming they can remove their card and hand the camera to the next learner. It also means that when a lesson is finished, the cameras can be handed back, the learners keep the SD cards and there is little or no time wasted downloading footage from the cameras when they could be used by a different class.

    So within that budget make sure you get as many SD cards as you can. You might also want to get a few BIG cards for staff, as they seem to prefer these.

    James Clay

  2. I'm looking for a class set (15) cameras too and want to keep it down to less than £100 per unit.

    I have a Flip HD and have to say that it is the best bit of Tech Kit I have ever used. There are hardly any buttons or settings to confuse, it plugs straight into the USB and even downloads its own movie-making software (which is extreamly easy to use)onto your laptop/PC.

    I can't afford the Flip HD as a class set but wondered if anyone has used the older, standard Flip??

    Steve Driscoll

  3. I am curious to know the outcome. Would you have a camera that you would recommend to primary schools at around the £50 mark?

  4. The older flips take smaller files that transfer faster – brilliant for what I call “process video” documenting writing, discussion, rewrites, mockups etc etc

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