one panasonical idea
 

I have often wondered why there's never been a small hand-held shaped like a gun. We have everything else from poker to puffy and some that look like a bun. A pistol shaped cam would be easy to hold and easy to point (tripod sales would plummet). No need for a cam bag either; a holster would be all that you'd need. The stop/start button could be the trigger, so all you'd have to do is whip it out, point and shoot. Come on, this is one hell of an idea.

Thats a great idea Frank! I think news reporters should use them exclusively....or poparatzi, image some movie star running like a panzy at the site of a reporter with a dv hand canon shaped like a desert eagle. would be great for Reporters covering presidential campaings or inaugurations too.

Goodtimes...

How about a sony cam fit into the housing of an ak-47? Or maybe like this...

http://members.ams.chello.nl/a.wichmann2/konicaguncam.jpg

http://www.usia.com/Images/gun_camera_cord_big.jpg

That's exactly one of the things I was thinking. If you wanted to go overseas for a holiday, all you'd need is a one-way ticket. CNN should outfit all of their camera people with one of these. Instead of talking heads, we'd see running puppets on CNN TV.

i often run around pretending my tripod is some sort of machine gun.

And I pretend my cordless drill gun is a ray gun.

Somehow this idea makes me think that the number of casualties of reporters on war zones or a few conflictive cities will increase a "little bit".

Sorry if this takes the fun out of the idea.. but I just imagined myself "recording" a police "officer" in "duty" in my hometown with this camera... and I think those will probably be the last images I´ll ever shoot.

(notice al the " ".? .. these are used for "sarcasm"...)

I still think a pistal-shaped cam is one bang of an idea.

A pistol grip might work for smaller cams, but it would be hell on your wrists after more than 10 minutes, I might be able to manage a ZR60, but I can't imagine holding a VX2000 for long that way,

Not to mention the nauseating footage from the lack of stability.

Perhaps a rifle design would be better - something like an M-16 rifle, with the battery where the magazine cartridge is.

But then there's still the issue of getting mistakenly shot for carrying a "weapon".

<<<-- Originally posted by Michael Wisniewski :
But then there's still the issue of getting mistakenly shot for carrying a "weapon". -->>>

That´s what I was talking about before... anyway...

The FrankCam (pistol Shaped cam) should have a 4:3 or 16:9 frame laser to select the exact point you want framed and a circular focus laser for.. well focus the shot.
This way there´s no need to use a viewfinder.

Of course the RIFLE VERSION should have more zoom and should be easier to have more stable shots.

Federico,

The laser guided camcorder is a great idea!

I'm off to buy a laser pointer, then I'm going to duct tape it to my camcorder.

I figure if I aim the laser right above image (so it doesn't show up on tape) I can guesstimate most shots pretty accurately.