One of the biggest hits at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was a video camera from JVC called the GY-HMQ10.  JVC bills it as “the world’s first handheld 4K camcorder.”  That means the GY-HMQ10 “captures, records, and plays video images at four times the resolution of high definition television.” Four times the size of  a 1920 x 1080 HDTV means the images will be 3840 × 2160…and that’s pretty damn big.  4K cameras have been around for a while now and you’d be shocked at how many feature films are being shot with RED 4K cameras.  But the GY-HMQ10 is the first 4K camera that a normal human could buy.  The price is a measly $4,995 and it comes with a F2.8 10x Zoom Lens.  But what’s really amazing is that this is a “prosumer” device so you don’t have to be a rocket surgeon to operate one.  For instance, until now if you wanted to record in 4K you had to process the footage before you could actually view it.  But with this camera you can record something and play it back on the spot.

The GY-HMQ10 (it really needs a cool nickname, doesn’t it?) went on sale about two weeks ago.  So should you run out and get one of these things as soon as possible?  Naw.  4K is kind of overkill for video contests.  The videos that win most contests will never play anywhere other than a computer screen.  And on a computer, you won’t see a huge amount of difference between footage from this camera and footage from a top of the line DSLR.  However, footage from a GY-HMQ10 should look incredibly sharp on an HDTV or even a movie screen.  So if you plan on entering a contest where the goal is to create a commercial that might run on TV or in movie theaters (Mofilm ads sometimes run in theaters) then you might want to try and rent a GY-HMQ10 for the shoot.

I’m not really into cameras and at the moment I’m kind of overwhelmed by all the super high-quality prosumer cameras that are suddenly available.  If you own or have tried a fancy new videocamera or DSLR and you want to do a little guest review for us, that would be awesome.  For details e-mail Dan at .