14 DAY TRIAL // Miniaturization has reached quite an impressive level of complexity over the past couple of years, and one of the devices that best portraits this trend is Thanko's brand-new Video Pen HD digital camcorder.
Without a doubt, the main selling point the device from Thanko has in store is represented by its highly-compact form factor, the device (that, by the way, only weighs around 36 grams) fitting right within the palm of one's hand and being only slightly larger than a marker pen, for example.
However, despite of its ultra-slim body, the device from Thanko incorporates a 1/4-inch CMOS sensor with 5 megapixels resolution, that enables it to take photos with resolutions of up to 3200 x 2400 pixels, as well as record HD video (1280 x 720 pixels, or 720p, if you prefer) at up to 30 fps.
In fact, from this point of view, the device from Thanko is on par with quite a few of the digital camera modules embedded in the latest smartphones and cameraphones to arrive on the market, which means that you can expect the results (either photos or videos saved in QuickTime MOV format) to have a fairly good quality.
Naturally, given the camera's very compact body, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that the device employs microSD cards for storing up to 32GB of recorded content, while the whole thing is powered by a battery recharged via USB, that provides a total recording time of around 5 hours after a 3-hour charge.
A very nice surprise is the presence of a mini HDMI connector, that enables users to connect the Video Pen HD directly on one's HDTV.
For the time being, the Thanko Video Pen HD digital camcorder is only available in Japan, for the equivalent of around 118 US dollars, which is a rather fair price to pay for this thing, taking into account its features and very impressive level of portability.