Question about Wiki digital video camera

[Brian Mettam]

Good evening everybody, I have a question
I have just been given a Wiki digital video camera for Christmas
It only has a image sensor of 300k pixels which seems very small compared to the 3.2 megapixels I already have on my very modest mobile phone. Can someone please explain simply how a purpose built video camera can be less than one tenth the pixel size of a mobile phone. Do I carry on using my mobile phone for taking videos or are there other factors that I should be taking into account like the specification of the lens, focus range and resolution ?

[Shadowman]

Good evening everybody, I have a question
I have just been given a Wiki digital video camera for Christmas
It only has a image sensor of 300k pixels which seems very small compared to the 3.2 megapixels I already have on my very modest mobile phone. Can someone please explain simply how a purpose built video camera can be less than one tenth the pixel size of a mobile phone. Do I carry on using my mobile phone for taking videos or are there other factors that I should be taking into account like the specification of the lens, focus range and resolution ?

Video is rated by resolution and for standard viewing on a computer monitor/TV screen 1024x768 is considered minimal accepted quality. Theater quality resolution is much higher. The Wiki hi resolution setting only allows 640x240 resolution so you won't get the best video especially if lighting is minimal.

[Brian Mettam]

Thanks for that, will my mobile phone be a worse or better option ? If the latter whats the point of these lower end of market digital video cameras ?

[Colin Southern]

Thanks for that, will my mobile phone be a worse or better option ? If the latter whats the point of these lower end of market digital video cameras ?

Perhaps the easiest way to find out is to shoot the same scene with both, and compare the results? Personally I'm always suspicious of ultra-cheap video cameras; it's my understanding that they use all the trickery in the book to make the specs look impressive, when in reality the quality of what they're producing is vastly different from "handycam" type video cameras with bigger lenses and sensors.

Having just said that though, I did find 1 review of what appeared to be yours on amazon, and the review appeared to be happy enough with it.

[Shadowman]

Thanks for that, will my mobile phone be a worse or better option ? If the latter whats the point of these lower end of market digital video cameras ?

See for yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCdwgHiVPGU