Cheap Ass Videocameras and Citizen Journalism

The idea that you could buy a cellphone sized video camera that shoots 720p for a hundred bucks would literally seem like nonsense to me five or six years ago, as I sat trying to get a shot worth looking at out of my old Sony pd150. They're here, though, the Flips and iPhones and Kodaks and whatever else and while most of their impact can be measured in the increased frequency of Bieber-tribute videos hitting youtube, having a $100 hd camera also puts me in a mind to go - me a regular old idiot - on down and shoot some video of the upcoming riots (??) at the g20 conference here in Toronto.

I'd be reticent to take my big Canon handicam or even my Rebel still camera as I love them and they are expensive and I don't want to get demonstrator blood all over them but should a cop mistake "peaceful observer with a blog" for "anarchic socialist teen concealing molotovs", I wouldn't be too upset (relatively speaking) should the tiny lens of my pocket-cam get stove in. If I'm still alive, I'll post what I was able to get with the little sucker next week. What a world we live in