By Scott Nyerges on November 10, 2009 in
Among the early-bird Black Friday specials at Kohl's is the Shift3 Slide Mini Digital Video Camera (*Est. $40), a pocket-sized camcorder. Much like the Jazz T20 (*Est. $20) that Kmart is enticing Black Friday shoppers with (discussed in a blog post last week), the Shift3 is a budget alternative to the best-selling Pure Digital Flip Mino (*Est. $130).
The Kohl's Black Friday price represents a significant savings from the regular price of $90 (and the usual sale price of $60). Like the Flip, the Shift3 shoots 640-by-480-pixel images, but unlike its pricier competitor, the Shift3 doesn't have a zoom lens (not that the zoom lenses on these mini camcorders are all that good to being with). The Shift3 uses two AA batteries and it comes with 64 MB of on-board memory, which is good for about an hour of video. It's also compatible with both Macs and PCs.
So how does it stack up against the competition? Unfortunately, we couldn't find any professional or user reviews, so we can't make an assessment. Despite the fact that the Shift3 is sold at Kohl's, Amazon.com (via Target.com) and Overstock.com, none of these retail sites had any owner-written reviews posted. However, it's probably safe to say that based on reviews of other pocket-sized camcorders, the Shift3 isn't the best choice if you're interested in high-quality video recording. But if all you want to do is shoot video and post it on your Facebook page (or give your kid his first camcorder), this mini camcorder probably will do the job.
