It’s now two years since I’ve had my first and very own digital camera. Back in October 2006, it was only $99 and it was given to me as an early birthday gift from my Aunt Phoebe and Uncle Phil in Florida. From then on, I’ve used a total of 5 different cameras in shooting my video blogs. Now let me show you how my videos evolved technically using these different tools – this is my Camera Evideolution:

Aiptek DV5900 (October 2006 – August 2007)

This has got to be the cutest digital camera I’ve used. The cam has this small LCD display and with it folded in, the DV5900 would look like a little coin purse. Its minimum functions are bearable when you’re just the casual I-post-my-pictures-on-Friendster type of guy but the weak flash and poor video quality will make you irk once you see the results. No wonder its present market prize is now down to $39.99.

Despite the limitations, this camera witnessed the birth of CokskiBlue and I’ve used it for almost a year for many of my favorite episodes including this vlog on my very first bloggers meet-up:

Casio Exilim S770 (December 2007 – July 2008)

After winning $100 at the Filipina Writing Project on my article The Funniest Filipina Vloggers, I used the prize with some of my funds to get me my 2nd baby – a Casio Exilim. Its sleek silver exterior made me fall in love with it instantly. Taking pictures is so-so but the “HD” quality of the video is quite good – miles better than the Aiptek.

I shot most of Season 2 with this camera including prize-winning We Love Trinoma & Buhay Coke sa Araw-araw, favorite CokskiBlue & Gibbs Cadiz Meet HappySlip and the awesome Palawan Gang series:

GE E840s (August 2008 – September 2008)

“Buhay Coke, Buksan Mo!” – I’ll never forget these 4 words as my video on the Buhay Coke Contest won me this great 8-megapixel, face detectin’ new Coy toy (lulz). The optical zoom is teh love and I pretty much got addicted with the panoramic feature. Audio’s a bit week though and I really don’t work well with .mov video formats but other than that, this camera is slammin’ hot! I only got to use the E840s for a little more than a month but this baby already has SMART, The Hilt, and my first-placer Nokia video entry under its uhm, lens.

Here’s a video I made for Kringy of FunnySexy from one of this year’s big blogger events, Wordcamp 2008:

Nokia N82 (September 2008)

Thanks to Juned, I got to try out the best camera phone in the market today. Nothin’ (and Fritz will agree to that) comes close to the Xenon flash and Carl Zeiss lens of this 5-megapixel camera phone. Simply put by one of my colleagues: “Ang cool ng camera mo ah, nakakatext!” lulz. I’ve taken better pictures with N82 compared to most digicams I’ve used. Video quality is also not too bad (and thank goodness it’s not in freakin’ 3gp format!) although frame rate is kinda slow. I’m really pushing to have one for myself which lead me to selling my 8-gig N95 I won from PBA.

Here’s an example of the video I produced with the phone (Cavite mode):

Canon PowerShot S5 IS (October 6, 2008 – Present)

I’m in great awe right now as I do test shots of THE camera. If I don’t screw things up, I actually might keep it longer than anything I’ve had in the past. 12x optical zoom of this semi-pro is enough reason to buy it off from my office buddy, Al. His Batanes gallery in his Multiply account just proves I could do and create so much (if I try hard enough).

Now here is my first video with teh new camera featuring the Palawan Gang and our favorite Palawan moments:

Flip Video Mino HD (April 15, 2009 – Present)

And that’s my Camera Evideolution. Just remember, cool gadget features are only a bonus. The special moments you capture is what really matters.

You – what cameras have you used over the years?