The world's cheapest camcorder

This year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas had some extraordinary companies. One of my favourites was showing off what it claimed was the world's cheapest camcorder. Their English PR guy tapped me on the shoulder as I was working the booths in the North Hall and said he had something interesting to show me.

It was nice to hear Estuary English in a sea of Corporate American so I followed him to their show stand. He introduced me to the marketing director of Placebo Imaging Systems, a tall, energetic man wearing thick Michael Caine-style dark framed glasses. He was called Steve, so I asked him:

"What's the pitch?"

He gave me a big smile and said, "Michael, I can show you today, exclusively at CES, the world's cheapest camcorder. Voila!"

He directed me to a small red cushion on a steel plinth at the centre of the stand. On top of it was a very sleek-looking silver camcorder, a fairly traditional layout, with a swing-out LCD screen. It wasn't so small you'd lose it, but not so big you'd feel uncool whipping it out at a party.

"How much?" I asked.

"It's $60. That's about £35 of your English pounds."

Now he had my attention.

"Really? That's amazing! That looks like the sort of mid-range MiniDV camcorder you'd pay about £400 for in the UK. What's it's called?"

"The SRD-1000. Want to give it a try?"

I picked it up. The weight was just right: not too heavy, not too insubstantial. I noted with approval that it also had a decent 5x optical zoom.

"So what's the deal? How do you keep the price so low?"

Steve beamed at me and said, "Research. Michael, do you have any kids?"

I beamed back. "Yes, I've got a little boy."

Steve flipped open his wallet to show me a picture of two smudged little girls and then slipped it back into his pocket without missing a beat.

"Me too -- two little girls, ah the pride, pride and joy, the little darlings, anyway tell me, how old is your boy?" "He's two."

"So you've got a camcorder, and you filmed his birthday? The little face beaming over the candles, the little face stuffing itself full of cake, the little face projectile-vomiting cake over the Axminster?"

"Actually, it was organic Wotsits and a fun-fur bean bag, was that a bitch to clean, but yes..."

Steve looked pleased with himself and said, "What software did you use to edit that footage and turn it into an amusing home movie for you and the rest of your extended family to enjoy? It may interest you to know that I have the name of that software written on this card..."

Steve took two cards out of this pocket and held one up expectantly.

"Um, well I've got iMovie on my G4 at home, but I've actually never got around to editing that footage, so I suppose -- none."

Steve turned the card around. It said, "None."