photo by Atilla1000

Recently I picked up a new digital camera for an upcoming trip my wife and I are taking to Turkey. After humming and hawing for a while I picked up the new Panasonic Lumix TZ-5 point and shoot (thanks Jeff) to compliment my Canon DSLR. What ultimately pushed me over the top to buy this camera was the TZ-5’s video capability – it’s the only pocket-size camera on the market that shoots HD (720p) video.

We’re heading to Istanbul to visit my younger sister who’s getting married and along with all our other gear we’re carting along a Canon VIXIA HF100 for her to surprise her husband-to-be (shhh.. don’t tell Turkish Customs). It’s a beautiful camera and I have a serious case of gadget lust.

So what’s the point? 

HD is here. Tools like the TZ-5 and HF100 make it cheaper and easier to produce your own HD video than ever before. And just like every technology that’s come before it – it’ll only get cheaper and easier.

The rest of the Web is catching on too. Video host Vimeo now lets you host and stream any HD videos you create. 

Drama in the sky – Time Lapse from Paul Klinger on Vimeo.

For real estate marketing – HD lets you show a property in vivid detail that a grainy low-rez Youtube video could never deliver.

And vendors like HDPremier can now create a property tour in HD for you and the results are pretty impressive (and suprisingly affordable).

Sure – there are drawbacks to HD. Namely much larger file sizes mean much higher bandwidth costs when streaming. But again. This is only going to get easier and cheaper over time.

So if you’re considering bringing video to your marketing – HD might be the route to go. Whether you’re climbing over the ruins at Ephesus or doing a walkthru of a home in Portland, the results will blow you away.

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