Compact camcorder full of surprises

Thanks to multi-functioning smartphones, camcorders have become a rarity for the average person.

They are no longer a necessity to capture your child's first steps, birthday parties or school performances.

The trend is now quick bursts of footage captured on smartphones that have an inbuilt HD camera, which can easily be uploaded on to social networks to share with friends and family.

Bulky camcorders were always going to struggle to compete with that. But for those who want a "proper" video recording option, then the Canon Legria HR48 is a sensible device, particularly for amateur film-makers.

It has been a while since I last used a camcorder.

So long in fact that the small size of the Legria HR48 came as a shock.

Only slightly larger than the average palm, this nifty video camera packs a heap of features for its small size.

The compact full HD camcorder shoots in full 1080p with a 1/4.85in CMOS sensor. Picture quality is fantastic, both in daylight and lowlight conditions and with image stabilisation footage is smooth. It has 32x optical zoom which is extended to 53x with the digital zoom.

Sound quality is decent, with the ability to choose a particular "audio scene", depending on where and what you are filming.

With 32 GB of internal memory, you can shoot for hours without the need for a spare memory card.

Video can be shot simultaneously in AVCHD format, which is good for televisions, or in MP4 mode, best for online or computer projects. It even has a built-in Wi-Fi adaptor to enable users to upload videos on to the web, but more interestingly it lets you control the camera remotely through a smartphone app, useful if you're trying tobe discreet.

Most of the features are accessible through the 3-inch LCD touchscreen.

Battery life averages about 2 hours.

[ thamid@thenational.ae ]

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Name: Direct Debit System
Started: Sept 2017
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Number of employees: 8

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Name: Akeed

Based: Muscat

Launch year: 2018

Number of employees: 40

Sector: Online food delivery

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Navdeep Suri, India's Ambassador to the UAE

There has been a longstanding need from the Indian community to have a religious premises where they can practise their beliefs. Currently there is a very, very small temple in Bur Dubai and the community has outgrown this. So this will be a major temple and open to all denominations and a place should reflect India’s diversity.

It fits so well into the UAE’s own commitment to tolerance and pluralism and coming in the year of tolerance gives it that extra dimension.

What we will see on April 20 is the foundation ceremony and we expect a pretty broad cross section of the Indian community to be present, both from the UAE and abroad. The Hindu group that is building the temple will have their holiest leader attending – and we expect very senior representation from the leadership of the UAE.

When the designs were taken to the leadership, there were two clear options. There was a New Jersey model with a rectangular structure with the temple recessed inside so it was not too visible from the outside and another was the Neasden temple in London with the spires in its classical shape. And they said: look we said we wanted a temple so it should look like a temple. So this should be a classical style temple in all its glory.

It is beautifully located - 30 minutes outside of Abu Dhabi and barely 45 minutes to Dubai so it serves the needs of both communities.

This is going to be the big temple where I expect people to come from across the country at major festivals and occasions.

It is hugely important – it will take a couple of years to complete given the scale. It is going to be remarkable and will contribute something not just to the landscape in terms of visual architecture but also to the ethos. Here will be a real representation of UAE’s pluralism.

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Brett Anderson

Little Brown Book Group

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