BTW, if you hate the gallery format as much as the Grinch hated Christmas, click here.

Flip Ultra HD: We tested basically every pocket camcorder in existence, and this was the best one we found. It shoots 720p HD and is easy enough for your grandma to use. If you're buying a gift for someone looking to experiment on a budget or simply shoot vacation videos, this is a great little cam. $150 [Flip]

Clapboard: No, I'm serious. Though this might just look like a cheesy prom prop (and that's what it is), little has changed about the most recognized icon of the film industry. And for filmmakers, it's still extremely handy in tracking good takes, and syncing sound, if needed. The novelty ones are cheap (and many are probably more for show); but splurge on a fancy dry erase version if you really love the recipient. $2 to $30 [Prom Wishes ; B&H]

Vintage Hollywood Photographs from Life Magazine: Vintage posters are neat, but I'd contend that these Life prints feel a tad more heart-felt. From Kubrick working on 2001 to Marilyn Monroe doing her thing, there are many gems to be found in Life's archives. About $100 [2001 Series; More Life Photos]

Iron Man Arc Reactor: Most people's latent super powers are still off in hiding, but you never know when a nemesis will rip out your power core, forcing you to crawl across your home for a spare. Don't look at the Iron Man Arc Reactor as a superfluous purchase; see it as an investment your loved one's health. $150 [Museum Replicas]

Sony UWP-V1 Wireless Lavalier Mic: During my tenure in broadcast and commercial production, I found a good, wireless lavalier mic to be the most versatile tool in my bag. It can be hidden anywhere on a body/prop, and the pickup frequencies are surprisingly decent for foleying. Sony's entry level mic, the UWP-V1, should serve any young filmmaker well. $485 [B&H]

Kodak Five-Day Cinematography Workshop: Few of us will ever have the chance to shoot on real, 35mm film. But Kodak's boot camp will teach you the basics of 35mm cinematography and give you a chance to burn some 35mm stock while experts hold your hand. The tuition is by no means a non-factor, but come on, it's pretty much the coolest fantasy camp without Michael Jordan or spaceships. $2,000 [Kodak]

DON'T BUY Back to the Future 2 Hat: I know, it's neat you can buy this hat. But it looked dumb on Marty McFly and it will look even worse on whoever you give it to. [Amazon]

4K Red One Camera: Yes, the body itself starts at nor far under $20,000—without lenses, mounts, CF modules or pretty much anything you'll need to use it. Yes, this camera is just as hard to shoot with as any full-fledged film camera (if not even harder). But it's also the cheapest 4K camera you can acquire, and for the price of one extended 35mm camera rental, you'll have a system that's "free to use" again and again. Just make sure to gift those cinematography classes first. $17,500 and Up [Red]

Don't forget to recommend your own favorite gift ideas for movie buffs in comments—include pic and pricing if possible.

All Giz Wants is our annual round-up of favorite gift ideas, including amazing attainable objects and a few far-out fantasies. We'll be popping guides catered to different interests several times per day for the next week, so keep checking back.

Pocket camcorders (AKA mini cams or budget cams, or sometimes Flip cams after the pioneer of the category) are simple gadgets. They've got one job to do: Shoot watchable video, often for uploading to streaming video sites. They're also very close to the end of their lifespan, with perhaps only a year or so left before smartphones make them obsolete, but right now they're the easiest and cheapest way to take quick and dirty video. I tested seven of these diminutive camcorders, or more accurately six camcorders and one capable PMP, in five categories: Outdoor, indoor, low light, macro, and sound.

The criteria for judging fell mostly to smoothness of video during motion, image sharpness, noise, and color reproduction. Specs like storage capacity, screen size and battery life are mostly the same across the board, although overall, compared to last year, this crop of mini cams are faster and stronger, with beefed up memory and HD sensors. All save the iPod Nano take 720p video (or better) and add HDMI ports and more memory to accommodate the higher-quality footage. Yet I wasn't really all that thrilled with any of the camcorders—the bar for these cams is so low you could trip over it, and several of them actually did. Battery life was disappointing across the board, as none could break two hours of filming. Anyway, on to the results!

Results

Choosing between the Kodak Zi8, Flip Mino HD and Flip Ultra HD is tricky. The Zi8 is unreliable, but when it's good it's unbelievably good; the Mino HD is diminutive, solid and stylish, but overpriced and with lousy touch controls; and the Ultra HD is a reliably good shooter with a low price and the best controls of all, but physically unappealing (read: fat as hell). In my opinion, you should never judge a book by its obese cover, so the champion is...the Flip Ultra HD!

Flip Ultra HD: First Place

Flip's Ultra HD is the best overall choice. It's one of the cheapest cams around (at $150, it's $70 less than it's younger brother, the Mino HD), but it tied for the highest score in our lineup, and it features nice tactile controls that I much prefer to the sleeker Mino HD's touch-sensitive exercise in frustration. Unfortunately, the Dom DeLuise HD is upsettingly fat—about twice as thick as the Mino HD, but even that doesn't really get across how truly large it feels in the hand. It's not particularly heavy, but it is by a long shot the thickest pocket cam here. On the plus side, that girth hides a useful battery—Flip includes a rechargeable pack, but the John Candy HD can also use two AA batteries, which is great since pocket cams have generally abysmal battery life (usually about an hour, though of course they're often rated for double or triple that). Replaceable, cheap batteries are really nice, but some will have to decide whether the William Howard Taft HD's girth is worth that feature. Given its price, I think it is.

Video quality is just fine, above average if not particularly impressive on every test, and it, like the Mino HD, is extremely user-friendly. Although that simplicity yields less flexibility and a barebones feature set compared to the Kodak Zi8, it's a good distillation of the aims of pocket camcorders, and its 100% tactile controls are a welcome change from the Mino HD. If you're not superficial, it's a very smart buy.

Flip Mino HD: Second Place

Flip's Mino HD is the best-looking and best-feeling camcorder I tried. Its aluminum body feels solid and expensive, which might be because it is—at $230, it's the priciest camcorder I tested. But I wouldn't be surprised if it sells the best, even though it's not the greatest deal, because it looks (and is) simple, cute, and functional. I won't rehash my review, except to say that I hate those goddamn touch buttons more and more every time I use the Mino HD. They're incredibly sensitive and I guarantee that you will accidentally trigger the playback function more times than you can count.

Besides that, it's totally serviceable: It did well on all of my tests, it's thoughtfully designed and stupid-easy to use. But it's definitely overpriced, and I have a hard time recommending it over its physically awkward yet substantially cheaper older brother, the Ultra HD, just for its looks.

Kodak Zi8: Third Place

Wider and taller than the Flip Ultra HD, though not nearly as fat, the Zi8 packs a 1080p sensor and the largest and best screen of the bunch. The controls are easy and tactile and aside from flimsy-feeling plastic covers over the ports (one of mine already fell off), the hardware is high-quality. The Zi8 snagged the bronze medal, because while its highs were higher than either of the Flips, its lows were lower—and given how focused and simple this type of gadget is, reliability is worth more than flashing moments of greatness.

The Zi8 absolutely rocked in two of my tests, outdoor and macro, with perfect color reproduction and excellent clarity, and it even takes pretty decent still photos (think point-and-shoot circa 2006 quality). But the conditions need to be just right to get the most out of this guy—I first tried it in 1080p mode (neither of the Flips can break 720p) and while picture quality was amazing, scenes with lots of motion were pretty jerky to the point of being distracting. But even in 720p, it was still head-and-shoulders above the competition—but only in outdoor and macro testing. In the indoor test it proved to have difficulty focusing on objects closer than 10 feet but farther than 2 feet away, and low light shooting was distinctly tinted red and a bit dark. It wasn't unusable in any test (unlike the similarly uneven Creative Vado HD) and at $180 it's fairly priced, so I'd still recommend it—but you and I are likely to be more forgiving of the Zi8's flaws than, say, your mom, who just wants a camera that works pretty well all the time. For her, go for a Flip.

The Rest

The Creative Vado HD scored pretty high, only a point lower than the bronze medalist Kodak Zi8, but while its design is fairly middle-of-the-road (albeit nice and teeny), its abilities were all over the place. It was one of the worst in standard daytime shooting (it has a hard time with sunlight, a serious problem for a pocket cam) and macro, but was the best at indoor, and while its low light video was a little dark, it was the clearest and smoothest of the lot. It also, likely due to Creative's background in stellar-sounding PMPs and sound cards, boasts excellent sound quality. At $150, it's very fairly priced, but I can't recommend a camcorder that mangles sunlight the way the Vado does.

Apple's iPod Nano is the only "camcorder" in this roundup to peak at VGA resolution, and aside from a surprisingly strong macro performance, it shows. It turned vibrant colors dull and lifeless, washed out detail and made everything seem darker than it was. It can't compete with the Zi8s and Flips of the world, but it's still usable and incredibly priced at $150/$180 for 8GB/16GB—if you've got a Nano already, you probably won't need a dedicated cam. Convergence killed the video star, I guess.

The JVC Picsio GC-FM1 sucked. It's spectacularly ugly (think Ed Hardy-inspired) and cheap-feeling, with a confusing button layout (unforgivable in a pocket cam) and a high price ($200, or $178 at Amazon). Besides all that, it scored poorly in every one of our tests. Avoid.

And finally, the worst—Aiptek's PenCam HD. I wanted to like it, I really did—it's got a tongue-depressor-like design and came with a sweet tripod that attaches to a bicycle's handlebars—but it bombed in almost every one of my tests. The 1.1-inch screen is nearly unusable and battery life barely topped 40 minutes, so it's definitely the loser here.

Here's a giant gallery of all 28 videos I took.

Don Nguyen assisted with this Battlemodo.

The list of improvements continues: The Zi8 has an external mic jack, and it'll shoot 5-megapixel stills, track faces of subjects and, according to Kodak, "see more details and accurate colors in low light." Now that's something we're looking forward to, especially since low light seems to be the biggest bane of these Flip-class cameras.

The Flip UltraHD, which sells for the same amount, only shoots 720p, has no removable storage, and only earned qualified praise from us.

By contrast, one big reason to have high hopes for the Zi8 is that we already loved its predecessor, the Zi6, though we weren't terribly impressed with its cheaper weatherproof sibling, the Zx1. [Kodak]

Press Release:

KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera brings sleek style and high-performance to pocket video

Easily shoot and share high-quality 1080p HD video

Rochester, NY, July 29, 2009 - Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE:EK) today announced an exciting new addition to its popular line of Digital Video Cameras – the KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, featuring a sleek design, high-quality full 1080p High Definition video capture, and built-in electronic image stabilization.

"Images and video have tremendous power to help us stay connected to family and friends," says Phil Scott, Worldwide Director of Marketing, Digital Capture and Devices and Vice President, Consumer Digital Group. "The KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera makes it easy to spontaneously capture HD video – of heartwarming moments, of ‘can you believe that?' moments, and of just plain laugh-out-loud moments – and then quickly and easily share them."

The slim and stylish KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera is designed to meet these needs at the touch of a button — no lens cap, dials to turn or settings to adjust. The new camera's range of advanced features includes:
• Full HD 1080p video capture wherever you go;
• Built-in electronic image stabilization for sharper videos and reduced blurring;
• Vivid 2.5" color LCD;
• Flexible swing-out USB arm for fast uploading, sharing, and charging;
• 5 MP 16:9 widescreen HD still pictures;
• Easy upload to Facebook and YouTube;
• Compatible with PC and Mac operating systems;
• Record up to 10 hours of HD video* with the expandable SD/SDHC card slot that can hold up to 32 GB;
• Capture family and friends in their best light with smart face tracking technology;
• See more details and accurate colors in low light;
• External microphone jack;
• In-box HDMI cable;
• Record from a distance or playback on your TV conveniently with optional KODAK Pocket Video remote control;
• Grab attention and define your style with the ultra compact design, stunning looks, and a range of colors.

Uploading to Facebook and YouTube
The KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera provides one-button upload to Facebook, the premiere social networking and sharing website. Content can also be quickly and easily uploaded to YouTube, the world's most popular online video community. The built-in software on the camera allows seamless upload of your video and pictures from the same desktop interface used for video editing and movie creation.

Accessories
A range of accessories are available for the KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, including:
• KODAK SDHC Memory Cards, available in 4, 8, and 16GB capacities customized for optimal video capture;
• KODAK Pocket Video Remote control;
• KODAK KLIC-7004 Lithium Ion batteries;
• KODAK Flexi-tripod;
• KODAK Adventure Mount for helmet, handlebars and more;
• KODAK cases, camera bags and neck straps.

Pricing and Availability
The KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera will be available in aqua, raspberry and black** from September, 2009, and retail for US$179.95 MSRP.

*Record approximately 20 minutes per 1GB at HD 30fps.
** Color availability may vary.

Short answer: Just like the Ultra, but um, HD. The Flip UltraHD is actually not the first HD Flip camcorder—the runt of the litter, the Mino went high def first, and we thought for a while the fattie Flip Ultra was going to rot and die.

But it hasn't. It's been reincarnated with HD—720P shot in H.264 at 30FPS. I mean that fairly literally—if you were to take an Ultra and an UltraHD side by side, the only giveaway besides the branding is the Mini HDMI port on the side of the UltraHD. It's got the same 2X digital zoom, the same fat ass. It's like the MinoHD's guts and soul inside of the Ultra's body. Which is actually what annoys me the most about it. Its bigger, brighter, better screen is the antidote to my biggest problem with the MinoHD, but it's so goddamn thick you can't comfortably shove it in your pocket like the Mino. Keep the the width and height, but it should be thinner, even considering the depth needed for the little zoom lens. This is also pretty much the last camera Pure Digital can make like this—it feels like they've exhausted everything this particular package of camera and features can do. Whatever comes next needs to be actually different.

These comparison videos were filmed holding the MinoHD and UltraHD side-by-side—outside in the afternoon, and then outside at night, with crappy lighting to test and compare how well they handle low-lighting. (Sorry, in GA, I had nothing more interesting to shoot than my dog.) To me, the footage virtually looks the same coming out both from a quality standpoint. Clear with good lighting, visible but noisy as balls in low-lighting. Though, the UltraHD's zoom lens does give you appreciated flexibility. (Update: It's just digital zoom, my bad.) Overall, compared to the rest of the cheap camcorder market, if you consider the UltraHD's quality equivalent to the MinoHD's it looks like it's still about tops, though not the best.

Our model's got 8GB of storage and promises 120 minute of video out of it. If you don't use the HDMI cable to plug it into your TV, you interface with it the same as always, via the pop-out USB jack. It comes with a rechargeable pair of batteries, but you can pop in some standard AA if you want.

At $200 retail it's not the cheapest cheapcam in the pack by any means—you can pick up the slightly older Kodak Zi6, another pocket HD camcorder that we like a bunch and shoots slightly cleaner video for $140 or its weatherproof cousin for $150, though you have to add in the cost of additional SDHC storage. That said, compared to the MinoHD, you get twice the recording capacity and bigger, brighter screen for about the same price, with the cost being the fatass. So it really depends what part of the triangle is most important to you: Size, storage and video quality. But you can't go too wrong with the UltraHD. [Flip]

Besides going HD—bringing it up to par with our other fave, Kodak's ZI6—the Flip Ultra HD gets HDMI, a rare rainbow unicorn for these cheap pocket cams. It's got two hours of record time, and removable rechargeable batteries. Gary walked out of Best Buy with the so-far-unannounced Flip Ultra HD for $200, which is high compared to Kodak's upcoming $150 Z1x. Still, we can't wait to get our hands on it. [Gaxonline via Engadget]