by Laureen Manera

Created on: May 26, 2009

I was looking for a small, preferably inexpensive camcorder to take on an upcoming trip. I checked around in several different stores with an idea of what I wanted, but unfortunately what I wanted wasn't presently in stock anywhere. While it could certainly be ordered online, by the time it reached me it would likely be too late for my trip.

One of the stores I went to was Wal-Mart. While I was there, I happened to see a cute little camcorder with a price tag of only 29.99. Immediately I rejected the temptation to impulsively buy it, because with such a low price, I figured it had to be a piece of junk. Additionally, I'd looked at some other ones that had been designed for kids. They looked good, and were also low priced, but after researching them I discovered that most of them had very, very poor quality video, and also usually only recorded for a few minutes maximum. One even had a recording time of only 30 seconds! Definitely not what I was looking for.

Even though I didn't buy the $30 camcorder, I jotted down the name and model of it so I could research it online. It was called the Jazz DV151, and honestly I expected to find either nothing at all about it, or else very poor reviews. Boy, was I wrong! Not only did I find many sellers offering it (mostly at much higher prices than Wal-Mart did) but there were also a multitude of reviews, and the vast majority was surprisingly positive! Most of these people had also purchased theirs at either Wal-Mart or Big Lots; some for as little as $20.

I also found several YouTube test videos that were recorded using this same camera, and most of the people who posted those videos had only good things to say about the Jazz camcorder. Several highly recommended it as a great item for the money. The YouTube videos weren't top quality, but they weren't bad, either. They were noticeably better than the ones that were recorded on cell phones, at least.

Armed with that knowledge I hurried back to Wal-Mart and got one for myself. This was the first camcorder I'd ever had, so I was anxious to start playing around with it. The Jazz DV151 closely resembles the various popular Flip camcorders, which it's obviously made to compete against.

I opened up the packaging to see what all was included. It came with a carry strap, a carry pouch, a USB cable, and an AV cable. It did not include batteries (2 AA) or memory (SD card), but at least it informs you of that on the outer package.

What I didn't expect, and

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