Vivitar DVR 510N

Gift Guide Pick

The Vivitar 510N video and still camera, is almost completely ready to use right out of the packaging.  All you need to do is add 4AAA batteries and you’re ready to go.

With quite a few of these tiny recorders on the market there are a few things that makes the Vivtar DVR 510N stand out from the crowd.  One of them is that it can capture images in the darkest of places with it’s Infrared Night Vision ability.  This feature detects the light level automatically, so if you aren’t wanting a black & white video, make sure you have sufficient light where you’re
recording, as it will continue to shoot in that mode until you stop recording your segment.

We popped this video recorder into our tiny carry bags on a two-day girls only trip to the Mall of America, and it recorded the fun we had.  It was great to have it with us, especially because we didn’t need a lot of room to tote it around.  For the size and price* the quality of the picture is decent.  Again, it’s the extras that are included that stand out.

In addition to the Infrared Night Vision, it also comes with a waterproof housing case that allows you to record underwater.  The perfect companion to catch the lazy days at the beach, or those exquisite fish that you are snorkeling with, or the tumble down the ski hill into the mound of snow at the bottom!

It also has the ability to take digital still pictures, so you don’t need to have an extra camera along with you.  The Vivitar DVR 510N does double duty.

If you need one more reason to consider this camera, it can also be plugged-in to function as a web-cam. 

If the 2GB onboard storage isn’t enough for you, it also has an SD Card Reader slot, to expand so that you can take even more video or pictures.  The 8x digital zoom and the 1.8” TFT preview screen, allow you to get shots as far away as 4 stories above you (yes, that’s what I used it for to capture my daughter climbing the Ghostly Gang Plank in the Nickelodeon Park in the MOA 4 stories up!).

Here you can see some of the zooming in I did – the shakiness is due to the fact that I was almost bent over to get it filmed – 4 stories up is pretty high, when you’re on the ground!  Also I think it did a fairly good job picking up my voice considering all the noise that the Park was creating around us.

Keep in mind this is a camera to take with you to capture those moments when you wish you ‘had a camera with you’.  You know to keep in your bag for those unexpected moments.  When I used it, it was for short clips here and there, a few minutes each.  If you use it for hours on end, you will find that you will have to replace the batteries often.

*The Vivitar 510N is available for purchase at Target for a retail price of $49.99.