What I love about the range of pocket camcorders, like the Flip Camera, that are available today is their sheer versatility and usability. It used to be that you had a big clunky video tape machine that you wandered around with stuck to your shoulder. They were good at the time and were used for years in electronic news gathering roles. If you were a little bit inventive you could hand hold it for low shots or even put it on the ground or hang it out of a moving vehicle. But even this could be seen as severe limitation compared with today's tiny gadgets.
With a modern camcorder you now have unrivaled freedom to express yourself through the power of the image. The small size means you can put these cameras almost anywhere to get your shot. Jam into crevices, hang them out of windows - you can even attach them to helium balloons on strings for panoramic and aerial tracking shots!! You are not limited that is what is so fun. The Flip Camera to use its example again, comes with pretty good sound recording facility too so you are not compromising in this area.
All this new technology means that hungry film makers of any age and background can give themselves a chance to create something amazing. Equipment is no longer holding them back. It means that the power of story will once again come to the fore. Democratizing the means to make films doesn't result in a deluge of rubbish movies; it allows the best of the lot, the cream of the crop from new, amateur film-makers to rise to the top. Which means, if you are a film fan, the next few years could be very exciting ones.