Flat Video Camera
 

Does anyone know of a video camera that lays flat? Think of an iPhone but with the camera on top of the phone instead of the back. So if you held the camera parallel to the ground it would shoot video straight ahead. Thanks.

What are your requirements for video quality? If 640x480 is good enough for you, what you want is a keyfob camera, they're little spy cameras that are intended to look like a car remote fob. They're very small and about $20.

There have been a number of threads on these cameras in the last few weeks. Here is one fairly definitive guide:

http://www.chucklohr.com/808/

NOTE that as far as I can tell, ALL of these cameras are 640x480. The ones that list higher resolutions are just upsampling from 640x480, which means all they're doing is converting to a blurrier image with more pixels that takes up more space on the memory card.

If you're looking for real HD quality, you probably need to go upmarket and I haven't seen anything in that form factor. FWIW, HD is really necessary in a traffic situation if you want to reliably be able to read license plate numbers of cars passing you.

Thanks for the link. I remember hearing about those but I probably wasn't clear, I was looking for one with a view screen. I have the CountourHD for HD, but I can't monitor it, so 640x480 is fine.

Like the Sony Webbie perhaps. The lens swivels around so you can point it "up".

I believe that's it or at least a great start. Thanks.