By Staff Writer – John Federico (@gadgetboy)

If you wanted to record video on your iPhone or iPhone 3G, you had only one option: jailbreak it and install Cycorder or some other software that was available through Cydia or Installer.app.

When the iPhone 3GS was released with video capabilities, there were those of us that thought surely Apple would never allow video recording on the previous generation phones as this is a key feature of their higher end device and it could cannibalize sales.

Well we (read: I) were apparently wrong.

Currently, two video recording apps are available: the literally named Camcorder [iTunes Link] and the more Apple-y named iVideoCamera [iTunes Link]. According to TUAW, the frame rate and audio using Camcorder are nothing to rave about, but it works as tested on the 3G and 3GS. The only downside of this app (and its a steep downside) is that you can’t retrieve the videos from your device. So, you’d better like them a lot if you’re going to keep them around and hope that your phone doesn’t crash.

iVideoCamera, which TUAW (nor I) have tested does enable you to retrieve the video from your phone, either by saving it to your Camera Roll or sharing it on Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter, etc. Here’s the steep downside on this app: resolution is a HUGE 160 x 213!

Crazy. Reminds me of the old days of CUSeeMe…

Both apps are 99 cents and available now.

Disclosure of Material Connection: http://dsclzr.us/0