Creative Labs Vado HD 720p Pocket Video Camcorder with 8 GB Video Storage and 2x Digital Zoom (Black) OLD MODEL by Creative Labs
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Digital camera reviews of Creative Labs Vado HD 720p Pocket Video Camcorder with 8 GB Video Storage and 2x Digital Zoom (Black) OLD MODEL
Digital camera Review: Amazing Little Video Camcorder
Summary: 4 Stars
When I opened the box and saw the size of the camcorder and the off the rack type packaging, I was prepared to be disappointed. Was I ever wrong. Within minutes I was shooting video and doing the playback....it was that easy. I still cannot believe the resolution and accurate color in the videos. It took awhile to get used to the small buttons for delete, playback and zoom, but I have no problem finding them now. Only negative in my opinion is the weak microphone volume, which can be compensated for when using my PC and TV speakers on playback. Great product and a great buy!Digital camera Review: Amazing for the price and size!
Summary: 5 Stars
Pros:
- 8GB of internal memory to store 2 hours of video on the highest quality setting
- Wide angle lens
- Decent color reproduction
- Comfortable soft rubber feel
- High quality video for the price and size
- Compact and light weight (convenient to take almost anywhere)
- Easy to copy movies to computer (built in USB connector)
- Comes with USB extension cable
- Comes with HDMI cable to play videos on your HDTV directly from the unit
- Easy to chop up the videos using Vado Central (comes free with the unit)
- Microphone picks up audio much better than expected (can here sounds from every direction)
- Extremely simple to use
- Comes with free H.264 video codec, but I prefer ffdshow-tryouts on SourceForge for better performance and customization
Cons:
- Fixed lens with 2X digital zoom only (no optical zoom)
- Does not come with a lanyard
- Optional lanyard is a bit difficult to install
- No expansion slot for an external memory card
- Microphone has a low volume feedback noise in recordings (more noticeable in quiet scenes)
- Battery life states 2 hours, but realistically it's more like 1 hour 40 minutes
- Unit will sometimes freeze when plugging into the computer (must remove battery from unit to get it working again)
- Video playback from unit to HDTV causes audio to slightly distort on high pitch sounds (does not occur when playing back from computer)
- Very bright lights such as the sun will cause skin tones to be slightly yellow
- Free H.264 codec did not work on an older laptop running Windows XP Home, but worked fine on a newer computer running Windows XP Professional
- Tripod connector on unit can easily be broken if tripod is over tightened (due to plastic tripod connector on unit)
Comments:
This camcorder is definitely worth the money. I recommend using the clear skin which comes with it to help prevent it from getting scuffed up. Also, don't forget to upgrade the firmware and install the Vado Central application update on the unit.
I recommend purchasing a small carry case with belt loop, lanyard, composite A/V cable (unit comes with HDMI cable), digtal camera tripod, and spare battery.
If you have the clear skin installed, be sure to push the composite A/V cable in all the way. Otherwise you will receive garbage on the screen.
I only had the unit freeze a few times when plugging into my computer running Linux. This hasn't occur yet when plugging into my system running Windows.
Overall, I am very impressed by this unit.
Digital camera Review: Amazing little camcorder
Summary: 5 Stars
I am not an expert by any means, but I can tell you that this little camcorder is an excellent buy for the person that just wants to point and shoot with no problems. It's compact size makes it ideal for stuffing in your pocket and it is pretty durable. The quality of the video is good . The camera should come with more extensive directions for downloading the video onto a Mac. I found it confusing and difficult to do...at first. Eventually I figured it out. It seems to take a very long time to upload to Youtube, but maybe I'm doing something wrong.
I don't need a zoom any stronger than the one it has, but maybe a more experienced photog. would find this a problem.
I never took videos before (although I bought several cameras) because they were all too bulky and involved too many things to make a video. With this Vado you don't have to format anything, load anything or rewind anything. Just aim and have fun.
Great little gadget.
Digital camera Review: Amazing little camera
Summary: 4 Stars
This camera is amazing. I love the simplicity of it. There are a couple hang ups if you are a mac user. The program to take stills out of the video is only for pc's. If you want to edit the videos in imovie you have to convert them from avi to mov file.
But even with all this. i love the camera. It has great image quality, and the sound is pretty good too. We got it to record our kids and have been very happy with it.
love it!
Digital camera Review: Amazing!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the first times I have ever left a review on Amazon, but I figured it was worth it.
Buy this camera. Seriously. You will absolutely not regret it. I picked one up here on Amazon for about $51 with free Prime shipping, expecting to get about what I payed for. I figured I couldn't really go wrong for that price, as long as it worked.
Well I was incredibly surprised at the quality of this camera! I now carry it in my pocket every day because of its small size and ability to shoot such nice video. Seriously.
I am a college student, going to school for Film Production and while I would probably never use this camera for a big, film production, it would only be due to the fixed-focus lens. This is not even a bad point for the Vado specifically, because this is the same for all of the cameras in this family called "Pocket Camcorders". I am though considering shooting my next short film on this camera just to show that it can be done.
What I find the most amazing about the Vado is its incredible Low-Light capabilities. Everything I've ever heard about pocket camcorders tells me that they can shoot good video if you give them a lot of light, but that their small image sensors cannot handle dark situations.
THIS IS NOT TRUE WITH THE VADO. I don't know why it is, and honestly, I haven't ever done any low-light shooting with any of the other brands' pocket cameras, but I do know that the footage I shoot in low light, night time situations is some of the best footage from the camera. As long as there is a little bit of light coming from a street light or even a bright moon or something the camera will pick up your image. Also, the main thing that makes the Vado's night footage so good is the fact that it doesn't get grainy and weird in the dark like my regular Mini-DV camcorder's night shots do. The blacks stay nice and dark and the colors still come out.
This is a wonderful camera, worth wayyyy more than what amazon is charging for it.
I would absolutely recommend you snatch this up before it is gone. I think the price is so low because of the newer Vado HD 3rd Generation coming out. The thing about that though, is that from what I've seen and read, the 3rd generation isn't really even a better camera, and the touch-sensitive controls are annoying.
So buy a Creative Vado HD 2nd Gen!