Kodak Zi6 HD Pocket Video Camera by Kodak
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Digital camera reviews of Kodak Zi6 HD Pocket Video Camera
Digital camera Review: Cheap, easy, and good
Summary: 5 Stars
What can you expect from something like this? Obviously its not going to film stunning pictures in the dark. To expect that is silly.
Its easy to use, it takes great video in good lighting.
The seller to me was the memory expansion slot. Throw a 16 GB SDHC card in there and you can film for hours and hour. It uses two AA batteries, and it eats them up quickly. So, invest in spare batteries.
I'd rather be able to have tons of memory and the ability to change batteries instead of searching for a way to charge the camera and be stuck with limited memory as would be the case with the sleeker/smaller FlipHD camera.
If youre looking for convienience, ease of use, with decent video in normal lighting conditions, in a cheap, who cares what happens to it, camera. I think this is your choice.
The new ZX1 is out now, and its pretty much the same thing, but with more color options, better cables to hook up to your TV (HDMI), and is water proof.
Wish I waited for that one, but I needed something to toss around on a drunken vacation before it was available. Bought my Zi6 at Wal-Mart in a bundle that included extra batteries, a tri-pod, a case, and a lense cleaner for $150 in April of 09.
The editing software that comes with it is easy as hell to use. Doesnt have any great features in it, but gets the job done for simple edits with a music bed. Debating on what kind of editing software to buy for larger projects. Gonna go with Adobe Premiere elements 7.
Anyway, its worth every penny. Just realize, its a $130 HD video camera. Dont expect the world from it, and you'll be more than happy.
Digital camera Review: Cute and easy to use camcorder
Summary: 5 Stars
It is small and very easy to use. I just plug the USB to my Mac, and can instantly play out the .mov from QuickTimes. It was great! I will get a few as gifts for people.
Digital camera Review: DO NOT BUY THIS CAMERA
Summary: 1 Stars
I'm on my third one of these. Each has had a different problem. Many of the new point/shoot still camera's will shoot MUCH better HD video then this camera. Unless you are perfectly still, the videos from this camera will be so shaky that they will make you seasick. Classic Kodak product, cheap, likely to malfunction, getting videos off camera is a CHORE, not well thought out. Period.Digital camera Review: Depending on your expectations and needs, it might be a good choice.
Summary: 3 Stars
The Kodak Zi6 HD Pocket Video Camera follows in the footsteps of the Flip series of small, pocketable video cameras. In many cases the Zi6 ups the ante in this area however. With a significantly larger LCD screen as compared to the Flip series, your eyes will be much happier. The resolution of the screen is great as is the brightness, except when viewed outdoors in bright sunlight. In bright outside conditions, the LCD becomes more difficult to see, but this is a common problem with most LCD displays.
The camera gives you three ways to record video and also captures single still images:
1. As HD movies at 720p and 60fps
2. As HD movies at 720p and 30fps
3. As VGA movies at 640x480 resolution
4. Still images at 3MP interpolated
What does that mean? Well it means that you get pretty good quality HD video in good lighting at either 30 or 60fps. And VGA movies are pretty good quality as well. But in lower lighting conditions, the quality suffers greatly.
The still image quality is barely acceptable and certainly not up to par with a dedicated point and shoot camera. The quality is comparable to what many cell phone cameras would provide.
The Zi6 has a SD card expansion slot which is a huge advantage over the Flip series of cameras. You can put in up to a 32 GB card which will hold several hours of video.
The major downside of this video camera is its lack of image stabilization and the awkward placement of the button that controls recording. It takes much practice and concentration not to get visible "jumps" when turning off the recording. If you are recording a long segment of video, it can become quite tedious to hold the camera still for any great length of time in spite of it's lightness. The lack of image stabilization really becomes apparent when you are panning while recording, unless you are using a tripod. Using a tripod for such a tiny camera is awkward and diminishes the usefulness of such a small video recorder.
The camera itself has a nice "feel" to it. I do not get the impression of cheapness or flimsiness. The LCD display is a joy to look at indoors and in shaded outdoor situations.
The camera has a built-in speaker.
The built-in microphone is quite good and because the unit is solid state, there is no motor noise or any other such mechanical noise picked up while recording.
Battery life is good. On fully charged NIMH batteries, I recorded a continuous segment of 15 minutes and then several other segments of varying lengths and the battery indicator was still showing two bars. I would estimate that fully charged batteries could give you an hour of recording... less in cold weather.
As a small video camera that can easily be put in a pocket, this provides a great way to capture spur of the moment snippets of video. The included software is pretty weak, but it is easy to import the video into other image editing programs. And Mac users will happy to know that the video is formatted as .mov H.264 so you won't have to deal with wmv files.
One other feature worth mentioning is that there is a Macro setting that let's you get remarkably close macro photographs and videos. As close as 2 inches basically. While it isn't something that most people will use very often, if at all, it is a great feature for the times that you do need macro capability.
Pros:
-Great tactile feel
-Large sharp and bright LCD screen
-Quick startup time
-Decent battery life
-SD slot lets you use large capacity cards for hours of recording capability
-Amazing macro capability
Cons:
-Lack of image stabilization makes shooting steady video difficult
-Still image capture is not very good
-Very poor low-light performance
-No volume or mute control for the startup and shutdown chime
I think Kodak has brought to market a great little video camera that will certainly put some pressure on Flip. As it is right now, it's a wonderful little video camera that easily fits in a pocket and gives you the ability to virtually instantly grab video whenever you want.
Make no mistake, this is not going to suffice if you are looking for a really small yet great quality video camera for movie making. It will suffice for spontaneous video capture of life's unexpected events. It's easy to operate, attractive and fun to use.
For its intended use, I give it 4 stars. If it had image stabilization, it would have earned 5 stars.
Digital camera Review: Digital Cam Flip Recorder
Summary: 5 Stars
This a great little tool and it makes excellent videos. I have really enjoyed it very much. Good Piece of equipment!!