Kodak Zi8 Pocket Video Camera (Raspberry) - Zi8 Raspberry

Zi8 Camera

7/22/2010

The Kodak Zi8 is really a great choice for a simple hand-held camera.

Good features:
It is small and can fit in your pocket.
Good picture (stills) quality.
Good video quality. You can select different options to have different video quality-- each will use a different amount of memory.
Good sound quality-- it really can pickup sound well.
Really easy to upload photos and videos because it has a built-in USB-- no need to remember a cord.
It is compatable with Macs. :) And other computers.
It has a big viewing screen, which I like a lot.
The battery life is good for a camera of its size-- about two to three hours if you film continuously on the lowest quality video. It comes with a power cord (recharable battery).
You can hook it up to your TV (it comes with the cords).


Bad Features:
You must buy a memory card separately.
There are not a lot of options on it. It is very simple.
You cannot take pictures or videos in the dark.
Hard to set down and just film stuff. The sides are not flat, so it is hard to just place it somewhere to film something. One might need to get a tripod (which are available).

Worth the price!

7/22/2010

I got Zi8 recently before my trip to Disney Land. With one extra battery and one 8Gb SD card, I was able to shoot video for whole day.
Transfering video is easy. One thing I did not like and still having problem with is that it saves file in .MOV format. Microsoft does not support .MOV, Roxio does not support.MOV (directly) and I had to download bunch of driver/conversion freeware. I am still unable to burn a DVD for movies I shot. Still looking around for help.
Support from Microsoft, ROXIO has been crappy!
Since I am unable to save file in avi or other format.. I gave it a 3. Otherwire Camera by itself is worth the price. If someone can figure out a way to burn DVD using .MOV file, then I would recommend buying this.

Great Camera

7/20/2010

I initially looked at the Flip camera, but after reading multiple reviews there were a few things that led me to the Zi8.
1)The use of a memory card does not necessitate downloading often as I can just put in another SDHC.
2)The usb port exists within the camera and it's so easy to plug into my PC.
3)The price was great!
4)It films at 720p/1080p and easily uploads to YouTube/facebook etc.
5)It comes with the proper HDMI cable which makes watching it on your TV very easy. (My kids love that!)

Other thoughts:
1)This camera is super-easy to use. Even my wife who is technologically challenged has no trouble making it go.
2)The battery charges quickly and lasts much longer than I expected.
3)I would recommend a small tripod for certain contexts as you have to hold the camera fairly steady to get a good shot.
4)The digital zoom is limited, but works.
5)I like that it also takes still photos.

Overall, this is a great value and our family is really enjoying all of its benefits.

A good camera if...

7/20/2010

When I purchased this Kodak camera, it was a gift for my dads birthday. He absolutely loved it! Here are the pros and cons:

Pros:

Excellent quality video
There is a place to plug up a microphone for better sound quality
It's small and handy... fits in your pocket!
Battery life is pretty good
I love that you can switch between video sizes (1080p, 720)

Cons:

The picture quality is not good at all. If you're looking to take some pro pictures on your vacation, I recommend you take a separate camera. After all, it is a Kodak VIDEO camera... it wasn't made to take pictures. But, that is a nice small feature in case of emergencies.
Without a microphone, the audio isn't THAT great. It's alright. I know this because I own a Flipvideo and my dad and I were comparing our video quality one day and we decided that the audio on the Flip video was better than Kodak.


Overall, with all it's pros and cons, I would have to say it is a good video camera and something that could be used around the house to document the kids playing in the mud or out on the busy streets interviewing people (provided you use a mic).

Choppy play - do not buy.

7/19/2010

When videos are played, they are very choppy.
Plus colors are not good.
So essentially any video taken is "junk" using standard players (I'm on Ubuntu and Quick Time).
But if you use Kodak's ArcSoft player, it's ok.
So you are stuck with Kodak's player and they do this purposely.
They want you to be "dependent" on their software -bad bad bad for us...
This company really has a bad attitude towards consumers.
Stay away.

Don't believe half of the 5 star reviews too. They are written by Kodak.

PS: I'll be trying Creative 3rd generation next week and will be back reporting.
Stay tuned...