Kodak Zi8 Pocket Video Camera (black)
Over the previous couple of years, as the pocket mpeg recorder market has taken off, pioneer Flip Video has narrowly hung onto the lead it built by offering models with potentially superior designs and a touch better video quality. Some firms, including Creative, Sony, and RCA, have been nipping at its heels for some time, but none has been in a position to overtake Flip’s offerings.
To start, Kodak improved on the planning of last year’s Zi6 and this year’s ruggedized Zx1, each of which we believed decent, but not great. The Zi8 looks slicker than the Zi6, and while it’s a long way from the littlest or lightest pocket camcorder we’ve tested, it is reasonably compact, measuring 2.4 inches by 4.5 inches by 0.9 in. and weighing 4.8 oz.. This model comes in 3 colours Kodak dubs black, aqua, and raspberry, and it has got a pointy and generously sized 2.5-inch LCD on the back.
The plastic finish is also subject to scratches, so you can potentially need to keep the unit in a protecting cover, particularly if you have keys in your pocket. Sadly , Kodak doesn’t ship the Zi8 with any kind of case, though it does sell one, as well as a RC. To trim down the framework, Kodak has gone with a slimmer lithium ion chargeable battery rather than the AA NiMH rechargeables that ship with the Zi6. That is a good move, but you do not have the posh of swapping in the standard pair of alkaline batteries should you run out of juice on the road. Like most rivals, you can charge the Zi8 from your PC thru the flip-out wire, but the mpeg recorder also ships with an AC adapter to attach it to a wall outlet.
As we are saying about all of these pocket video recorders : while they might be promoted as HD models, they actually can not be compared to true HD video recorders that cost lots of greenbacks more and have superior lenses and sensors. Like the Zi6 and Zx1, this model includes a unimportant quantity of built-in memory and Kodak doesn’t include an SD card in the box. Anyhow, the long and short of it really is, you’ve got to supply your own SD card ( the Zi8 accepts SDHC cards up to 32GB, so it can store plenty of video and still photographs ).
We worked out that when you record video at the top level ( 1080p ), you eat anywhere from around 110 to 150MB per minute, relying on video content, or about fourteen to eighteen mins of video on a common 2GB card.
As with all of these mini video recorders, the Zi8 is intended to be straightforward to use. Having said that, it is a brilliant idea to consult the manual to work out precisely what the icons stand for in the settings menu and to be certain you have everything set in the right way. We like its 4 speeds of fast-forwarding and rewinding, and you can advance or rewind your photographs frame by frame, if you need. The mic seems delicate enough as long as the topic is just a couple of feet away.
But if you wish to enhance your recordings, you need to select an external stereo mic, that will do a better job at picking up sound. ( External mics range in price from about $16 to well over $100 ).
We are pretty impressed with the Zi8’s video quality.
As with all of these pocket video recorders, it seriously boosts the quality if the unit stays as still as practical while shooting ( sticking it on a tripod will be offering the most impressive results ), but this model is the 1st we have seen to incorporate electronic image stabilization.
we cannot say it makes for an enormous difference, but for reducing tiny hand jitters when shooting, it does help.
The downside to engaging it is that it drains the battery quicker, so if you do mount the Zi8 on a tripod, switch it off. Using the face-detection feature ( you can opt to turn it on or off ), you can lock in on a subject and the video recorder will adjust its exposure if, say, the face you locked on is too shadowed. Lowlight performance was also good and Kodak seems to have made some nice enhancements in this dept. The Zi6 did sufficiently well in low light, but the Zi8’s image-quality is better, with less plain noise.
But toggle the tiny turn on top of the Zi8 to the macro mode and you will be able to come in tight and focus in on objects or folks. The Zi8 defaults to 720p recording, generally because most PCs potentially will not be in a position to smoothly play the 1080p video, which is encoded at a comparatively high bit rate of almost 20Mbps. Kodak and ArcSoft optimized the included MediaImpression software–it’s in the video recorder’s memory and instantly installs on Windows machines when you plug the Zi8’s USB connector into your desktop or laptop PC–for high-bit-rate playback. You can still edit the 1080p video in third party software, however.
The ArcSoft MediaImpression software incorporates the common shortcut upload to YouTube, as well as some revising features that let you to trim your clips, adjust contrast, color, and lightness, and splice you clips into a cohesive “movie,” complete with customised background music and titles. As we claimed, this programme is Windows only. If you are the owner of a Mac, you can copy your video and still photographs to your personal computer by pulling and dropping the files from the video recorder as you would with any USB storage device ( and upload them to YouTube simply enough ) and then edit your videos using iMovie.
In the final analysis, while we have a few nitpicks for the Zi8, we have to say it’s the best pocket camcorder we’ve reviewed to date, with superior image quality and the best features.
