Kodak Zx1 Pocket Video Camera
- Image by Richard Clement via Flickr
The pocket video camera market emerged recently in Australia with the introduction (finally!!) of the Flip range of camcorders. Available in standard and high definition these camera’s strike me as being quite high priced for offering video of a quality found in a decent still camera. What is worse, none of the pocket video camera’s seem to offer any sort of image stabilisation meaning that you have to be VERY careful with your shots.
Being the contrary sort I decided to try a different option and go with the Kodak Zx1. This camera offers the same sort of functionality as an HD Flip – shooting VGA and 720p High Definition. Hardware wise the camera is ruggedised with rubber flap protected ports. One of the key differences is that the Kodak runs on standard AA’s and an SD card. This offers a great degree of flexibility and means that if you run of of juice in the provided rechargeables you can nip into any corner store and you are soon good to go again. The Flip range have built in USB plugs so the whole camera plugs into your computer – with the Kodak you can use a separate cable or, because it uses SD cards and not internal memory, remove the card and put it into the SD reader found on most moderns PC’s. The last key hardware feature with the Kodak is a built in mini-HDMI port and a cable is provided to connect the camera straight to your TV. This is quite a nice bonus from Kodak as many of these cables start at around $30!
Video quality is actually surprisingly good with excellent colour saturation in decent light. The caveat there is – decent light. The lens is little bigger than that on a camera phone and so in low light the video soon becomes quite grainy and almost unusable. The video files are saved as Quicktime .mov format and can be used directly in iMovie and many other video editing applications.
Normal price is around the AU$250 mark – although I picked mine up from catchoftheday.com.au for $120. An example of the video is below:
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- Kodak Video Camera: A Flip Killer? (online.wsj.com)
