A Pocket Video Camera Review — Kodak Zi8 And Flip Mino
The universe of digital camcorders is racing along at the same speed as the computer industry, gathering more and more incredible components in ever smaller packages. Take, for instance, the new pocket video camera that have been developed lately. At this moment, it is chiefly a contest between just two products: the new Kodak Zi8 and the Flip Mino camcorders.
Both camcorders have been carefully designed to capture the evolving market of easy to use and exceptionally portable camcorders with built in abilities that make sharing the videos on the computer and loading them up to the popular social networking sites extremely easy. Let’s do a quick digital video camera review of these 2 cameras.
Flip and Kodak are both justifiably proud of their respective product lines, and make it easy to find lots of data online. Of course, one of the most significant attributes to everyone is the cost, and you will see that they at exactly the same price point, $179.99. So far they’re even.
One important distinction between these 2 is that the Kodak Zi8, like most pocket video cameras, has an extremely meagre amount of internal memory — only 128 MB. The Flip has a much greater capacity of 2 GB, 16 times as much. Score 1 for the Flip.
Yet, and this is substantial, the Kodak relies on the use of SD/SDHC memory cards to generate it’s storage capabilities. The Flip Mino leaves you without room for accession. The Kodak digital video camera can handle up to a 32 GB card for those who want to go all out. What does that mean? Up to 10 HOURS of video recording! Score a big plus for Kodak.
One of the characteristics that is alike between the two is they both benefit from a very handy built in USB swing-out arm, so you don’t need camera specific cables. You can just pull out the arm and plug it promptly into your computer and begin sharing. Down with cable clutter! It’s even.
Both come with video and picture editing software, but only the Zi8 has HD capable video recording, and a HDMI output on the camera itself to hook it up instantly to your HDTV for prompt viewing. A Kodak win.
But beyond this, it largely isn’t much of a contest. The Flip Mino, and even it’s big brother the FlipHD, which costs significantly more, can’t hold a candle to the benefits and merit of the Kodak Zi8. For the same price, you get a vastly augmented view screen, built-in image stablization, full 1080 pixel HD video, and the security that comes with the Kodak brand.
Final result: the race between these two designs is not even close today — the Zi8 pocket digital video camera is superior. Of course, don’t presume Flip will sit by quietly as their market share evaporates.
Tags: digital pocket video camera, digital video camera review, pocket digital video camera, pocket video camera, pocket video cameras