Kodak Zi8 Pocket Video Camera (Aqua)
July 31st, 2010 | 
Author: Kodak Zi8 Pocket Video Camera (Aqua)
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 List Price: $179.95 Sale Price: $159.00 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Eligible For Free Shipping 
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Product Description
Its small enough to fit in a pocket, but why would you ever want to place it there? Whether out on the town or just hanging with friends, the Kodak Zi8 Pocket Video Camera captures every experience in stunning 1080p HD video. Stay in focus while youre on the go with integrated image stabilization. Then kick back and watch all the action on your HDTV or share your scene on YouTube with the built-in USB. The Zi8 pocket video camera has all you need to define yourself in high definition.
Details
- Record High Definition video (1080p at 30 fps with 16:9 aspect ratio)
- Easily upload recorded footage to YouTube with built-in USB and software
- Expandable SD/SDHC card slot up to 32 GB; Rechargeable batteries and charger included
- Vibrant 2.5-inch viewfinder; Watch footage on HDTV with included cables
- Edit and share videos with included software
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Tags: 8 Responses to “Kodak Zi8 Pocket Video Camera (Aqua)”
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Rating
I rarely will type/review products but I’ve been a small frustrated reading the reviews of this product on Amazon and by users at other sites. Many users seem to reckon that this camera was designed to compete with expensive, professional cameras that cost thousands of dollars and produce full HD quality video. That’s not what this is. Also, while my camera hasn’t had the ‘noise’ issue from the Mic, i have seen a camera that had the issue and its BARELY noticeable. Its nearly like a very silent background noise from a Florescent light or something.
Kodak has designed, marketed, and built a camera to compete with FLiP and has clearly produced a FAR better product.
I’ll keep it small and sweet and first clarify who I am and what I am using this camera for. I use it for:
-Home Videos/Fun stuff with ancient buddies and friends
-For work when I need some quick video that’s simple to upload online, or place in iMovie and edit
-For work when I need more complex videos that may require editing, or somewhat lengthy video but I want the ease of use/portability.
I have seen some of the problems stated with the internal Mic and I have had none of them (I do have the upgraded Firmware that is now standard 1.03, and Kodak says this completely eliminates the issue…again have never had the issue on my camera). A relative of mine was lucky enough to buy this product when Kodak did an ‘early’ release a few months ago and occasionally his videos will have a bit of a higher pitched background noise, but it doesn’t interfere with the sound from the video — its just a light background noise that, honestly, i’ve heard on dozens of cameras. Don’t forget, without an external Mic the camera only records mono so — the sounds quality isn’t going to be fantastic anyway!
The video is fantastic, image stability isn’t as advanced as those available on more expensive cameras but it is better than anything i’ve seen in a FLiP or other Kodak model. It does work and you can see a difference, even if its not huge. Its SO simple to flip between video modes. The 1080p is awesome, but sometimes its nice to go back down to 720 and the 60fps to capture ‘action’ footage.
One negative — which most people may see as a positive — i do wish there were more settings, or at least the ability to play around with more features/edit modes. Its Fantastic simple to use, its a point and shoot video camera — but with the fantastic lens and abilities, it seems like Kodak could have — pretty easily — had this camera competing with much higher end cameras. If all the hardware was place to fantastic use this could compete with $500+ cameras. But I know wanting to keep it simple.
I like having the SD card. Some people would prefer the internal memory, and yes by the time you buy a decent sized SD card the camera is more expensive than the FLiP, but, the FLiP has a very limited memory. This camera is limited only by the size of the card…Certainly a positive!
Finally, I know people that are both in the TV business and do a lot of Video blogging and they are drooling over this camera because of the external mic capabilities. One reason lots of ‘pros’ didn’t like FLiP was because of the audio issues. Kodak has solved those, not to mention providing better quality video.
Again this isn’t something to shoot with if your a young film-maker or a die-hard amateur cinematographer. But if you need something cheap to get some fantastic quality video, or need something super simple to use that is really portable….Take the plunge. And if your considering FLiP — don’t bother…
Rating
I ordered the camera last week and then after reading more reviews here and elsewhere, I immediately chose to cancel the order. Unfortunately, Amazon had already shipped and they told me to either refuse the package, or to try it and then return it, no charge, if it didn’t work. It arrived yesterday and I fully expected to return it today. We spent the night playing with it, but, and we are not returning it–it works fabulously. Perhaps it came with all the firmware updates installed because we had no issues with picture, with sound quality, etc. We didn’t experience any of the issues other reviewers have mentioned–there was no high pitched sound, no lines, no problems filming in low-light. We use a Mac and the uploading was effortless–no additional software needed. We were able to play clips in quicktime, in iphoto or in imovie. Image quality is very excellent. I don’t normally write reviews and I typically wouldn’t write a review after having so small experience with an item, but I feel that this product is getting a terrible rap and so far we like it.
Rating
This small gem arrived via UPS just last week, and I am extremely impressed with the combination of features, quality and performance. Three things to keep in mind – remember the price being paid, it’s ease-of-use, what it can do, and you can fully appreciate this device for what it is. I work with output from the five-figure JVC HD cameras as part of my job, and you are not buying one of those. So it isn’t appropriate to make comparisons between abilities and picture quality – and you also have to be very aware of lighting when using one of these.
Having said all that, I was still amazed at some quick clips I shot at a nearby lake. I played them thru the included HDMI to my 42″ Samsung and was stunned at some of the resolution I saw. With careful placement of the camera and awareness of the lighting, it DOES approach broadcast-quality with the 1080p setting.
I place together a quick pastiche of clips from my road tour and posted it here at YouTube: Search under the term: “Lake Monroe Scenes.” Also, check out another one I made called “Early Autumn” (under the name LGwalt).
Here you can see for yourself the strengths and weaknesses of this camera. When I can have full control of the lighting, the results approach spectacular. The shots taken thru the windshield while the car is in motion can show you some of the problems with lighting adjustment going from shade to bright light. This was edited in Corel Studio Pro. It was originally shot in 1080p, I converted it to 720p 30 fps in Oxelon for ease of editing in Studio Pro, and exported it to YouTube as a 720p 30 fps HDV file.
Rating
The Kodak Zi8 sounds excellent on paper, but in real life it has two major drawbacks in my opinion. First, the lens is 46mm (35 mm equivalent). This is way too constricting in ordinary social situations, say over the table in a restaurant booth. With an adult and two small kids sitting across from me, I could only shoot two of the three people. A 28mm lens would have captured all three – and I have 28mm on my point ‘n shoot which shoots excellent video, though non-HD. (Newer models of the point ‘n shoot do, at least 720p.) By the way, the Zi8 focal length is 46mm for 720p and WVGA settings. At 1080p, the focal length is 61mm.
Second minimum normal focus is 39 inches, when set to normal. There is also a macro setting with a fixed focus of 5.9″. Three feet means you aren’t going to be holding this at arm’s length, for example, to get yourself in your own shots: you run a high risk of being out of focus.
Frankly these two factors can be showstoppers. As I sit here contemplating the Zi8, I am tending to reckon that the focal length is a showstopper for me.
But on to the features of the Zi8. Overall, it is a very nice unit. It is thicker and heavier than earlier Flip models but not excessively so. It will fit in a shirt pocket, but expect that pocket to droop from the weight. Kodak doesn’t provide any kind of case in the box, not even a cheapo slip cover.
The battery is user replaceable, which is a plus since Kodak says you’ll get only 90 minutes run time from a battery. It charges in two hours from the AC adapter, 4 hours from a USB cable.
Controls are minimal. An on-off switch which seems hard to trip accidentally and four push buttons on the back for settings, deletion, record and play.
The joystick is kind of on the clumsy side.
Video quality at all settings (WVGA, 720p, 720p 60fps, 1080p) is brilliant in excellent lighting. Low light performance is very poor. I tested low light in a room with a 75 watt ceiling mounted fixture and a computer monitor casting light on a person a foot or so away. Noise was visible in the image. The tests I ran at lower lighting levels were essentially unusable for any practical purpose.
The unit will accept SDHC cards up to 32 GB. I used a much more affordable Class 6 16 GB card, which would accommodate 4 hours of 720p video.
Transferring video from the SDHC cards is a snap. You can also use the cleverly engineered USB connector. On first use, you have the option of installing the supplied Arcsoft software will allow you, among other things, to convert the Quicktime MOV files to other formats.
The internal microphone produced brilliant to acceptable audio at distances ranging up to about 8 to 10 feet. Obviously, the further away the speaker is, the less acceptable the audio is. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find an external mic to plug in and test. I did not experience the high pitched noise others complained about.
Image stabilization seems to work moderately well, but if you shake a lot, it’s not going to help – and it certainly is not capable of smoothing out any huge bumps, like when you are walking.
The 4X digital zoom is surprisingly excellent. Noise increases as you would expect, but not to the point of seriously degrading the image. A larger problem is that the zoom motion is not smooth, so you’d best plot on setting the zoom first and then shooting.
A remote control is available as an accessory, which might extend the usefulness of this camera.
Still photo quality is moderate. In room lighting, I found that shutter speeds were so low that shake was inevitable.
In terms of overall quality – if you can accept its two serious limitations with regard to focal length and minimum focus distance – the Zi8 ranks high as a video capture device and is mediocre (as might be expected) as a still camera. In terms of general utility, but, I have to question the utility and expense of a Zi8 against using a more expensive point ‘n shoot that does 720p video. Obviously it depends on your needs, but at this point, having spent the day working with the Zi8, I am not yet convinced that it is a keeper.
Jerry
Rating
So, I read all the same reviews you did on Amazon. Some people like it some people have had problems. I have not seen a product with such a wide range of reviews and was very leery. I bought it locally at a store with a excellent return record as Amazon was out of stock with no ETA on new stock.
I will start by saying, I have not had any of the problems that seem common here. No lines, no amusing squeals/hums, etc. This unit came with the latest firmware installed (1.06).
Reading the 4 and 5 star comments on Amazon, I would say they are in line with my own experiences. For my needs this camera hits the mark on so many levels.
My needs:
- Small camera
- Ability to record quick action movement of sports/dance activities
- Extremely simple to play back on a computer AND television
- Zoom. Optical would be fantastic, but not needed for what I do.
- A standard video format that could be edited by lots of different software.
Major pluses that tipped the scale to this camera over others:
- Removable memory. I don’t want to download everything to a computer when I am on vacation. Swapping out the memory card is like loading film…I’ll process it when I get home.
- Removable Battery. With all of my rechargeable tools/toys, I will use them more if I can swap out a run down battery and keep going. This lesson was first learned with cordless drills, always buy a second battery so you can keep working.
- Decent quality video for the size. Look at another reviewer on Amazon. He did a decent job of recording in different lighting conditions to show you what to expect. Similar videos were found on Youtube.
Software:
This seems to be a problem for a lot of people. I really didn’t expect much and knew from other reviews that the .mov format was compatible with Quicktime. I would have preferred something I could use on Windows Movie Maker, but if the software did not work it was only $30 to upgrade to Quicktime Pro to edit.
As an aside: I found it fascinating that folks complained that only PC software was included. What they didn’t seem to know is this .mov format works natively with the standard iMovie software on the Mac.
All that said, the Arcsoft software loaded fine on an ancient laptop running XP. Now, like any other video editing software, I had to close all other programs to keep the video from being jumpy when I edited or played it.
The one fascinating detour I did not expect was the 8GB SDHC card I bought for the camera was not something the ancient XP could read with it’s built in SD card reader (SDHC did not exist when this computer was built). It worked fine with a newer Vista based computer. That said, flipping out the USB connection from the camera and plugging it into the XP laptop worked fantastic. The laptop treated the camera like a USB memory stick and the movies run in Quicktime.
As to converting the .mov to something I can use (say .avi) with Windows Movie Maker, I did find some free tools listed by other reviewers that worked fine (RAD Video Tools – http://www.radgametools.com/bnkdown.htm) .
What would I like to see different? An adjustable focal length so I could get everyone in the shot across the table and still take the long shots. I expect that will be years before this feature is affordable enough to place in a $200 camera. I do look forward to that day as I bet we see optical zoom and detachable lenses to do fun things when that day comes.
I reckon I got lucky in some areas and had different expectations in other areas.
It appears that the early adopters had problems and Kodak was quick to fix them. I received a newer model with the latest fixes (firmware) and possibly newer ArcSoft software.
I never expected a $200 camera without optical zoom to take pictures of cameras costing twice as much and more.
I never expect included software to be stellar as that has never been my experience with ANY product. It should do the basics, and for me it did, although I probably won’t use it given other free options.
I have had video cameras in the past and recognize the need for excellent lighting, both on the subject and behind the subject. That said, I am pleased with the video even in low-light situations as it is better than what I expected.
If you need a small video camera that is very simple to use and share your videos, I would not hesitate to recommend this to you.
Rating
As others have mentioned, you really need to add $20+ (for an SD card) to the price of this to compare it to Flip and other cameras with built-in memory (the Zi8 does have a small amount of onboard memory, but it’s only enough to test the camera, not enough for any real use). That said, though, it’s still a bargain.
First, and most importantly, the video (and audio) quality is exceptionally excellent for a camera in this price range. No, it won’t compare with a $1000+ camera – but it compares very well with Flip and the like. My initial video was made by following my four year ancient around the house as she clarified things to me. Bright sunlight to dark hallways to lit rooms, close to and far from the camera, still and active. We recorded (at 720p/60fps) for ten minutes, then connected the Zi8 via the included HDMI cable to the TV and watched. I was quite impressed. I wouldn’t expect the Discovery Channel to use these to film the sequel to the Planet Earth series, but for recording kids, pets, outside events (I also recorded my dog running around the yard), etc., it does very well. Color fidelity is excellent, and the built-in audio had no perceived issues. Adding an external mic makes it even better (my daughters use one and attach a tripod so they can interview each other).
I’m a Mac user, so I can’t speak to the ease of use of the included software, but I can say that the Zi8 connects easily to the Mac (the first time, I only saw the drive partition with the Windows software, but I ejected and plugged it back in, and from then on, I saw the image/video partition as well). The movies are all in H.264 format, so iMovie (or virtually any other video software) works well with them, and, as others have said, iMovie does jitter reduction well, so no need to waste camera batteries on image stabilization). Also, obviously, you can eject the SD card and use a card reader to import the movies and pictures on any OS.
Speaking of pictures… the picture quality is adequate, but very much in the cellphone camera quality range – I wouldn’t use this to take wedding photos or to document UFO sightings, but it’s fine for the things you’d use your cellphone camera to snap.
Ease of use is fantastic, but I will admit that, at first, I took a lot of half-second videos because the camera starts taking video whenever you switch resolutions. Still, it’s trivially simple to use.
I rate it five stars because, for the price (even including an SD card), I was very impressed with what came with it (cables, etc), with the quality of the recordings and of the camera, with the ease of use, with the external mic option, with the removable battery, and with the overall experience.
At under $200 with a memory card, it is currently the best of the pocket-cam options.
Rating
Since I already own a Kodak zi6, I will restrict my review to comparison between Kodak zi8 and zi6. Overall, I feel that zi8 is a significant improvement over the previous model. The video quality is certainly better than zi6 in all conditions, whether outside in bright sunlight or indoors in low light. The firmware is superior giving a more user friendly interface and buttons layout is much nicer. Unlike zi6 where setting menus was hidden, this time you get direct access to settings including controlling the screen brightness, altering mic sensitivity, turning image stabilization on/off and enabling/disabling face recognition.
I reckon this is a fantastic video camcorder at a fantastic price. Go for it!
————- update: Sep 24 2009 ————–
Upgraded to the latest firmware 1.03, and this eliminated the background noise in my recordings completely! Wow. Thanks Kodak for listening to costumers and quickly fixing the mic bug.
[...]
Rating
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3DTAE8IALESIN Instead of shooting a review, I took some video, outdoors in the dark, in a dim room, and various lighting conditions. I erased the audio part – it was just wind and ambient noise. The original video is fantastic quality – hopefully Amazon does not compress it too much!
Christmas lights in front of the house, the tree inside the house, and some footage at the local gym (dark, medium and bright conditions!)
I also shot some close-up footage with the close-up setting on and off so you can see how it works.
All videos are recorded by the camera in .mov format.