Kodak Zi8 Review
After a week or so of comparisons and watching countless demo videos I decided to take the plunge and order my new Zi8. About five days later I received it in the mail along with my 16 gig class 6 SD card. The Zi8 is extremely small for video camera standards. This may not be quite on part with full size video cameras but for its size I can’t complain.
The 16 SD card allows me to shoot about 2 hours and 50 minutes of video at 1080p or 720p @ 60fps. 720p @ 30fps allows you almost double the recoding time. After playing with multiple formats I have found 720p @ 60fps to be the ideal all around shooting mode. 1080p had a very crisp picture but I lacked the smooth playback that 60fps provided. Below is a video I shot at 720p@60fps of an original steam engine train.
The Zi8 also comes with a built in 5mp camera. Image quality on the camera is exceptional for a video camera providing you have lots of light and a steady hand. The zi8 wont exactly allow you to print out poster size pictures but it will defiantly suffice for internet or those in the moment snap shot pictures. The image below was shot of the same train on an overcast cloudy day. The originality image was 3072x1728 but was re-sized to 1200x675 for internet use.
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Kettle Valley Train Steam Engine
Night videos / pictures were a little to grainy for my liking so make sure there is adequate lighting.
The image stabilization works fairly well, which is a definite plus. The Zi8 uses a digital image stabilization rather then optical which isnt the best but its better then any of the other pocket cameras I have seen. The shot below was taken zoomed in while driving down the road, its not actually crisp but not to bad considering the car I was in has extremely stiff suspensions and it was a very bumpy ride.
Zi8 Image Stabilization
The built in mic has decent quality but an external mic can make a huge difference. The older firmware (1.1-1.2) was known to have a slight high pitch sound in the back ground. This can be fixed in about 2 minuets with a simple frimware update.
All in all for 220$ cdn I am very pleased with this camera. The quality is excellent providing adequate lighting, and its perfect internet video and its small enough to have in your pocket to capture those random moments.
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December 15th, 2009 at 2:18 am
Great review. This little gem arrived via UPS just last week, and I am extremely impressed with the combination of features, quality and performance.
December 19th, 2009 at 6:02 am
I’m somewhat of an amateur but this camera allows you to be as amateur or as professional as you want. You won’t be disappointed.
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