Very quick impressions of the Kodak Zi6
Our Kodak Zi6 arrived today, and I’ve been able to spend about 15 minutes with it and I wanted to post a few first impressions of this new HD video camera.
The actual unit is small, lightweight and feels good in hand. The controls are totally intuitive and we didn’t read the instructions at all - we just started taping stuff.
There are several modes of capture - still photo, VGA (which I’m assuming is 640×480), HD and HD60, which is HD shot at 60 frames per second. You can easily thumb through the settings, and there’s a zoom feature as well.
When on a tripod, the video is very good, indoors and out. When you’re not on a tripod, it’s a bit of a different story. The video seems to be jerky on really quick pans and whip-arounds. This is the case for many flash cameras (even our expensive HD camera can get a bit iffy on really quick pans or cuts) but I think in HD you really notice it more.
Here’s some video I shot with it this afternoon. Please go to the Vimeo page to view it in all it’s HD glory.
Zi6 Camera Test from Mike on Vimeo.
On my mac, the clips can be imported into iPhoto if you like to manage them there. When connected, the camera also shows up as a drive, so you can pull your clips off that way as well. I had no issue whatsoever importing the clips into iMovie and adding transitions, edits, fades and so on. I anticipate using this camera when something quick pops up and we need coverage. There are some times when our big HD camera is overkill.
I will shoot more tonight with all the different settings and will report back.
Some other specs and information from questions I received today on Twitter.
- The cost of these units is $179.
- There is a macro mode and a macro switch on the side
- There is a tripod hole. It fit 2 different tripods with no issue.
- The unit comes with 2 AA rechargeable batteries as well as a charger
- It comes a very small amount of internal storage. We shot about 20 seconds in 60fps mode without a card
- The unit takes both SD and SDHC cards. I am using a 4GB SDHC card, so I don’t know for sure if this reduces stutter or the choppiness some people are seeing. I get a bit but not a ton.
- There are AV and HD outs. No inputs at all (no mic, video, etc)
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Some examples including more audio would be great too. How well does it work for recording interviews?