After about 13 or so days the Kodak Zi6 I purchased for about $240AUD including delivery has arrived at my house. It’s not a true HD video recorder – it’s designed for the youtube generation. So far I’ve only spent about 2 hours with it, but here are my initial thoughts.

Pros

  • The thing is light, damn light. About the size of a smartphone but without the huge weight of the battery.
  • It takes two rechargeable AA batteries which are supplied, along with a charging station (which has AUS plugs) **Update, sorry, not AUS plugs – I need to look closer**
  • Comes with both component and composite cables to hook it up to the tv
  • Also has a cloth bag, software on cd (I think the drivers are on the camera too) and a strap
  • Easy to use, I figured it out without opening the manual once
  • It takes photos as well as videos, plus it has a macro setting (which I think only works in photo mode)

Against

  • When you zoom in you can hear it clicking
  • It’s very sensitive to shake (or I shake a lot – haven’t decided yet)
  • Big bass noises in the car distort it’s recorded sound
  • Adequate in low light conditions considering it’s price
  • It’s field of view is quite small, so forget about sweeping views of the Empire State building from the ground  – it’s more for in your face recording

As for video quality, here is a sample, bearing in mind that this was at dusk on an overcast evening and I had no idea how much shaking I do. If you want to watch it in HD, click on the up arrow on the bottom right hand side of the youtube screen and click HD.

I bought it from the Expansys Australian website, but their warehouse has now closed due to a restructure and this was shipped from Hong Kong. It was still cheaper than on Ebay.

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