Review: Kodak Zi6

#1 Macworld

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Posted 08 October 2008 - 03:45 AM

Post your comments for Review: Kodak Zi6 here

#2 MacTechAspen

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Posted 08 October 2008 - 07:15 AM

Question: What are the file sizes for the relative sizes for say each minute of video?

#3 AaronShep

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Posted 08 October 2008 - 10:44 AM

According to this, the Kodak doesn't have a VGA video option, which is a chief attraction of the Flip. VGA is better suited to computer video than either HD or standard video, which are geared toward television. For a YouTube video, you'd have to export the Kodak recordings to a different format, while the Flip's recordings can be uploaded as is.

#4 Chris Breen

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Posted 08 October 2008 - 10:58 AM

AaronShep said:

According to this, the Kodak doesn't have a VGA video option

I refer to the Zi6's ability to also shoot in standard definition (meaning VGA). So yes, it's one of the options too.

#5 themacdaddy

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Posted 08 October 2008 - 05:56 PM

ahhhh. The beach at Carmel. I recognize it all the way from New York.

#6 Chris Breen

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Posted 08 October 2008 - 06:49 PM

themacdaddy said:

ahhhh. The beach at Carmel. I recognize it all the way from New York.

Nicely identified! You win the cigar and kewpie doll.

#7 sonofthesun

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Posted 21 October 2008 - 10:56 PM

Would the output be sufficient for a video projector presentation?

#8 tatilsever

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Posted 03 December 2008 - 08:22 AM

What is the advantage of these camcorders over the many point and shoot cameras with video recording capabilities? Some of them even use MPEG4, divx or H.264 instead of Motion JPEG, if the storage capacity is the main concern.

#9 Chris Breen

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Posted 03 December 2008 - 08:31 AM

tatilsever said:

What is the advantage of these camcorders over the many point and shoot cameras with video recording capabilities?

Most point-and-shoots offer movie recording in standard def only, video out is composite rather than component, operation is one-button dead-simple, they're sized to fit in a shirt pocket.

#10 trip1ex

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Posted 07 December 2008 - 07:11 PM

tatilsever said:

For me it's mostly about having a second camera so the wife can shoot pictures while I'm shooting video with the Flip SD Video camera. And if my kids are using the Flip I don't worry much.

It's not about video quality much. I suppose the small size of the Flip videos compared to my Canon point and shoot is a bonus too. The Flip has a bit better low light ability too. And yeah the operation is even simpler than a point and shoot.

You could also view getting a cheap video camera as a second set of batteries and memory.

#11 david61821

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Posted 09 January 2009 - 07:33 AM

I checked the Tech Specs before buying it and it requires for the Mac to have (and I quote from the Kodak page) a "2.8 GHz processor or greater". Well most Macs to do NOT have that high processor.
Is this just wrong? Please let me know on this.

#12 Tom Wolsky

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Posted 19 January 2009 - 02:16 PM

"because H.264 is natively supported by QuickTime (and therefore iMovie and Final Cut Pro)."
This is quite incorrect. Neither Final Cut Pro nor Final Cut Express natively supports H.264 as a production format. The only H.264 they support are when used as a codec in the AVCHD wrapper and the material is converted to the Apple Intermediate Codec or ProRes on ingest. In no way do the pro apps support this codec for production natively.
Regards,
Tom Wolsky

#13 michaelrosensf

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Posted 12 February 2009 - 01:44 PM

Could I monitor the video as it's being shot, using the USB cable and iPhoto or other software on my Mac laptop. The promised Bluetooth Ecamm BT-1 does offer this capability, but will shoot only in 640x480.