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First Look: Kodak Zx1 and Flip UltraHD

#1 User is offline   Macworld 

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Posted 29 April 2009 - 08:05 PM

Post your comments for First Look: Kodak Zx1 and Flip UltraHD here
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#2 User is offline   HealeyGuy 

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Posted 29 April 2009 - 10:02 PM

Your article says the Zx1 looks washed out and too blue with indoor skin tones, but the bottom example you show appears to me that it is the UltraHD that is flat and bluish. Given that shooting when zoomed gives a lesser-quality picture I prefer that the Zx1 isn't as wide angle at its normal setting as the UltraHD.
I just received two Zx1's from Kodak's site. They are impressive at their price. You are correct that the image is noisy in low light and the zoom stutters. Fast motion looks blurry and it is a challenge to hold the camera reasonably steady. I attached a small Gorillapod which acts like a handle as well as being usable as a tripod to help steady the shots.
I like that I can remove an SDHC card and use a card reader to upload to the computer. I also like that it is designed to be water and dust resistant. Kodak includes a draw-string pouch for the camera and a differently styled face plate which are unexpected add-ons.
I took a Zx1 to my bowling league and panned around the bowling alley which had bright light over the lanes and dim light in the seating area. The camera adjusted to the drastically different lighting quick enough.
This camera is really fun and easy to use so it means I'll be much more likely to shoot videos. People smiled when I pointed the camera in their direction rather than running away when they see me holding a camcorder. I'm taking the Zx1's to Disneyland in a couple weeks and leaving my DV camcorder at home.
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#3 User is offline   Chris Breen 

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Posted 29 April 2009 - 10:18 PM

HealeyGuy said:

Your article says the Zx1 looks washed out and too blue with indoor skin tones, but the bottom example you show appears to me that it is the UltraHD that is flat and bluish.


That's true, but that shot was an example of low-light performance. Indoors under normal daylight, the Zx1 has the bluer tone. (I'll include example shots that demonstrate this when I post my review of the Zx1.) This example shows the grainier image of the Zx1.

#4 User is offline   macnews 

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Posted 30 April 2009 - 07:43 AM

I just wish some of these pocket cameras allowed an external mic and did a better job zooming (no/less pixelization).
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#5 User is offline   HealeyGuy 

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Posted 30 April 2009 - 04:18 PM

I may have found a flaw with the Kodak Zx1 and I hope Chris Breen can check this. It happens with both my Zx1's on either of my Macs. The audio ranges from about 0.10 to 0.35 seconds shorter than the video. This means the video and audio are out of sync by a fixed amount throughout the video. What I found is the audio is ahead by the differences in the track lengths. I can use the application QT Sync to delay the start of the audio by that amount.
My early testing also leads me to believe there may be many advantages to shooting at the 60 fps mode. I hope Chris tests this as well.
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#6 User is offline   Caney 

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Posted 04 May 2009 - 05:41 AM

I purchased the Zi6 for my wife at Christmas and found the same audio synching problem as HealeyGuy. This showed up in the camera playback as well as my computer. I took it back. I am thinking about the Flip though now.
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#7 User is offline   stormfront 

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Posted 15 May 2009 - 04:53 AM

I found the same audio sync problem on the Zx1 when using a standard SD card, changing to a SanDisk Ultra 11 solved the problem.

I have both Flip Mino HD and the Kodak Zx1's .... Flip has much better video and audio quality, Zx1 is just no competition.

So why then did I buy 6 no Zx1's instead of the Flip?

Well, they are for use by school students, and...

1) The touch sensitive buttons on the flip are just to sensitive.... just passing your finger over the back of the camera will have buttons being activated...

2) The Flip only has the flip-out USB connection. Sounds a great idea, no cables, but after connecting to MacBook Pro once this way, I won't do it again... the camera is too heavy and vulnerable to be hanging off the USB port... so I now use a short USB extension cable. But this is still a single point of failure, break this and you are stuffed. So not really suitable for use with Primary School students. The Kodak has mini USB and mini HDMI ports and you get the cables.

3) Import times into iMovie HD (06).... are painful with HD content from both cameras, taking at least double realtime. But the Kodak has a VGA setting, which can be used when having to use this old version of iMovie. Both cameras work much better with iMovie 08/09 and import times are then much shorter than realtime. So. if going for one these cameras, upgrading iMovie is really worth it.

Conclussion;

For personal use, I will use the Flip, but for kids/students the Kodak.
If the Flip also had a mini USB port, I would have gone with that for school use and solved the iMovie HD problem by adding a step into the movie capture stage. As you can view the movies in Quicktime and only import the clips that you really need... thus saving lots of time. In fact, if you have Quicktime Pro you can save even more time by doing a rough edit on larger clips as well.
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