Small Wonder - Review Kodak Zi8

You can always shoot videos with your still camera or get yourself a good video camera, but the form factors of the latter seem too outdated at times and videos from my still camera are shoddy at best. So getting good video quality, if possible HD, in a form factor that works for me, is important and the Kodak Zi8, with its fit-in-short-pocket size and easy to use features, fits the bill perfectly.
The Zi8 is small and measures just 2.4 by 4.5 inches; it is about an inch thick and weighs 138 grams. Bt it still offers five shooting modes — 1080p (1920 by 1080), 720p (1280 by 720) at 60 frame per second, 720p at 30 fps, WVGA (848 by 480) and still photos (5.3 megapixels at a 16:9 aspect ratio). Video is captured in H.264 format and audio is recorded at 48kHz. Plus, it comes with both telephoto and macro mode.

Also included are an external microphone port in case you want to hook up a mic to the person you are interviewing. You can also run the camera on external power for long durations, though on battery and shooting high definition videos gave me 2.5 hours shoot time. In case of a long shoot, it is better to plug the camera into the electrical socket.

Apart from the form factor, the Zi8's image quality is brilliant and image stabilisation one of the best in the industry. For many this might not mean much, but when you shoot a movie with a camera in your hand, the slight jerks can cause a lot of disturbance, and the Zi8 negates these easily. But I would leave the still camera of the Zi8 for a time when you have no better options available.

The 2.5-inch LCD is bright and sharp, and you can adjust its brightness in three steps. But the shiny black plastic in which the body is finished is a fingerprint magnet and very scratch prone, so I suggest you carry it in a cover at all times. The dealer gave me a 4GB SD card with the camera, but I think you should go for an 8GB SDHC card which will give you approximately 120 minutes of HD video recording.

The built-in USB plug is a wonderful feature and you don't need to carry a memory card reader at all times. You can connect the Zi8 to either a Mac or a Windows machine and it is detected as an external disk. If you are a Windows user, the ArcSoft Media Impression Software can be installed from the camera, but Mac users will need to use something like iMovie to edit videos.

In case you are trying to make videos for YouTube, I suggest you stick to the compact 720p/30 fps or WVGA formats as your best results. For home movies, it is better to use 1080p/30fps. The HDMI and AV cables come bundled with the camera. In playback mode, you can go from slow motion to about 16x speed, skipping to part you want to watch.

But the Zi8 is not a super fast camera and I did have some issues shooting indoors. The indoor shots have come out well, but the videos shot in daylight look as if they were taken with a professional camera. The built-in microphone is not all that great and you might have to plug in a better mic for good audio quality. A feature which I absolutely hate is the red light next to the lens, which tells the person you are shooting. Though I understand that this will prevent privacy invasion, it becomes annoying for the person you are shooting.

Moreover, you can't change settings while recording a movie. If you try to do this, the camera stops recording and you have to start a new file. The icon that shows the battery level some how goes off the screen when recording begins, though, thankfully, they reappear when it has just 20 minutes of juice to spare. However, the built-in four-way toggle and the buttons were easy to use.

Creative's Vado and the Cisco Flip are good competitors, but Zi8 delivers similar features at a great price point of Rs 10,999, making it one of the best pocket camcorders I have reviewed till date. The greatest quality of the Zi8 is that you can concentrate on the shooting, while the camera handles everything else.

--
The above review appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 16th May 2010

Review - Kodak Z915

This is one great camera if you are looking for a compact with a high zoom and usability features. And no, the price is not its biggest draw.

Voice notes | video grab | panorama mode | burst mode | Rs 10,999

I am not sure what made me fall for it, the retro looks, the 10x optical zoom or the price—but when I held the Kodak Easyshare Z915 in my hands, I immediately thought, now this is a camera I want. But there was more to it. The 10x zoom and the retro looks were definitely the first pull. I loved the way the controls were laid out and the fact that the macro mode, flash settings and custom timer buttons were dedicated and on top of the camera with the zoom controls. The manual mode is very nice and usable (though you don’t get manual focus).

The video quality is limited to VGA (640 x 480) but it can shoot videos at 30 fps. It also supports QVGA format (320 x 240) at 30 fps, so that you can record videos in a small file.

I like the fact that Kodak gave a 3V DC adapter input on the side of the camera. This is good when you are using the camera directly to print pictures or using it connected to your PC to download pictures, etcetera.

The camera ships in three colours: red, blue and black; has a 10 megapixel sensor (maximum print size of 30 x 40 inch), takes alkaline AA batteries; and has an additional 5x digital zoom that boosts the camera to 50x zoom (though I won’t use the digital zoom). Optical stabilisation is built into the camera. The 2.5 inch high-resolution screen is brilliantly bright in outdoor light, and the controls are neatly laid out. I love Kodak for the fact that they’ve stuck to SD cards for this camera.

The Z915 supports ISO settings from 100 to 1600 (though higher settings were very grainy, but when you are shooting in dark places these tend to be handy). Weighing in at a cool 220 gram, this is one great camera if you are looking for a compact with a high zoom and usability features.

To know more, see Kodak Website

--
The above article was printed in the Open Magazine, Issue dated: 3rd October to 9th October 2009

Three clicks - Digital Cameras Under 6990

Planning to buy a digital camera this diwali? here are three affordable options you can explore

The war of the megapixels is not going to end soon and there is every chance that you don’t want to be left behind. But at the end of the day, we all buy digital cameras to capture our moments of joy and share them with our friends. With more people gradually increasing their digital footprint and fewer opting to actually print their pictures, the 10 megapixel barrier is proving to be more than sufficient for home users—you can print a 30x40 inch picture with a file from a 10 mp camera. And, trust, me, just because your camera has a whole lot of pixels does not mean your pictures will be good. That will still depend on the person behind the viewfinder.
I have selected three cameras under Rs 7,000 for review this time. All three cameras have some features in common—all support AA pencil cell batteries, so that you don't have to carry a charger everywhere, and are approximately 10 megapixels, with 3X optical zoom. While the Samung has a 2.5” LCD screen, the Olympus and the Kodak both sport a 2.4” screen. All cameras also support face detection and have some kind of blur reduction.

Samsung ES15 (10.1 MP) @ Rs 6,530


Though Samsung is one of the least known brands when it comes to digital cameras, they have a great line-up supported by a large network of service centres. A 10.1 mp camera with a 2.5” LCD, the ES15 is ideal for beginners. The camera can also be used to record just voice (up to 10 hours), a useless feature if you ask me. However, you can add 10 second voice memos to still images, which will be handy if you are taking random pictures. It comes with 11 MB of Internal memory and can support up to 8 GB SDHC cards. The good part is that the camera can accept both SD as well as MMC Plus cards.

WHY I LIKE IT: Great service, good picture quality, very nice finishing.

Kodak C180 (10.2 mp) @ Rs 6,299



The best thing about this one is that it is YouTube compatible-- you just have to connect it to the Kodak Software to upload video directly to YouTube. The 2.4" screen is bright and nice, and the dedicated share button lets you automatically fire up the software on your PC the moment you have connected to trigger automatic upload of images. The camera has simple face detection and can record video of up to 80 minutes, if you have the memory capacity. There are no complex menus and hence the camera is very easy to use. The camera supports high-speed SDHC memory cards.

WHY I LIKE IT: Great brand, YouTube compatibility, simple menus

Olympus FE 25 (10 mp) @ Rs 5,995


This, like the Kodak, can take up to 115 frames on a pair of AA pencil cells. It also features a 19 MB internal memory, which acts like a reserve in case you run out of space on the memory card. The camera has 16 shooting modes and also allows users to create panoramas by stitching frames using the Olympus Master Software. On the flipside, the camera uses an x-D picture card which is not so easily available and is expensive. It, however, comes with a micro-SD Adapter. The camera goes a step further from standard face recognition by detecting up to 16 faces. Exposure Compensation Preview is a great option for those learning how to use the exposure to take better shots.

WHY I LIKE IT: EV preview, 16 face detection and 19MB internal memory.

--
The Above review was printed in the Indian Express, on Sunday 13th September 09