Comments on: Kodak Zi6 Pocket HD Camcorder

By: M. Wilson

M. Wilson — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 09:03:03 +0000

After 3 weeks I’m still loving this camera. It slips into purse or pocket and I can get replacement batteries anywhere if needed. I upload to facebook which seems to take a long time but I may try the “easy upload” to YouTube and then transfer. Still learning. As a “senior” I enjoy the convenience and it took great videos of the fireworks last night!

By: C Agster

C Agster — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 06:44:34 +0000

The camera is cute and compact yet lacks features. It’s zoom strength leaves much to be desired, you can only film someone who is around 5′ away from you and it doesn’t zoom out enough to get full bodies captured clearly. Overall I would have saved my money and bought a ‘real’ handheld camera. The major feature they endorse is upload straight to utube and the inboard usb (which did not work on mine) and I still had to save from the sd card. If you just want a camera that can sit in your purse than it’s ok other than that put the money towards something with more zoom power and better picture quality. Picture actually lagged behind and has ‘trails’ when the subject is moving in the video.

By: tek chi

tek chi — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 05:03:49 +0000

Some of the videos I recorded had very bad jittery audio. It didn’t matter whether there was ambient noise or not. I returned this unit and Amazon lived up to its name once again by doing a full refund.

Good:

Photo mode – not the best, but is there! Pictures look like a paused video.

External memory

Rechargeable, removable batteries

Self-portrait mirror

720p does look fantastic when played on HDTV

Mac support – can use regular iMovie ‘08

Bad:

Jittery audio – made it useless for me – my kids’ voices came out broken

Poor video refresh – yes 720p looks great, but the zi6 videos look very choppy. I guess the technical term is frame rate(?) Underwhelming when you shoot while moving – e.g. walking, panning, following my kids.

Flimsy – body is very flimsy. I’m 100% sure it can’t take even one drop to the floor. With kids it is inevitable.

Overall, a great alternative to the Flip series, but the audio issue killed my enthusiasm. Wanted to get the zi8 after returning this, but decided against it after reading ‘high pitched audio’ issue with it. Seems like Kodak couldn’t figure out audio yet!

What did I settle for now – iPod nano w/ video. Read my review on that if interested.

By: J. Bell

J. Bell — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 03:10:46 +0000

I should have tried this out when I bought it as it’s too late to send it back to QVC. The camera is good, lightweight but sturdy, easy to use, resolution and sound is good. I spent the last two days taping myself to meet a submission deadline and now I’ll miss out on the opportunity due to the unusable software. I’m fairly savvy but there are few edit options, no instruction or video tutorial and definitely no help from arcsoft. When I tried to cut out some dead footage the sound went out of synch. Also, the files are only usable to arcsoft, Windows Movie Maker cannot access them or any other program….so I’m outtaluck on meeting the deadline…all due to this software which, if you look online, has many detractors.

By: Terry

Terry — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 01:33:43 +0000

My husband bought the Zi6 for Christmas. I took about 45 seconds’ worth of video (about 3 separate short snippets) and the joystick stopped working (I would click on it but it would not record). I returned if for another one, and it did EXACTLY THE SAME THING: worked for 5 minutes and then the joystick stopped responding. The rest of the buttons worked, so I could review my three snippets of video, but could no longer record. I have a Kodak still camera with a joystick, and have never had a problem with it, so I know I’m not being too rough with the joystick. I can only conclude it’s a design defect. VERY DISAPPOINTING!!! I’m returning my second one for a refund, and am now using my daughter’s Flip video camera instead.