Is a Kodak Zi8 good enough for basic family videos?

[SAWYER]

I am looking to buy my wife a video camera. In the past we have always bought expensive Canon cameras but they were hardly used. Would this be suitable for casual family video?

 

[kalster]

I have the Zi8. It works very well to shoot my 3 month old. Very easy and use and good picture quality. Picture quality is quite good except low light but none of the flip type cameras do very well in such situations.

 

[Kaido]

Yah definitely, in fact I'm asking for a Pocket Cam from Santa this year because they're so useful If you can stand to wait a week or two, the 3rd-generation VadoHD will be out for $179. It has a wide-angle lens and mic input, plus manual aperture control, although it's only 720p resolution. I like the picture from the Vado a lot. Here's a couple sample clips from Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_khxbDwjVg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e07nuA_uphY

Plus it works OOTB with Windows & Mac, which is nice. My bigger Canon camera requires transcoding before I can editing anything, which takes time, and sometimes I just want to shoot stuff and edit it quickly to throw up on Youtube or via email or whatever.

 

[SAWYER]

Well the pocket cam is out. We went to Best Buy to look at some cameras and the sales guy was like "stay away from those cheap handhelds, they are for teenagers". So now she is dead set against one

 

[Kaido]

Well the pocket cam is out. We went to Best Buy to look at some cameras and the sales guy was like "stay away from those cheap handhelds, they are for teenagers". So now she is dead set against one

Goo! Pocket cams are fabulous because they're EASY - you don't have to fiddle with them, change settings, nothing complex: just press the button & SHOOT! Too bad...

 

[shocksyde]

Well the pocket cam is out. We went to Best Buy to look at some cameras and the sales guy was like "stay away from those cheap handhelds, they are for teenagers". So now she is dead set against one

And I would've said to the wife: "Stay away from that salesman, he's a douchebag."