Kodak Zi8 Review

Raspberry Kodak Zi8

A great friend of mine once told me you don’t get anything unless you ask. He also told me how he’d emailed Kodak and said, “I’m a blogger of some note, please send me one of your as-yet-unreleased Zi8 video cameras so that I may review it.” I though this was a fantastic idea and decided to do the same, however, I tailored my email a little differently; “Hi, I’m a blogger of very little note, with my last post being several months ago, although I do twitter a bit and like cameras.” The answer, much to my amazement, was “Where would you like us to send the camera?”!

Anyway, I’ve had the device for a couple of weeks now and I must say I am pretty impressed with it. From it’s small form factor and easy to use controls to the downloading and playing on my TV, it has excelled as a tiny, convenient camera.

Off the bat I was impressed with the fact it had 1080p video. I’ve played with the Zi6 and it was very cool, but lacked in the resolution department, only being 720p (man, what a snob I am!) I’ve had a Sanyo camera for a few months now which does 1080p so understand just how much better it looks on my 46″ LCD. The Zi8 only has a mono microphone, but something new for this release over the previous Zi range is that option to plug in a stero mic. So, the device just got that much better for sound, meaning it opens up new doors for those looking to do adhoc interviews and man on the street kind of things, in a decent resolution without having to carry around anything bigger than a cigarette packet.

This brings me onto the size, it’s TINY, I carry it around with me everywhere in my pocket it’s so small. In fact, it sits right next to my iPhone and I hardly notice it’s there. But having it on me all the time means I can capture things on video that I’d normally have to remember, little things, like my son spinning round till he falls over, or my other son smearing yoghurt in his hair. Or even the argument in the supermarket that I posted on YouTube because it was funny. Anything now becomes a possible target for recording onto a chip in my pocket and the fact that the startup time is around 3-4 seconds is also a boon.

The filesize is fairly OK as well. With a 4gb SDHC card inserted, I get about 40mins of 1080p.You can only capture about 30 seconds of video on the device without a memory card, so make sure you pick one up in a bundle or buy a SDHC card with it. I’ve found though (especially with the Sanyo, which has 8gb) I leave it until it’s full up and then have to spend ages copying all the video off, trawling through each one trying to remember which clips were what, renaming etc. I still have to do that with the Zi8, but less often, so it’s less of an arduous task.  Made especially easier by it having a ping-out USB connection. (I must stress that this is more of a problem with my time-managment than with the camera).

If you slide a little doodad at the bottom of the camera, the USB connection pops out of the side, it’s really been redesigned well, as now, instead of being a hard plastic stick with a USB pin on the end, it’s now a rubbery, wobbly thing with a USB pin on the end, meaning that you don’t have to worry about anything snapping, especially when you’ve got your laptop on your lap and the camera hanging out of the side. I also makes it easier if you’ve got your USB ports in odd, or cramped places.

Copying the files off on an Apple is a breeze; plug it in, the drive mounts and there are your videos. Easy, fuss free. On a PC, it’s not so good (or on a mac if you install the dire software). On the Zi8 is all the software you need to perform its  many publishing functions, (DVD, YouTube etc). On Windows, the software is clunky and horrible and I’d much rather use explorer to navigate my movies, then pull them into Picasa for my various publishing options. You can do that afterwards, but you still need to use the proprietary software to get them off in the first place, yuk.

The videos themselves a pretty good. The quality is above average for a device of this size and price point. The camera does, however, suffer in low light situations and is practically useless in a restaurant which is lit soley by candles and my winning smile. When it can be used in less than ideal conditions, the video is very blocky and grainy and not on a par with other devices of it’s ilk (I’ve not tried the flip, but I’ve heard it’s OK in low-light).

Another gripe I have about the camera is it’s extremely useless zoom. It’s a digital zoom, which is bad enough, but don’t try zooming in while recording, you’ll look like an idiot film-maker. It doesn’t zoom smoothly at all, it jerks … in … with … a … seemingly … random … serious … of … jerks until you reach full zoom. You’ll. need to rest your elbows on something so that picture doesn’t violently shake around. The camera has digital image stabilisation and unless you’re on full zoom, or full of alcohol, it is perfectly adequate for day-to-day filming, just don’t expect to do any kind of remote surgery using it as a hand held webcam though!

It is a fixed focus camera, but does have a slider button on top for macro or landscape mode. I found I used landscape mode most of the time, unless I wanted to zoom in on something particularly close, then I’d slide the switch over. There does seem to be a bit of a blurry spot about 1.5 meters away from the camera that neither the macro or landscape modes could keep in focus, but I didn’t find it occurring too often, so could have just been the light. But I just stepped closer (or further away) and it cleared up. I’d like the button on top to be a digital switch instead of an analog one, or even just a softer analog one as a few times I started filming in macro mode then panned away and filcked into landscape mode so I didn’t have to stop filming and the sliding of the switch makes a very loud “CLUNK” on the video when you play it back. Make the switch quieter Kodak and it would be more useful.

A feature that I do really like is the ability to plug the camera into my TV using the supplied HDMI cable. Makes for quick reviewing of things I’d just shot, or showing my mum the video from my sons party the day before much easier. The cable is a little short, so expect to get up and go over to the TV every time you want to change the clip, but it’s great that it’s even supplied with a cable (most devices aren’t, even my £300 Blu-Ray player) so props to Kodak for that.

As with all digital image capture devices nowadays it has a camera function as well. It’s a 5mp camera and performs adequately, it’s not something I’d pick up to replace my Sony digital camera, but if I only want to take one device it does the job. You have absolutely no control over what it’s doing though, other than zooming, so it’s worth baring in mind. It doesn’t have a flash.

The menu is a fairly standard icon based affair, very easy to navigate and understand and has everything you’d expect; format, turn the sounds off, output, picture size etc.

All in all, it’s definitely a camera I would recommend anyone buys if they’re in the market for a small form factor camera that does 1080p and packs a fair bit of bang for your buck. It’s a big step up from the previous model and, while it lacks in low light situations and with a zoom that is, frankly useless when filming, it does have a minature form factor, is only about £350 and IT DOES 1080p!

Here are some demo videos:

Comments for Lord Carter on Digital Britain

So, writetoreply have added the Digital Britain report on their website. They’ve also included the ability to allow anyone to comment (the comments are unmoderated, but spam is filtered) on the report at a paragraph level! So you can make comments on each paragraph. More from writetoreply:

Dear Lord Carter,
Drawing on inspiration from the Power of Information Taskforce Report (beta) [ http://poit.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/poit/ ], in which members of the public can comment on individual sections of that report, and in response to your statement in Digital Britain – The Interim Report that you “welcome feedback and comments on this interim report, before 12th March 2009″, we have republished “Digital Britain – The Interim Report” in a way that supports commenting on the report at the paragraph level at http://writetoreply.org/digitalbritain/.

Within a few hours of becoming publicly accessible on February 4th, 2008, comments started appearing on the site, with the site itself receiving several hundred visitors within just the first two days of availability.

We hereby invite you to consider comments made on Write To Reply’s Digital Britain site as comments made to you in response to Digital Britain – The Interim Report.

They’ve created an RSS feed of the comments for Lord Carter to view, and if he can’t do that, they’ll print it out and deliver it for him.

You can read more here: Digital Britain Interim Report (on writetoreply.org)

Counter Terrorism act 2008: photographers rights

FOR THE ATTENTION OF:

Peter Ainsworth MP
East Surrey

Monday 2 February 2009

Dear Peter Ainsworth,

I have recently read that the Counter Terrorism act 2008 is set to become law on the 16th of February. As a photographer, I find one section of it particularly worrying and was hoping you might clarify what it actually means.

Section 76 states that it will now be a crime to “…elicits or attempts to elicit information about an individual who is or has been – …
… (iii) a constable,”

Now, I’m not entirely sure what “elicits or attempts to elicit information” really means as it’s wrapped in fine film of politiease making it slightly ambiguous.

This could be used to arrest and imprison a photographer for 10 years for nothing more than taking a picture of a police constable ( or an ex-police constable…).

This is wrong. Given the recent case of the BART police officer Johannes Mehserles killing of Oscar Grant in the US and the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes on the tube, it is now more important than ever that we be allowed to record the day-to-day activities of our police officers. The police wield an incredible amount of power over the people that help pay their wages (you and I, the citizens of this country (not that I think you wouldn’t know that, it just sounded good)). Being able to record their activities and make them accountable for their actions (as I’m quite sure they record ours) is an important right and empowers us to ensure they conduct themselves, on our behalf, responsibly.

While I understand the need to have the Counter Terrorism act and specifically these points to protect the people who protect us, I’m concerned it can be abused; either intentionally, or because the already muddy water on what photographers can and can’t photograph will become muddier.

Yours sincerely,

Mike Pearce

My favourite Pete and Dud sketch

WHY IS HIS HAND ON A BIBLE?

What has the bible got to do with BECOMING A PRESIDENT FOR FUCKS SAKE!

See it here: Boston Big Picture, Inauguration

A CONCEALED ASSAULT ON PRIVACY

This appeared in my feed today:

We urge you to write to your MP straight away via http://www.WriteToThem.com – don’t wait. The Bill is being rushed through Parliament, even as we write. It contains a number of controversial provisions, but to the casual reader appears mainly to be about reforming inquests and sentencing.
As it progresses, NO2ID will be publishing more information but it is crucial that every MP realises how dangerous the information sharing clauses in the Coroners and Justice Bill really are. This will only happen if YOU tell them.

Read more, right here: NO2ID

FOR THE ATTENTION OF:

Peter Ainsworth MP
East Surrey

Monday 26 January 2009

Dear Peter Ainsworth,

Before reading the rest of this email, please read Part 8 (clauses 151 – 154) of the Coroners and Justice Bill.

Then please OPPOSE the enormous enabling powers of the “Information Sharing” clause.

Please also demand that the clause be given proper palimentary scrutiny before anything else happens.

This affront to privacy has to be squashed. As far as I can tell, this clause allows the government access to any data held about me in any form for any reason.

Are we really moving towards a country described in George Orwells 1984? Or am I just being a paranoid crazy? Who knows. Maybe you do? Maybe no one does?

Finally, I’m getting pretty cheesed off (yes, CHEESED off, I feel that strongly) that these things are being sneaked out of parliament under the guise of other bills, has this government got something to hide? A master plan to turn the country into a Police state perhaps?

Please do something about this and let me know if I can help. I’d love to as it’s getting up my nose now.

Yours sincerely,

Mike Pearce

Kick at the Ship in Croydon

MPs to be exempt from publishing expenses

I saw this group on Facebook, this is lifted from there:

On the 16th of May 2008 the High Court ruled that MPs’ expenses must be published under the Freedom of Information Act.

This Thursday, MPs are voting to change the law to keep their expenses secret after all, just before publication was due and after spending nearly a million of your pounds and seven months compiling the data.

Your MP may not even know about this proposal (it was sneaked out under the Heathrow runway announcement). Please take a few minutes to alert them to this attack on Parliamentary transparency and ask them to vote against the measure.

Join the group here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=50061011231

Read more here: http://www.mysociety.org/2009/01/17/6-days-to-stop-mps-concealing-their-expenses/

This is my letter, make sure you write your own.

FOR THE ATTENTION OF:

Peter Ainsworth MP
East Surrey

Monday 19 January 2009

Dear Peter Ainsworth,

I expect you’re a busy fellow and I also suspect this may not be the first email you’ve received on this subject (at least I hope not) and that you know about it anyway, so I shall keep this brief.

I’ve just learned that on Thursday, parliament will vote on whether or not MPs should have to declare their expenses. I would like you to vote on my behalf that yes, MPs should have to declare their expenses like everyone else.

Along with millions of other people, I help to pay the wages of MPs and I want to know my money is being used for good and not to pay for an MPs windows to be cleaned, or their lawn to be mowed.

I would also like to register my distaste at the information being published at the same time as the Heathrow 3rd runway news and a debate about Gaza – sounds like someone was trying to hide it.

TheyWorkForYou.com shows all things you vote for and to date, you’ve voted (mostly) how I would. As my elected representative in Parliament, I hope you will vote against this Order.

Yours sincerely,

Mike Pearce

Long time no see…

… haven’t posted in a while. Dave says I should post more often. Here’s a post.

Evolution is a change…

“Evolution is a change from a no-howish, untalkaboutable, all-alikeness to a somehowish and in general talkaboutable not-all-alikeness by continuous sticktogetherations and something-elseifications.”

WILLIAM JAMES (1842-1910)