Creative Labs Vado Pocket Video Camcorder 5

PLEASE SEE "Notes and Tips" AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE

Price: cheap, £140 - £150 (US $ even cheaper)

Weight: weightless

Video Format: AVI

Video Sizes: Large. I have some clips that are 500MB

Storage Capacity: about 2 hours of video (1 clip or many mixed length clips)

Battery: lasts about 2 hours. works great for the first 2000 movies, after that you need a new one

Portability: extremely portable, can be placed in your pocket

Usability: a kid can figure it out without instruction

Sound/Audio/Microphone: great clear audio, rough during some loud concerts as it is sensitive and picks up everything

Tripod Use: there is a hole on the bottom that is a universal tripod connection size

Action Clips: This camera does not lose focus during full motion

Focus: you can be within 10 inches of something and keep focus

Zoom: zooming in pixelates the video and is not a good idea if you are interested in true HD

Color: true color and good in low light conditions as well

Comparison: I would give the Flip HD a 3 because of focus and color issues

Web Sharing and Video Conversion: You can connect this to your computer's USB port and if you use Twitc (http://twitc.com) you can upload a video straight from the camera to the Twitc website and it will generate a streaming Flash video clip for you that you can take anywhere and link to from anywhere

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Notes and Tips
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Four things you need to know:

1. Mac OS X users will need to download Perian software, which is a collection of video codecs that will allow you to view these videos on your Mac. Without it, you cannot view them at all.

Perian URL: http://perian.org/

2. You might want to consider purchasing two or three of these if you have children because they will steal it from you without your knowledge, even if it is hidden away. In addition, if you have a husband or boyfriend, buy one for him because he will also steal it. They will hunt it down and capture it (and not tell you they did).

3. If the camera appears to be stalled out, just pop out the battery on the bottom (take the cover off first). It may be out of juice and if so, charge it up.

4. If you are an iPhone owner and you have the car charger: you can charge the Vado HD in your car using the same cigarette lighter charger that sells to iPhone users. Just unplug the USB cable for the iPhone and plug in the one that comes with your Vado. Works like a charm.