Kodak Zi6 jagged frame images when panning

Hi there,

The Koday Zi6 is a great little camcorder. It is simple to use and does many great things. The 60fps is a great feature. Held fixed, the images are very sharp and subject movements are smooth.

However, there is a very annoying problem I am encountering with the Kodak Zi6 when panning. Most reviews refer to it at "jagged edges", but there seems to be much more to it than that.

There is no doubt that pan smoothness is critical. This is a very light camera and minute twitching of the muscles makes for very jagged angular movement. Even with my video tripod, or with my steady cam with periferal inertia masses I still get this issue.

I have noticed that when panning, vertical lines, particularly high contrast lines tend to ripple or even wobble. It is not only the vertical lines but the whole image that seems to be affected. Sometimes it is almost unnoticeable, other times it is very pronounced. Strong light or low light does not seem to be an issue. It seems to be very inconsistent.

In one low light sequence (jazz singer in a bar), I noticed something very strange. I was slowly panning while flashes from other cameras were going off. Camera flashes are extrely rapid, 1/15,000 of a sec as I recall. I would get the top 3rd lit up on one frame and the 2/3 of the subsequent frame lit up. How can 1/15,000 of a second possibly span over two 30fps frames? In other events, it would be half and half, or 2/3 and 1/3,... I also noticed an image offset where the horizonatl flash line ends. What gives?

Could it be that the wobbling of vertical lines has to do with the way Kodak is making the data acquisition (scanning) from the image sensor? Could it be that only a portion of the image is scanned in each frame? Perhaps this does not happen in 60fps mode, or it is worse? I will be conducting tests to attempt to find out more...

Any insight into this issue would be greatly appreciated. I love my Zi6 and I want to get the best possible footage out of it.

Thanks,
Paul