Kodak Zi8 review: Kodak Zi8

You wouldn't usually associate a price of £150 or so with a high-definition camcorder, let alone one that's capable of producing 1080p video. Yet here we have the Kodak Zi8. This pocket-friendly device promises plenty of camcorder for not very much cash, but can it deliver the goods?

7.5

Kodak Zi8

The Good

Amazingly cheap; easy to use; small and light; included HDMI cable.

The Bad

Auto functions vary in their effectiveness; few manual options; poor built-in microphone; no optical zoom.

The Bottom Line

The Kodak Zi8 might not look much like a camcorder, but you'd be wrong to write it off as just a toy. While you're never going to get broadcast-quality video out of it, the Zi8 is compact, straightforward and capable of producing some relatively impressive recordings

Small and simple
A pocket camcorder in the Flip Video vein, the Zi8 compares well to its close rivals in terms of size and shape. It doesn't look much like a camcorder at all and, while its styling isn't exactly going to set the design world on fire, the device is small and light enough to slip easily into a pocket or handbag without causing much of a bulge. Whip it out in public and its candybar shape will fool most people into thinking you're filming with a camera phone.

The Zi8 is probably the simplest camcorder we've ever used. Switch it on, select the mode you want to use from the horizontal on-screen menu, and press the red button to start and stop recording. That's all there is to it. Start-up is fast, at around 2 seconds, and there are no fiddly set-up requirements or complicated settings to wrestle with.

A very basic, eight-option menu is available to set the date, switch face recognition on or off, adjust the screen's brightness and so on, but that's pretty much the extent of the Zi8's complexity. This means that you need to rely on automatic settings for focus, exposure, white balance and so on, but, for those who just want to get on with filming, it's ideal.

Impressive video
Performance-wise, the Zi8 surprised us with some pretty impressive results in both our video and photo tests. We're talking comparatives here, though -- there's no way that a camcorder of this type could ever compete with a full-size high-definition camcorder in terms of image quality. Judge it alongside its peers, however, and the Zi8 comes out pretty well.

There are three HD settings -- 1080p at 30 frames per second, 720p at 60fps, and 720p at 30fps. There's also a standard-definition mode. The lower the quality the more footage you can fit onto your SD memory card. Top-resolution image quality is fairly good, although, in our tests, we found that, for some reason, colours are stronger and the overall image is sharper at the 720p setting.

Photo quality isn't bad either, although, once again, you'd be able to get more detail and more control over your shots by using a similarly priced compact camera.

A poor built-in microphone means that recorded audio is somewhat weak. The surprise inclusion of an external microphone socket and level meter (both of which are usually reserved for top-end models) helps to address this issue.

Too basic?
The main problem with the Zi8 is something that could easily be perceived as a plus point by many people -- its simplicity. By making it as simple to use as possible, Kodak has stripped the Zi8 of virtually all manual controls. Aside from a landscape/close-up focus switch, this means you're more or less at the mercy of the unit's automatic functions. We have to admit that the Zi8's auto adjustments perform better than those of some other pocket camcorders we've tested, but there are still moments when you'll notice that the image is over- or under-exposed, or suffering from white-balance issues.

We've already mentioned that the Zi8's video quality doesn't stand up to comparison with that of more expensive camcorders, but it's worth saying again. Those looking for broadcast-quality footage will need to look elsewhere. At 1080p, for example, the image demonstrates noticeable softness and bleached-out tones, with plenty of break-up accompanying any sudden movement of the camcorder.

There are other things to moan about, such as the lack of an optical zoom, or the fact that you can't angle the fixed screen to film something over people's heads. At this price, however, it's possible to excuse such issues.

Convenience and cost advantages are tempered somewhat by the absence of any meaningful internal storage. There's 128MB of on-board memory to play with, but, if you want to record anything more than a nanosecond of 1080p footage, you'll need to invest in a separate SD card. That said, the inclusion of an HDMI cable (mini HDMI to full HDMI) is surprisingly generous.

Conclusion
The Kodak Zi8 has all the limitations you'd expect from a fully automatic camcorder with no optical zoom lens, but, thanks to its neat design, simple operation and relatively high-quality video and photo output, it manages to hold its head high among the rest of the pocketable pack.

Edited by Charles Kloet