The Kodak Zx1 Camera
I love taking video of my son. There’s no denying it. I could take hours and hours of video and now I do. For the longest time, I was either using my point-and-shoot Canon camera or a nice Canon video camera which burned video directly to DVD. While both of these would get me the video, they were not getting me the video in the quality and format I desired. I have an AppleTV and a nice HD plasma TV, so I want video that going to look good on this setup.
Enter my Kodak Zx1. This little camera, which I think is only around 5 inches tall, is a good entry into the HD camera market. For starters, the camera will shoot video in 720p format and saves video onto a removable SDHC card (not included). With the 4gb I have in it, I can record about 46 minutes of HD video. With card sizes getting larger and prices falling, a larger card should not be an issue. The camera also comes with a USB cable to connect to your Mac or PC and an HDMI cable to connect it directly to your HDTV.
Strangely enough, one of my favorite features is the fact it can use standard AA batteries. Anyone who has used another type of video camera, will realize how great this is when you are out on vacation and your rechargeable batteries are dying an you need power in a hurry. The camera does come with 2 rechargeable AA batteries and a charger to get you started.
The video quality is good, not outstanding. When taking video in low-light situations, the quality suffers. Also, when using the camera, if you do not keep a steady hand, you will notice a lot of shaking. There is no image stabilization feature in this model (however, the higher end version of the Kodak line does include this).
Transferring the video onto your Mac couldn’t be easier. Just plug the camera into your Mac using the supplied USB cable. The camera will mount on the desktop as an attached drive, where you can drag the video out and to a folder on your hard drive, or easier, just use iPhoto to download the videos off the camera and into your iPhoto library.
My only real complaint with the camera really isn’t the camera’s fault. The camera outputs video in Quicktime movie format, which is great for everything, except the AppleTV. It seems bewildering to me that Apple’s own product won’t natively support this format, so I have to go through the extra step of converting each video I want to watch on the AppleTV. A time consuming step, especially when using a lower-end Mac.
Overall, the Kodak Zx1 is a good entry-level HD camera for someone wanting to catch videos of the family and watch them quickly on their PC or Mac. The retail price is $149, but if you look around at Amazon.com or other retailers, it can be had for around $30 less.
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