Kodak Zx1 Review
The Kodak Zx1 Pocket HD Camcorder has an astounding amount of features and great video quality considering the price, which is around £50 or $80. The Zx1 can record at 720p at 60fps, 720p at 30fps or VGA. It can also take 5MP photos. The quality is good when there is plenty of light, but indoor and night shots where there is little light available can make shots look extremely grainy.
There are no manual controls what-so-ever, it is fully automatic. Which is OK because the camera is pretty good at guessing what the settings should be, however, it would be nice to be able to at least control the white balance, or focus, which is also fixed, meaning that there is no way to take macro shots. The camera takes SD/SDHC cards and Kodak recommend using a Class 6 or higher, but a Class 4 should work fine. The camera does have 128MB of internal memory, which is a nice thought but in practice can only hold about 20 seconds of the highest quality video. Any another nice thought is the 2x digital zoom, which is useless in practice. Kodak's nice thoughts are completely useless however as in the box they include, 2 rechargeable batteries, a battery charge, A/V cables, a USB cable, a wrist strap, a carrying pouch, a replacement battery cover and even a HDMI cable, which is unusual for for the price range.
One of the main advantages that the Zx1 has over some of the competitors in the price range is that it is weather resistant. Notice that it's "weather" resistant and not "water" resistant. This mean's that the camera's going to be fine if it get splashed with a bit of water, but it's not going to survive a drop in the sink. For example, I'd be fine using the camera in the pool, taking a few photos or videos, but I wouldn't want to do any under water shots.
Overall, it is a fantastic camera considering the price, and I would definitely recommend it. But if you have a little bit more money I would definitely advise you to look at the Zx1's older brothers, the Zi8, which can record at 1080p, or the Playsport, which can record at 1080p and is fully water-proof. If you enjoyed this review, please subscribe my channel on YouTube.
Elliot Fraser Aug 2, 2010 at 2:44 PM
Reader Comments (3)
Is this newer or older that the Zi8?
lols 120mb of internal. the people at Kodiak are very generous
@TraviHark, I believe it's older.
@Estlin, lol, that's what I thought. SD cards are getting pretty cheap now though.