Good Video Camera... some problems
Pros:
Price for HD ($229 at Costco), HD format, compact.
Cons:
No video format options, limited camera options, must buy software and SD Card.
The Bottom Line:
With all the problems, it is still a great HD video camera for the money. Other tape, hard drive and DVD High Definition cameras are $700-$1000.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
This is a nice camera, but it definitely has some drawbacks. The camera writes to a SD-Memory Card (not included). The good is that the files can transfer to you computer quickly. The bad is that they are Quicktime movies. When recording in HD, the files are huge. A minute and a half is about 44 megabytes, way too big to e-mail. It comes with a codek that allows Windows Media Player to play the files, but you can't save them in any other format, compress them, etc. Windows Movie Maker, Pinnacle Studio, Nero Movie Maker all CANNOT read the files. I tried several encoding programs (Xilisoft MP4 Converter, ImTOO Mov converter, Ultra Quicktime Converter), and none of them work. You need to upgrade to QuickTime Pro from Apple ($29.99) to convert the files. This takes a while as well. The photos are good in daylight, not as good indoors or at night. The night shot doesn't work well enough in low light. It also came with a docking station, however the docking station does not charge the camera. You have to use the charger in conjunction with the camera. The good thing about the charger is it uses a standard mini-pin plug. This is the plug that fits most Blackberrys, Motorola RAZRs, etc. You can charge it through USB, standard outlet, or with a car charger. The car charger is not included, but again, the standard mini-pin works fine. I haven't used it enough to find out the battery life, but I will update this. Two batteries are included with the camera.