12 out of 12 people found this review helpful.
Not Bad Kodak
Date of Review: Sep 28, 2008
The Bottom Line: I recommend this product for anyone looking for a good "camcorder" for under $200.
I bought this camera by complete accident. My intentions were to buy a Flip camera. However while strolling through Wal Mart I came across the Kodak Zi6. I read the packaging & decided for the price I'll try it. It was $159.99 pre-tax. If I didn't like it I have 30 days to return it.
Mine came with 4 AA Ni-MH rechargeable batteries, the charger, mini tripod, HD cables, AV cables, 2 carrying cases (one seems kind of flimsy, the other one is more padded), wrist strap, cleaning product & cloth, user guide, and software.
The user guide doesn't state much. Only tells you how to insert batteries, turn on the camera, how to hook it to your tv, and that you can connect it to your pc. So I had to fiddle with it to figure out the controls.
The internal memory only holds about 30mb of film, which is about 30 seconds. So you have to get a SD or SDHC card seperately. Which I did, I got an 8gb SDHC card for about $30. (But if you can wait until the Black Friday shopping in Nov--SD cards are really cheap). It can use up to 32gb card.
The batteries that come with the camera say that they are pre-charged. However they only work for about a minute or two, just long enough for you to figure out how the camera works. Once the batteries are charged fully by you & the included charger the batteries last much longer. I was videoing for about 10 minutes & the battery indicator was still fully charged.
The video files are really big. But I was expecting that based on the big files that I have from my CX6330 Kodak camera.
Once the video is uploaded to Youtube, Youtube compresses the files so they don't quite look HD.
The included software lets you edit your video. You can also add sound & text to it. Make sure you have the minimum system requirements listed on the box. If you don't (which I don't) it may not work or will be very slow (as in my case).
The screen is 2.4" and I love that. It also has a macro (up close) switch for viewing up close items, but you really have to be up close for it to be clear.
