Getting a movie to watch in high definition on an HDTV can be an expensive
proposition, between the cost of a Blu-ray player or a cable or satellite
subscription.
But if you want to shoot that movie yourself, you need not spend more than
$200. You won't get the finer points of a Hollywood production, but you will
have your own (more or less) high-def footage, ready to play on a TV and, with a
few extra steps, online.
A week of testing showed offsetting strengths and weaknesses between the
Kodak and the Flip that added up to one key difference: The former is made for
people used to plugging cameras into computers, and the latter is not.
Two
new handheld HD video cameras, the Kodak Zx1 and Pure Digital's Flip UltraHD.
These rectangular devices look a great deal alike, each with a big red button
to start and stop recording that falls naturally under your thumb. The slightly
chunkier, heavier (6 oz.) Flip, however, surrounds its lens with a raised
projection that makes it harder to mar the view with a stray finger.
Each stores footage on flash memory. The Flip has 8 gigabytes built in, which
the company says will hold two hours of video. The Kodak includes only 128
megabytes, which you'll need to augment by popping your own SD card into the
slot on its side.
These cameras record footage in a compressed format called "H.264."
If you pan slowly over still objects in daylight, you should get video that is
difficult to distinguish from regular HDTV. But if you shoot moving objects, the
recording will probably look a little blurry (in part because of the lack of an
image-stabilization feature). Shooting in low light doesn't help, either.
The Kodak yielded slightly smoother, finer footage. The Flip left colors
over-saturated; in darker conditions, its backgrounds looked grainy and
speckled.
You can watch your videos on nearly all HDTVs by connecting the camera to
the set with an HDMI cable. These two cameras use rechargeable AA batteries.
The pair included, with a charger, in Kodak's box expired way too quickly,
but a second set did far better. Kodak says its camera should run for two
hours on a charge. Flip, in turn, says the UltraHD should last about 2 1/2
hours on most AAs.
In either case, you should run out of storage before the batteries die. At
that point, you'd have to plug the camera into a computer to offload
recordings, which would also recharge it.
That's where the Flip takes the lead. Like other Pure Digital models, its
USB connector flips out from the side to connect directly to a computer. The
Kodak, meanwhile, requires you to plug in a separate, easily misplaced USB
cable.
The Flip's built-in software runs on Windows XP or Vista and Mac OS X 10.4
or 10.5. It fires up when you plug in the camera, although Windows laptops
had to be restarted once, while on a Mac laptop I had to enter my user
account password.
From then on, the camera's FlipShare program kept things simple. Beyond playing
your movies or saving them to the computer, it can send a link to a clip in
e-mail, upload it to MySpace or YouTube, take a snapshot of one frame, create a
movie by adding credits and a soundtrack, or order up a DVD copy of the clip.
FlipShare is not exactly iMovie in a box. You can crop a clip, but that's
about it. Its DVD-export option requires you to bring your own DVD-creation
software or pay Flip $19.99 to mail you a finished disc.
Some of these simplifications look more like oversights. For example,
FlipShare's YouTube uploader ignored that site's high-definition
support and yielded a blurry, low-resolution clip.
But I'll take FlipShare's occasional simple-mindedness over the unholy mess
that is Kodak's bundled ArcSoft MediaImpression.
This application (Win XP or Vista only) requires the same protracted,
annoying installation as any other Windows program. Instead of listing the
videos on the camera, it offers a cluttered "folder tree" view of
every storage option on the computer -- which doesn't list the running time of
each clip.
MediaImpression can e-mail a clip, but instead of linking to a Web copy, it
attaches the original, enormous file to a message and, by default, doesn't
compress it first. Memo to Kodak: Most e-mail services won't
even accept 118-megabyte attachments.
This program includes fairly capable editing and movie-making tools and can
upload clips to YouTube without sacrificing resolution. (It can also send clips
to a newer video-sharing site, Vimeo.) But even then, it finds a way to screw
things up: The dialog that shows the progress of a file upload blocks access to
the rest of the program, preventing you from editing or e-mailing a different
clip.
Someone already versed in the ways of digital cameras may not find Kodak's
software a barrier, but that user probably already owns a camera that shoots
decent video. As camera video modes get better, they won't leave much room for
the likes of Kodak's Zx1. But a fuss-free model like the Flip still may be able
to find an audience.
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Two
new handheld HD video cameras, the Kodak Zx1 and Pure Digital's Flip UltraHD.
