Comments on: Goodbye Flip, Hello Zi6!

By: Collin Allen

Collin Allen — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 04:25:08 +0000

While I’ve never owned a Flip, I did mess with one briefly and was impressed with its ease of use. I couldn’t be more excited for the Zi6, particularly for its low-cost HD, but also the SD expansion (seeing as the 128 MB built-in probably won’t hold that much). Andy’s early photos and videos from his review Zi6 are quite impressive for such an affordable handheld. And if I wasn’t totally convinced, it encodes to H.264 QuickTime format. Sold! I plan on buying one after the initial reports come in, barring any showstopper issues yet undiscovered.

As Gruber pointed out not long ago, “Why the Zi6? Was there a Zi5?”, I think Kodak Marketing could do a slightly better job when it comes to thinking up a memorable name (think of the iPod and LG Chocolate), but if the features are there, word will spread.

In all, I’m really looking forward to the release of this superb little recorder!

By: Krystyn

Krystyn — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:34:02 +0000

I love this! The style is a little retro too… makes me think of an old skool Polaroid. But new. If that makes sense.

By: PJ Doland

PJ Doland — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:04:00 +0000

By the way, Best Buy carries the Aiptek units, and they’re in the sale flyer pretty much every week.

By: Jason Arber

Jason Arber — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 19:23:14 +0000

I was considering a Flip, but will wait to see if Andy Ihnatko’s review is positive for the Kodak. With a cheap lens like the Kodak and the Flip 1080i/p is probably overkill and 720p is probably about right.

By: Roch101

Roch101 — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 18:18:37 +0000

The biggie for me, in shopping for a camcorder, was a mic jack. Moving pictures are great, combined with fuzzy sound — not so great. Neither the flip phone or the Zi6 have a mic jack. For $100 more than the Kodak, Canon has a camcorder with mic jack and other goodies like a variety of exposure settings, 4:5 or 16:9 aspect ratio, tripod mount and 40x’s zoom (versus the Zi6’s 2x’s zoom).

By: Ged

Ged — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 18:18:29 +0000

PJ,

Interesting. Aiptek’s latest 1080p camera looks pretty good. For $20 more you get night shot mode and an included mini-tripod along with most if not all of the Zi6’s features. Downsides include: larger overall dimensions, increased weight, slightly higher cost.

I wonder why I’d not heard of this camera before. They are doing a bad job of marketing their product evidently. It seems to be geared more towards “home movies” than bloggers / YouTubers perhaps? Thanks for the info!

By: PJ Doland

PJ Doland — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 17:59:39 +0000

Aiptek has been selling 1080p cameras at that price point for a while now. And they shoot on SD cards.

By: Ged

Ged — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 17:27:17 +0000

Robert, Point well taken. Writer Andy Ihnatko is supposed to be getting a review unit to test, so I think I'd keep my eyes on his Twitter stream for actual information on the Zi6. Unless something is terribly wrong with it however, I really don't know how one could justify a Flip Mino over the Zi6 for the same amount of $$$. We'll have to wait to see for sure of course.

By: Robert

Robert — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 17:18:01 +0000

Are you aware of anyone who has actually had hands on time with this product?

Seems like much ado about some press material until I see some actual objective hands on information. Gizmodo’s post is based on a press release, Daring Fireball’s is based on a Twitter and Kodak’s product page. Seems like a lot of really knowledgeable people are putting the cart before the horse on this one.

By: John Gruber

John Gruber — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 16:56:59 +0000

Don’t forget that Kodak is including two Ni-MH AA batteries and a charger. The Flips don’t include batteries.