Kodak Zi8 tests at 720p and 60 fps

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Huh?

If that was a load of acronyms that just blew past, this is really just a post combining the last two tests I did with the Kodak Zi8. 720p is the lower HD resolution (720 pixels in height) and 60 fps is just how many frames per second the camera was capturing. Kodak pitch this as good for action.

In the spirit of that claim, the first video is a short outdoor clip of a car based on the pump-up water rocket idea. The Top Gear logo just made it more expensive!

My initial impressions of the video are pretty good clarity, hand-shake under control and if you step through it closely, you’ll see that the resolution as the car shoots off is pretty good. Shame the car itself was totally faulty and went back the next day!

In the second clip, I hauled the Zi8 back indoors and tried the classic party candles video, so beloved of a thousand doting parents every single day! I’m a lot happier with the stabilization in this clip than the one in my last post and although the Zi8 gets into the normal state with backlit exposure, I’m not unhappy with the output.

If you found these useful, then add a comment below or on YouTube and if you’d like me to try the Zi8 out in other circumstances, I’m happy to test your ideas out.

First Kodak Zi8 interior test.

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I pushed the first quick video taken on the Zi8 up to YouTube this morning, so here it is in all its glory (or horror – wait till you see the subject!)

If I had any comments to make, I’d say that it was taken in relatively poor lighting, so I am prepared to believe that had some effect on the stabilization…I will test that theory out in a separate video.

The quality of the original is good enough (even in 720p) to fully record the fact that I got very little sleep the previous night but the youtube compression obviously affects the final viewable video here.

The other thing that really caught me out is the default zoom level. This is just a tiny bit too much to be able to comfortably record a hand-held head and shoulders shot and as a result I might invest in a smaller version of my fantastic Gorillapod so that I can get a bit further away…..the tripod socket being one of the reasons I went with thee Zi8 in the first place.