Kodak Zi6 Pocket Video Black Camera

I've ordered a ton of products from Amazon and I've only recently gotten into posting any reviews (except for years ago when I first started buying off of Amazon). Let me say that this I believe is the most underrated mini-cam in its price range and I will explain why in further detail.The first point to consider when looking at any "video camera" in this price range is value vs. cost, and in terms of cost the Kodak Zi6 is still one of the lowest priced minicams, when you consider the fact that you DO NEED AN SD CARD, if you don't already own one (which most people with digital cameras do) then you have to add on an additional $20-$30, but this still puts you into the $160-$170 price range with the Kodak as currently priced on Amazon.The second point to consider when looking at this camera is the fact that it has an SD card slot to begin with, compared to the Flip (which has gotten undue praise ahhemmm....cough) or the Flip HD which has a static memory of 4 GB (and to be fair Flip does have the newer Ultra which has a card slot I believe as well), the Kodak can accept up to 32GB in its SD card slot, the only caveat which is probably the case with most cheaper cameras is that I don't know if it will work with 32 GB SD HC (High Capacity) cards and that may be the problem that some other reviewers ran into with bigger cards, anyone with more info let me know.... I currently have an 8 GB SDHC card by Transcend which was purchased from another site (a popular computer parts seller, and I've had absolutely no problems recording video, the longest I've recorded straight so far has been about 10 minutes, but I've recorded about 60 or 70 smaller clips.The third point I want to address is the criticisms of this camera and the comparisons of it to the Flips and the Creative Vado, I have a friend who owns the 30 minute  Flip Video Camcorder: 30-Minutes (White)  and in terms of size the Zi6 is not any bigger than that cam, the Zi6 is slightly bigger than the Flip Mino (not Ultra) HD, but like I said the  Flip MinoHD Camcorder, 60 Minutes (Black)  no removable storage, only built in memory which to me is a negative, 8 GB (120 minutes) sounds like alot I know, but you may be surprised how one or two recitals or basketball games that you haven't gotten around to downloading can eat that up....The second negative which is the biggest criticism is the complaint about lack of image stabilization, well not to sound like a ____ but up until a few years ago only the real expensive semi-pro cameras had ANY IMAGE STABILIZATION and if you started with one of the old VHS CAMCORDERS forget about it, like other reviewers have said keep your arm bent at a near 90 deg angle, don't do alot of jerky movement (or walking) or use the included tripod mount and you can get some great footage w this cam. I do understand how this is a valid concern for some people an older co-worker of mine loved the footage of the Zi6 but said she wouldn't buy it because there was no image stabilization, but we should not that the FLip Ultra or Mino series don't have image stabilization either.The Creative Vado I'm not sure about and haven't mentioned much, but I personally wouldn't trust any products from Creative too much (except their  Creative Labs GigaWorks T20 Series II 2.0 Multimedia Speaker System with BasXPort Technology PC speakers which kick ___), I've personally had nothing but music production grief from their Soundblaster soundcards, and I won't forgive the fact that they destroyed (when they bought out ) EMU a once great music gear company, but they do make very good PC speakers, but I digress.....A few more positives, CNET or Gearheadz (you can youtube it) did a side by side comparison of the Zi6 and the Flip Mino HD, and the two reviewers gave the Zi6 the best ratings in terms of color contrast and realism, if you are a MAC USER (which I'm not and still have no problems with video format) you will LOVE this camera's file format for the fact that its MAC NATIVE QUICKTIME MOV format, so it converts right into IMovie or Final Cut Express/Pro, one of my friends/co-workers is a new Mac convert and he swears up and down how much easier for him this camera is to use and edit video with on a MAC.This point I want to leave with a * that if you DON'T have a NEWER PC or MAC,YOU SHOULD NOT BE TRYING TO EDIT AND ENCODE HD VIDEO IN THE FIRST PLACE..... I started doing serious video editing when I bought my  Canon HV10 3.1MP High-Definition MiniDV Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom  with a custom built Pentium D 3.0 GHZ desktop and 3 Gigs of ram + 256 video, and the Canon video would edit fine with both Sony Vegas Studio and Pinnacle Studio 11 + 12.I still love and use the Canon (its a great cam W IMAGE Stabilization) but I bought the Kodak to take with me places the slightly larger Canon would be inconvenient, with the Pentium D PC the Kodak HD would edit ok (only in Pinnacle Studio ),but the rendering (mixing down and converting) was slow.The Zi6 video in HD 60 Frames mode was very choppy and hard to edit or render without serious PC hiccups and maybe program freezing, and note this is a PC that I've also played games on and edited other video with no problems.Recently I just completed a new PC build with an Intel Core 2 Quad 2.83 GHz 4 (3.25 in Windows XP) Gigs of ram, 768 gigs video,and I've been able to edit both the Zi6 HD 30 and HD 60 video like a charm in Pinnacle, the render time has increased dramtically too. I plan to have some video to add to this review soon, and also some reviews posted on my site.I think that the Zi6 is a great mini HD cam for the price and the video in good lighting (daylight) is comparable to the Canon HV 10, yes badly lit video is bad but that's the case for all "camcorders" under about $1500 to $2000 bucks, even the HV 10 Canon HV10 3.1MP High-Definition MiniDV Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom  which I think take great video as well suffers badly in poor lighting.In conclusion if you have a newer PC or Mac, a good video editing program, and the patience to actually learn how take good video (it is an art, I believe), you can get great mileage out of this cam, if you even just want a cam to take video of the kids its absolutely great for that, and even better is that you don't have to edit you can hook it directly up to you Flatscreen or standard TV.*A note about the Arcsoft video Impression program, the program included on the CD has more video editing features than the program saved and installed into the Kodak Zi6, why not include the full program on the Zi6 instead of the CD, maybe to save space, but even the Arcsoft program isn't bad again CONSIDERING YOUR PC CAN HANDLE it....A final note is unless you are planning extreme outdoor use I would stay away from Kodak Zx1 compared to the Zi6, they are basically the same camera but the Zx1 suffers from poor Mono audio, while the Zi6 records great audio and sounds like HD stereo (depending on what's captured, outdoors is a little noisy like most handhelds)...Hope this is helpful.......

Because i am giving the product a 'low' rating, i feel the need to explain why i am doing so. I hope that you find my review thorough, helpful, and informative. Before i get into specifics, i'm going to start off by saying your needs may be different than mine, and the Zi6 may be a great product for you. For me, however, it was not.*1) The eject on the SD card slot isn't very effective. Sometimes when i put the SD card in, it will not stay, but a second later it will. Then, when i go to take out the card, it ejects half way, and i have to resort to using my fingernails to get it out- it's annoying.*2) When you go to upload the videos onto the computer with the USB arm, the camera will wobble up and down on the side. It's very shaky and it feels cheap. I almost thought the USB arm would break off. It does, however, do its job.*3) Now that we're talking about uploading the video, let's talk about the software. The software is basically useless. The only good thing about it is that you can upload straight to youtube. You can make movies, but they won't be very interesting ones- you can not do half as much there as you can in Windows movie maker.Also, Kodak uses an annoying MOV format, which is not very accessible on a Windows computer like my own. If you wish to view your movie, you must download an additional Apple software. Also, i have yet to find a free way to convert the video to AVI. With Kodak's software, you are limited to just converting to MP4, which isn't very useful. You can still not edit them in WMM. I am very annoyed that you can not freely convert the video to AVI. I had no idea the video would be in MOV format. If you are a windows movie maker fan like i am, the Zi6 is definitely not for you. I spend hours trying to download things, but all of them are just trials!*4) The 'HD' video is also not that great. I compared it to the quality of the Canon A590IS' video, and there was not that big of a difference at all. The Canon adjusts more quickly to light, and the colors are more exact. the Zi6 loves to guess colors, and it takes long to adjust to light. The Kodak Zi6, does however, produce video that looks 'more like the real thing', but then again, it's not that different. When you are buying a cheap HD camera like this one, you are getting HD resolution, but not 'real HD' quality, although you do get more detail with this camera than you would with the Canon A590, the video ok.Like i said, the MOV files are very annoying to me, and the frame loss in lower light is very annoying. Also, when i turn it on, it takes about three second to start up, it's not 'instantaneous'.In conclusion, if you just want to view your videos, and you do not need to edit them, this Camera may be for you. If you have higher expectations and like to make short movies, this camera isn't for you, you'll have to get a higher-quality camera. I was disappointed.