Reviews: Kodak Zi6 Pocket Video Camera

July 13, 2009 | By John Barrow In Geek Out - Tech Reviews |
Almost cool, but not quite

Almost cool, but not quite

Kodak Zi6 Pocket Camera.  Almost cool, but not quite.

A couple months ago, I was on the market for a digital camera.  I am the kind of guy that needs to have something different, unique and kind of cutting edge.  I can’t just have a camera that takes pictures – I need more.   Since Tech-Flo most focuses on Internet Marketing and Web Design across Southern California and Orange County, I wanted something to take pictures for their website gallery or video for viral marketing. So when I went down to my nearest Best Buy in Lake Forest I picked up the Kodak Zi6.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Out of the box, the sleek black design is sexy.  It comes with rechargeable batteries and charger, but I had to grab a couple regular AA batteries  from our junk drawer to start playing with it right away.  Once powered on, the screen quality is amazing and the camera and video camera functionality is fairly straight forward.  In HD video mode, it records 720p quality at 60 fps.  Connecting it up to the TV (HDTV cables included), the video quality blows me away! And if you want to upload stuff to a PC, a little USB connection pops out of the side – so at least that is one less thing to lose.

On the other hand, this puppy isn’t quite prime time.  Battery life is horrible.  I am not used to bringing a pocket full of batteries for a full day out with the family. My experience is about a solid 30 minutes of video from 2 batteries.  Kodak claims it can record 32 gig of video – which is a couple hours, but I am going to buy stock in Duracell or Energizer before I fill this thing up.  A killer lithium ion battery that could last 3-4 hours would be sweet!

When you are out there taking pics or video, you need to be eerily close to your subjects – it doesn’t offer much in terms of zoom features and I swear to you that to have a decent pic or video, you need to be about 3 feet away.  Better zoom functionality that can give a great quality result from near and far would be ideal.

Let’s just say you had the patience to get past replacing batteries and sticking this thing right in someone’s face.  Now, you need to make sure you have enough light because there is no flash or LED to illuminate your subject in dark areas or at night.

As for the USB pop-out, it is cool, but imagine that being too rough with it would result in some broken part.  When you plug the camera into the computer, it kind of just hangs there, suspended in mid-air with all the weight on the pop-out USB stick.  No wonder the Kodak Outlet store online offers a refurbished model at $145.   Kodak offers an easy way to upload to YouTube with the built-in USB, but I haven’t tried it yet.

I kind of picture this device like a Ferrari.  First off, I can’t afford a Ferrari, but if I could, my wife would likely tell me to get something practical.  Of course, I would ignore her, buy it and quickly realize why I should have listened.  Drawn to the sexy curves of a Ferrari or the Kodak, I am certain this was something I would love. But then, reality sets in on that first tune-up is $5k (or ton of batteries).  I would soon realize that I need to baby this car because things can and do break and often expensive to fix.  Then their is the practicality – I can’t fit 4 people in my Ferrari and can’t drive long distances, nor can I really drive it in harsh conditions, much like the fact the Kodak takes great videos close-up but bad pictures and a very limited amount of time on the battery at that.

For now, the Ferrari (Kodak) sits in the garage (drawer) as I move to more simple and practical means.  Save your money and wait for the next generation of this pocket video camera – I am certain that they know these problems and will address them soon.

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    • 1 Comment so far

    1. Bobnip on July 16th, 2009

      Thanks for sharing. Now I know one item not to purchase.

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