As Christmas presents go, I have to say that opening up a Zi6 HD pocket camera from Kodak pretty much takes the biscuit (yes, I did just say ‘takes the biscuit’) for best thing to buy a girl who loves gadgets. I’d been lusting after a Flip Mino HD for months to no avail, as it isn’t available in the UK yet. But once past the initial un-wrapping excitement, I soon realised that the Kodak is not only the next best thing – it’s far better.
First things first, it’s a good-looking piece of kit that is only a little wider than the Flip. I’m not going to do a side-by-side review with the Flip Mino HD, because I don’t have one to compare and won’t be fair. But I will point out a few differences.
The screen is bigger on the Kodak and even though the Flip HD version is a little trimmer, the Zi6 is - in my opinion - much higher quality. Although the Flip comes in a black version as well as the chunky white kind, both have extremely over-sensitive touch keys.
The Kodak comes with chargeable batteries (2 x AA) and a charger, instead of an integrated battery like the Mino HD. I like this, as it means that when your batteries start to loose charge, you can switch them out - instead of being stuck with something you can’t remove.
The Kodak comes in a neat little package that’s pretty much plug and play. I didn’t (although maybe should have) read the instruction manual, as I wanted to get stuck straight into testing the quality of footage itself. However, it’s easy to work out how to turn on, access the USB, record and delete. What more do you want? Well, how about four recording modes that range from HD 60 FPS (frames per second) to straightforward HD 30 (producing smaller files for sharing/uploading), as well as VGA and still pictures. You can’t do that on the Flip counterpart.
The editing software for the Zi6 is PC only, but you can import your .mov files into iMovie - and there’s no need to convert them, which you would using the Flip.
A few other things to consider; the Mino HD does not have a removable memory card, but the Zi6 does. The Kodak also has a macro switch, with decent audio and saturation. It’s a little slow in artificial light, but so is the Flip, and nothing’s perfect - especially in the world of moving image.
The Kodak Zi6 retails roughly around £129.99, but is on sale at Amazon.co.uk right now. Bag one with an 8gb memory card for just over £102. I’ve got the black and silver model, but you can buy it in pink in the US, if you’re that way inclined.