Creative Labs Vado Pocket Video Camcorder 3rd Generation, 120 Minutes – NEWEST MODEL
- High definition 720P pocket video camcorder and 4GB of video storage capacity
- Fits easily in your pocket purse or the palm of your hand
- One touch recording with a spacious 2 inch display and touch capacitive buttons
- Record up to two hour of HD video footage at 30 fps
- Works with PC and Mac
Product Description
Catch the perfect snowboarding stunt, your baby’s first steps or your kid’s graduation, share it online and save it for a lifetime with Creative’s new Vado HD Pocket Video Cam. The third generation of Vado HD camcorders introduces a sleek new industrial design, the latest Vado Central software, improved light sensitivity, optional stereo microphone input, and availability in multiple colors. The thin, lightweight Vado HD is small enough to fit easily in a pocket, purse or the palm of your hand, and it captures video in 720P high-definition quality video at 30 frames per second with just the touch of a button. Sharing videos online is simple with built-in software that helps you post videos to YouTube, Facebook,… More >>
Creative Labs Vado Pocket Video Camcorder 3rd Generation, 120 Minutes – NEWEST MODEL
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I am an expert what it comes to gadgets and technology. I have had many digital cameras, camcorders, camera phones and so much more over the years. This is the most unintuitive and hard to use device I can remember.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Upon opening the cheap feeling packaging, I found the camera to have a cheap look and feel, but maybe that’s after being used to iPod Touches and iPhones. Looking on the device, it has a screw hole for a tripod, a headphone jack, a power button, a video/photo button, trash button, mini-HDMI port and a nicely designed fold-up USB “cord.” On the front is a record button and plus, minus, fast forward, reverse and play/pause places to touch.
USABILITY
Turning it on, I found the letters and graphics to be very cheesy, like an 8 year old digital camera. Taking a video was straightforward. Figuring out how to watch it took some fiddling, since I’m used to a record/play switch or button on digital cameras. On this you hit the play/pause button, which automatically plays the video you just took.
The + and – and fast-forward and reverse buttons and play/pause are just “touch” areas with no feel whatsoever. I find these to be just awful. You are almost going to need to be looking to use them.
Next I wanted to set the time and date and maybe some preferences. I couldn’t figure out how to do it. A menu button would be customary in these devices, but there was none to be found.. I finally figured out that you hold down the video/camera button for 2 seconds. You almost need to attach a quick reference guide to the camera to know how to use it…
VIDEO QUALITY
I did a few tests and found the video quality, on HD mode, to be ok, but nothing worth getting excited about. After all, the lens can be measured in millimeters. On the computer with the video file and HDTV via HDMI, it was not as crisp and clear as larger HD camcorders, but it would be perfectly acceptable as a YouTube video. It may have HD resolution, but I doesn’t qualify in my mind as an HD-quality picture (which has more than a technical meaning).
In comparison with the iPhone 3GS, the video was of higher quality with the Vado, and I didn’t notice a huge difference in how it handled low lighting.
EASE OF TRANSFERRING
This is a high point of this device. The built-in USB “cord” is genius and hopefully will be adopted by more devices. It has a program that can be installed, but Windows can just get the videos directly, which is great. If only all devices made it so easy.
Overall, the so-so video quality and awful usability will make my camera go back it the box.
I think this category of digital video recorders cannot withstand the onslaught of phones that will be able to do the same thing without carrying extra devices.
Rating: 1 / 5
I was excited when I received the Vado HD Pocket Video Cam. Our previous video camera is old and outdated. I was pleased with the size of the camera, it’s about the size of a Blackberry or other type of device. Very handy size and it fits right in a cell phone case designed for a Blackberry so it’s easy to carry with you. You plug it right into the USB port on your computer to charge it and to download the video and pictures from your camera. When you plug it in, it runs the software needed to play and download the pictures from the camera, nothing to install. This is where I started having problems though. I have a desktop computer running Windows XP and a laptop running Vista. The software works perfectly on my desktop but on the laptop with Vista, the audio and the video doesn’t match up. The longer the video runs, the farther apart they get. I’m not sure how to fix that and I’m not sure if it’s just a Vista problem either.
The other disappointment that I had was the quality of the pictures and videos. This is a handy little device because of it’s size but the picture/video quality is only comparable to a cell phone which I have never thought was that great. This is definitely not a replacement for my VHS-C camcorder like I thought it would be. The quality is just not there to preserve precious memories. It’s great to carry around town to just snap a picture of something when you need to but not for retaining memories of birthdays and holidays.
The other issue I had was I took a video about 13 minutes long and when I went to burn it to disc, the disc wasn’t big enough to hold it. If you are planning to keep the videos on something other than your computer, you may need a zip drive or something similar or keep the videos to only a few minutes each. That is probably just part of the territory, since the camera doesn’t record straight on a disc or tape but just something to think about that I didn’t think about until after I had already recorded the video.
Overall, I think it’s a good replacement for your cell phone camera but not for your high quality cameras and video recorders.
Rating: 3 / 5
Creative Labs Vado HD 3rd Generation; is very easy to use and it is small. It takes still photos too. It work very well on my Mac. This camera comes with very little instruction, but is not hard to figure out. It has a high resolution picture and sound, that is easy to to adjust the sound with a plus or minus symbol on the camera. I’ve had a chance to take many still pictures and moving films over the past two weeks because of a holiday. It worked with ease. Mu guests were amazed.
I highly recommend.
Rating: 5 / 5
I can’t comment on the product features or functions as my Vado HD did not work out of the box. Chasing down the warranty for my Vado has been an absolute labaryth of broken links and unclear proceedures. I have just managed to get this product registered, in order to get a RMA number, but the serial number is not being recognised! This should be simple! Registration and waranty should be linked and International Warranty should mean International.
I whish i could rate the product itself, my research indicated that it should be good if not great, but so far I am dissapointed with 1) reciving a non-functioning unit, and 2) really poor warranty service.
Rating: 1 / 5
This is the coolest cam great design,cool color (I have the purple), great image and sound capture. If your looking for a small and affordable cam this is the one.
Rating: 5 / 5