Kodak PlaySport (Zx5) HD Waterproof Pocket Video Camera - Red (2nd Generation)

I bought the red camera used (like-new) from Amazon Warehouse for $84 and received it on Friday (3/2) and charged it up overnight. The next day I took it with us to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo as the perfect test for it since we would be walking around in bright sunlight with lots of motion and colors around us. This little camera passed with flying colors. First of all I just want to make one thing straight, this camera is NOT intended to replace your average camcorder that comes with all the bells and whistles that you're afraid of damaging or losing in public. This camera is a fun, simple, and inexpensive way to capture life on the go especially when dealing with spur of the moment situations involving the outdoors and your family. Fits in your pocket very easily (smaller than most cell phones). I tried all the video resolutions and effects as we walked around and found both the 720p settings to be ideal. The 720p/60 setting is better suited for sports or rapidly moving environments such as white water rafting I would assume, because the playback was too "crisp" and exact like a high speed shutter camera. Great for those speedy situations but a little dizzying when watching leisure outings of your family on your HDTV. The regular 720p setting was more smooth and lifelike while still providing great detail of your subjects. Operation of the camera is what sells it for me. If you are used to taking pictures with your cell phone then you already know how to use this camera. It was so easy to capture high definition video on the fly by simply holding up this small and unobtrusive device among the crowds at the petting zoo for example or as we maneuvered through the tight crowds at the carnival. Sound was good and I did not get any of that "wind" noise even though it was gusty at times as we walked around the Rodeo grounds. Playback was also simple as all you have to do is hook it up straight to your HDTV via a mini-hdmi to hdmi cable (bought separately) and press "play". Overall, this camera will suit active families where an expensive camera might be overkill especially if going outdoors. Simple to use and easy to operate with just one hand. Hint: Get the blue or red one as this makes it easy to find and identify wherever you place it.

This a great camera/camcorder for the price, and it works as advertised. The other users who have had bad experiences probably got defective units, but mine is working great. I would suggest exchanging them for a new one. Also be sure to use quality SD memory cards and have the latest firmware. My thoughts below... I took this camera with me on a tropical vacation with the intent to shoot underwater photos and videos, and it worked out great! There is an option in the settings menu to color-correct for underwater use. If you don't turn this on, your photos and videos will come out with a green tinge. Remember to turn this on for underwater use! There are 4 different options for video shooting: 1080p, 720 at 60 frames per second, 720 at 30 fps, and iPad compatible. The 720 @ 60fps looks especially nice and crisp with the higher fps setting. Use this setting for videos that you expect to have a lot of movement in. The 1080p will look choppy when panning around too quickly or shooting video that has a lot of movement in it. The 720 @ 30 fps and the iPad compatible settings are geared toward shooting video where there isn't a lot of quick movement. Even though the 720@60 setting produced the best video, I found myself using the iPad compatible setting the most. The file size for this setting was the smallest, and the video quality was still very good. I was very impressed with the results. I used a 16GB Sandisk memory card with this camera. At the 720@60 setting, you are able to record up to 2hrs and 45 mins of total video footage and around 12000 photos. Your mileage may vary. The camera function leaves something to be desired. Although it takes good-not-great photos (that's what your point-and-shoot camera is for), I recommend taking photos during the daytime and un-zoomed. The photo quality during low-light conditions or at night is extremely poor and very grainy. This is strictly a daytime or bright light camera. Also, the photo quality degrades significantly if you use the zoom function even in bright daytime light. I suggest not using the zoom at all and shooting during the day or with lots of light. The nice thing about the ZX5 over the ZX3 is the macro focus function. If you want to take photos of objects that are very close to the camera, select this function. Reading some of the other reviews, some of the complaints centered on the access flaps for the memory card not opening properly after use in the ocean or saltwater. The manual recommends rinsing the camera with fresh water and pat drying after exposure to saltwater. Here's a trick I used on my vacation: take a ziplock bag with you, partly filled with freshwater. After using it in the ocean, drop the camera in the ziplock bag of freshwater to keep the salt from forming and gumming up the hinges of the access flaps. Dry it and clean it off when you get home. I recommend thoroughly rinsing it and drying it with a towel, and then opening up both sets of access flaps to dry completely. There are sharing funtions on the camera that I did not use and turned off in the settings menu. I don't Youtube or Facebook so I did not explore these features. When unloading the photos and videos, unfortunately you cannot just remove the memory card and put that into the card reader in your computer. You must use the ZX5 to unload them. Hook up the ZX5 to your computer with the USB cable and turn it on. When the computer detects it, it will want to install software. You DO NOT have to install the ZX5 software to unload your photos/videos. Just open up the ZX5 from "My Computer" like you would a USB memory stick and copy/paste your photos/videos over. It's much simpler to do that than to deal with the software. I also do not recommend using the on-camera video editing feature. For videos that are long, the trim feature will start to lock up on you. Offload the video onto your computer and use other video editing software to do any trimming or splicing. Short video clips won't have this problem. Inside the box, there is an offer for a free HDMI cable if you send in a registration card. Not everyone has HDMI on their TV or computer, so I can understand why they don't include one already. Final thoughts: it is a great camcorder for the money. It is extremely compact, shoots terrific video (underwater or on land), and does a half-decent job as a regular camera. For those of you complaining about the photo quality, understand that you are using a $120 camera. Go get a thousand dollar DSLR if you want excellent pictures. This camera is perfect for those of you who want to take it on vacation or camping with the chance that you'll be getting wet. Remember my tip to take a ziplock bag of freshwater if you plan to go swimming in saltwater!

コダック 【並行輸入】Kodak Playsport Zx5 Video...

残念なことに初期不良でした。日本のコダック社の保証はもう終了しているそうで保証して頂けませんでした。それでも販売元の会社が保証してくれましたので助かりました。その喜びを込めて星4つです。

This product is poor. I had it replaced after 6 months and the same fault has reoccurred. Seems many have had the same issue too. The door mechanisms (required to access the charging / download port and the memory card) easily jam. Now it's out of guarantee period it's a flat charge of £45 to have it replaced. Then I'll will get another 6 months until the same fault occurs? No thanks. Aside from that the pics are ok, the video worked well. The camera is waterproof but the sound is poor when underwater and a tinny noise accompanies any underwater video.

Loved it. one of the best things I bought for my children. So easy to use and totally child proof.Even survived a house fire (unlike everything else electronic). Only issue is the few seconds time lag when trying to record but otherwise great little camera.

Great little video camera as described shoots excellent video for blogging