Cocktail Confessions

It’s been a few months now since each of these handheld ‘shoot and share’ flash camcorders have been released to the consuming public with plenty of both professional reviews written and video examples available to compare out on YouTube.

Unfortunately, I still cannot decide between the Sony PM5 or Kodak Zx3 to purchase for myself and I have never agonized so much over such a simplistic decision.  It’s not like I’m buying a new car or house.  We are only talking about a sub $175 camera.

From a previous posting I gave what I call a half-assed review on my brief experience with the Playsport and that I was somewhat impressed.  Mind you, I didn’t have a chance to shoot under water (it’s waterproof up to 10 feet), or accidentally drop it (it has a rugged exterior), or do any advanced features such as using the HDMI port.

I haven’t had any luck playing with the Sony PM5 at all.  All the Best Buy’s in my area only seem to have it listed on their websites but not in their stores.  The one I did get to see in person at a local MicroCenter didn’t have the cables or batteries to power it on, so I couldn’t do anything with it other than hold it.

The pricing for both is about a $20 dollar difference.  The Playsport generally retails for $149 (sans SD memory) and the PM5 is $169 (sans memory as well).  Depending on the day of the week, or on pure chance, I have seen both ‘unofficially’ listed cheaper at various websites, especially the PM5.  It’s weird to me that model color seems to effect the price as well, especially amongst the Sony.  Sony models in white and pink seem to be listed cheaper as they are the more unpopular of the flavors.  Not sure why, and I really don’t care if I hold a pink one or a blue one.  I’ve seen the pink one as cheap as $137 online, then jump back up in price the next day,  Same with the white model listing at $145 one day and then back up the next.  The Playsport fluctuates on occasion as well.  I’ve seen a white Zx3 for as low as $127.  Unfortunately none of the major online or retail stores had discounted either one over Memorial Day weekend.  I was fully prepared to commit to one or the other if there was a decent sale this past weekend, but alas, there wasn’t.

Kodak Playsport

I need to make a decision soon, as I could have used one this last weekend when I went to Travel Town up in Los Angeles.  I ended up using the video option on my Motorola Droid phone which worked just fine, but kind of a hassle to get the video off the phone, convert it, and then do some editing before I posted to YouTube (I’ll have those up shortly in an upcoming post so you can see).  I also want to use it for both some BBQ’ing vodcasts and model train builds I’m doing as another hobby.

In examining their features, both have some solid pro’s….and some solid con’s.  It’s a wash to me, but for some reason I keep drifting back to the Bloggie PM5, but just by a hair.  If I can’t find a good deal in the next few days online or in person for the PM5, I may just opt to go with the Playsport anyway, and I won’t be bummed.  See, between my wife and I, and some various engagements coming up with my friends and this very website, I’m finding more and more reasons to buy one sooner than later.  As a matter fact, we are planning to go to Victorville in about 2 weeks time for a Bluegrass and Country festival and I’d love to shoot some content.  I also have a friend coming in town next week, and Id like to use it for some goofing around we’ll be doing ourselves.

So, in no particular order, here we go again:

• Kodak has an edge in both being waterproof and more rugged body. Kodak +1.5 (I have a tendency to drop shit…a lot)
• Kodak has an HDMI port: Kodak +.5 although I doubt I’d use this feature, thus the 1/2 point.
• Both on have built in video editing software that self installs to a PC and both suck.: wash
• Sony has built in USB arm, whereas Kodak needs an additional cable.: Sony +.5
• Sony has a 270 degrees swivel lens for self shooting and protection.: Sony +1
• Both have a 5MP camera, neither have a Macro lens or flash.: wash
• Sony has a ‘slightly’ larger LCD screen: Sony +.5
• Kodak LCD has special ‘glare feature’ saturation filter: Kodak +.5
• Both have 4x digital zoom controls: wash
• Kodak has 1.5 hr typical battery life whereas Sony has 1 hr: Although this data is unconfirmed and a bot sketchy at best. Pricing out additional batteries (you’ll need them for long weekends) shows that the Kodak brand tend to be cheaper.  Kodak +.5
• Sony can use both SD cards (class 4) or Memory Dual Stick Pro: Sony +.5
• Both suck in low light conditions: wash
• Kodak takes ‘slightly better’ stand alone pics due to Sony’s delay between pressing the button and shot being taken.: Kodak +.25
• Kodak files don’t like MAC (I could care less), but Sony mounts three (3) drives when plugged into PC and doesn’t play with new Win 7 without converting the files, meaning extra steps if I move off of Win XP. Kodak: +.5
• In the audio tests I have heard, I think the Sony sounds better.  Both have mono mic’s, and neither has an external mic jack.  Sony: +.5 for personal taste.
• In the video tests I have seen, I also think the Sony has a richer and more saturated color and also sharper picture compared to the Kodak.: Sony +1
• Model color palette.  Kodak has 3 colors to choose from where as Sony has 4.  I could care less.: wash.
• Both shoot in 4 different quality modes: 1080p, 720 & 480 @ 30fps, and also 720 @ 60fps.: wash.
• While both have some internal memory, neither are enough to take anything credible, so expect to buy additional class 4 SD memory for both.: wash
• Kodak is $20 cheaper on all accounts: Kodak +1

So based on my completely unscientific rating system the final tally is: Kodak = 5.25, Sony = 4.  Actually that is quite surprising for me and this has been a real eye-opener.  It’s possible that in the long run the Kodak may be slightly easier to run in terms of video conversion to .WMV and cheaper batteries.  While I may never use the waterproof feature, I’m glad it’s there as friends may accidentally spill drinks on it and I won’t be afraid to use in the rain.  I also have a tendency to drop objects, so the rugged casing may be a bonus in my favor and of course the base cost makes it slightly more attractive as well.  I may miss Sony’s superior color and sound and slightly larger screen offerings though, but I now think I’m leaning towards the Kodak.

Taking all this into account, I may now be actually be leaning towards buying a Kodak Playsport.  Tell me what you think below in the comments.  I’ll hopefully purchase something by the end of this week.

Since I still have yet to decide on what flash-media camcorder to buy, I am fortunate enough to have my friend Brian lend me his Kodak Playsport this last week for a test drive.  For those that don’t know what flash-corders are, they are basically pocket sized video recorders that instead of using tape or CD media, save the files digitally to internal flash or SD cards.

They generally retail for sub $200 and target people on the go who who want to record video clips or still pictures on the go without lugging around a larger, more professional camera or camcorder.  They aren’t meant to make you the next Cecil Demille, but for those that like to share memories via FaceBook, YouTube, smaller emails and the like.  Features are generally limited and is really meant to do one-touch recording on the fly.  Think social sharing teens, soccer moms, and dads on the hunting trip.  If you understand this, then you should know what to expect and what not to.

The big three are considered to be Kodak, Sony, and Cisco.  All the others are poor imitators, and you get what you pay for, so don’t expect superior quality in both recordings or durability if you go with one of the off-name brands.  Out of the gate, I eliminate all the Cisco ‘Flip’ brands because of the cost factor.  There is nothing that the Cisco ones do any better than the Kodak or Sony models other than cost more.  They may have made it virtually ‘idiot proof’, but with the various Flips, you sacrifice pure 1080p HD recordings and as a reward for stripping down to the most basic features, you actually pay more.  That being said, many people do like their Flips for their simplicity, and no one can argue their marketing machine made a splash as the Flip Mino and new HD Slyde are practically household vernacular…but that doesn’t make them the best.

I’m torn between the lower end Sony Bloggie and new Kodak Playsport.  Both have pros and cons that on paper seem to cancel each other out.  From what I have read the Bloggie has superior video qulaity whereas the Playsport has better audio pickup.  Both have 4 recording settings that are identical, have zoom features, have editing software, have the ability to take 5 megapixel still shots.  Bloggie has a built in USB connection, whereas the Kodak uses a cable.  Kodak is roughly $40 buck cheaper and is has one additional feature that extreme outdoors people may indeed like…it is waterproof up to 10 feet under water making it ideal for the beach, skiing trips, and backyard pool parties.

So now that you get the idea, here are my preliminary findings on the Kodak Playsport:

1) Lowlight conditions do not favor this camera.  We used it once at night in my backyard with the only light source being some tiki torches, bleed over light from the kitchen to the backyard, and some decorative overhead hanging lights.  The Kodak did not fair very well.  I suspect the Sony may not do much better as neither has a flash or floodlight function.  Perhaps too much a battery drain?

2) However filming at dusk seemed to be okay.  The raw format for the Playsport is .MOV files, friendly to Apple and Quicktime applications.  The following video was taken at the San Clemente, CA pier this past Sunday at roughly 6:30pm.  I think the colors turned out pretty well, and the raw playback footage on my PC (prior to YouTube uploading and conversion) was nice, albeit it somewhat shaky (more on that in a second).

3) Now the shakiness.  You’ll note that even with EIS turned on, it stills seems very jerky even though my panning was fairly smooth.  I have heard this from other people as well and that the Sony Bloggie may indeed do a better job at image stabilization.

4) Here is the second video taken just a bit later.  Again, looks good other than a bit shaky:

Miscellaneous stuff: comes with a wrist strap and a very small and somewhat generic manual.  Visiting the Kodak support page, I noticed that a new firmware patch was released in March of this year, shortly after the the Playsport went public.  Too bad I couldn’t find anything at the Kodak webpage that informs users what the firmware upgrade actually does, but here’s to hoping it addresses the EIS and the reported false battery charged readings.  That is, some people are stating that the battery doesn’t seem to charge 100%, or even if the indicator does register that the internal battery is 100%, only minutes after use, the icon shows it’s already 25% spent which may make some users wary how the long the battery life actually is.

The nice thing was that that plugging in the Playsport to my PC via a USB cable, Windows XP detected it immediately and there was no additional software I needed to install.  I was able to go in to the media storage and quickly drag and drop the .MOV files over to my PC.  That was pretty seemless.  I did not have a chance thus far to play with the actual camera for taking still shots, nor did I use the included editing software that is built in to the Playsport to alter my videos.

Now I also created a YuoTube account and uploaded both movie’s there as you see embedded above.  One thing I did note…the raw .MOV files are much sharper than the YouTube videos you see here.  I assume YouTube has some type of conversion and compression process and in the end you may notice a bit more pixelation and muted colors.  That could be because YouTube uses the .FLV format or something else.

Zune HD

Not that money is burnoking a hole in my pocket but sometimes I get this intense urge to purchasea shiny new gadget and it’s very hard to satiate or assuage that feeling until a transaction has been made.  Therein this dilemma lies a few various issues that bounce about within my noggin that I begin to wonder if I stumbled upon some warped psychosis of myself: 1) Do I ‘really‘ need a new gadget?  2) Do I have a mild case of ‘shop-a-holic’ syndrome usually discussed by various yentas on shows like The View or Maury Povich?  3) Am I making an intelligent buying decision or do I wait for the next model?  or 4)  Do I shove this current desire deep down within and wait for something completly different at a later date…perhaps something I’m not even aware I need or want yet?

That’s where I seem to be at this point, and while I am proud I did not make fall into temptation today and make an impulse purchase while I was at Best Buy earlier today, I’m also kinda bummed I didn’t at the same time.  See, for Christmas I was gifted a new Playstation 3.  I would normally have kept this gift and be very excited about it, however, it was not a Playstation Slim.  I also own a Xbox 360 and Wii and really can’t afford to start buying yet another consoles games at $60 a pop.  And the fact that my wife purchased me a Panansonic Blu-Ray player doesn’t help my argument either.  So begrudgingly I did return the PS3 and received a store credit in the amount of $300+.

Now what to buy with it?  A few thoughts crossed my mind: 1) new Xbox hard drive and some games?  2) Use it sparingly over time to purchase some DVD’s and reduced games once I play and tire with the current games I own and haven’t yet completed?  3) Buy a Zune HD player (a few months ago I almost would have done anything for a Zune 32GB)?  4) Buy a Cisco FlipHD handheld camcorder, or now something I just learned today, 5) Buy a Sony Bloggie 360 camcorder?

Well, I learned that Best Buy doesn’t currently carry 100GB Xbox hard drives and data transfer kits, so that’s out.  I’ll have to look for that separately another time.

I think I recently changed my mind on the Zune HD 32 as well.  The price is still a bit high at $289 and I can’t help but think that over the last few years I’m lucky if I even have picked up any MP3 player.  I have an older 4 GB Rio that works just fine and I don’t go to the gym as much as I used to either.  I also have my new Motorola Droid which I can listen to LastFM, and various other audio and digital podcasts (which I currently do at work now).  The Zune 16GB ($199) may be better for me as by the time I actually fill it up to say 40% of songs, the price may drop even more or a new model may be announced.  I do like the idea of placing many of my CD’s onto it, being Droid independent, and its ability to hook into my Ford Edge’s SYNC system.  I currently use a small 256MB USB memory stick in my car that holds quite a few songs, but clearly not as nice as a Zune.  I also have a Zune account on both my PC and XBox 360 and fancy myself going back to the gym more often here in the future and being able to watch video podcasts on the run is very attractive.

FlipHD

Then there is the Flip UltraHD cam from Cisco.  Up until CES 2010 (last week) I was liking the idea of having a Flip.  Not that I video anything much now because I don’t have a portable device or an account on YouTube, but I recently discovered the use of my Droid’s video capture abilities at a trade show I recently attended and found it very cool.  I’ve been doing more on Facebook recently as well, and have ideas of including vodcasts here and another site I’m working on.  However, it’s a Cisco device and although very popular right now, I can already sense that it is overpriced by the nature of it being Cisco and I feel a new model is under development.  As a matter of fact, with Sony’s ‘Bloggie’ announcement last week, Flip has already dropped it’s price from $199 to $149 at Best Buy.

Sony Bloggie

I figure the price drop is to compete against the newest version of Sony’s Bloggie that was announced for $169 for the base model and $189 for the 360 kit.  Now that I know about the Bloggie and its superior resolution (5MP pictures and 1920 x 1080 video resolution), 4x digital zoom, rotating 270 degree lens and 360 video accesory feature, of course now I think the Flip is now out.  It also comes with a 4GB memory stick (upgrades to 8GB), editing software, and it’s ability to immediately share to YouTube, Shutterfly, and Picasa makes it very attractive for our social networking generation (Facebook, Myspace, etc..)

So I didn’t buy anything today.  It’s between my desire to possibly buy a Zune 16, a future Bloggie, or upcoming Blu Ray DVD’s and Xbox 360 video games.