Kodak PlayTouch Video Camera (Silver) Reviews

I bought the PlayTouch and spent a handful of days comparing it to a borrowed Zi8. I shot a couple of hours of footage in distinct conditions and at various resolutions with the two mounted side-by-side. I thought a rapid comparison of the two may be useful for other individuals that are seeking at the PlayTouch.

There were surely some improvements in the PlayTouch over the Zi8:
* The gadget itself is smaller sized and sleeker. I assume it appears a bit better than the older model.
* The low-light performance is much better on the PlayTouch. Neither camera is great in reduced-light, but the PlayTouch would get a image in a dark space when the Zi8 would only record black.
* The PlayTouch had a much wider angle lens. My youngsters usually appear to come close when the camera comes out, and the wider angle of the PlayTouch was much much better in these scenarios.
* MP4 file format (vs. MOV on the Zi8). The MP4 files from the PlayTouch played back significantly less difficult on my Windows machine than the equivalent MOV files from the Zi8. MP4 and MOV are just the container for the h.264 video within, but for some purpose every thing works far better in Windows with MP4. My editing computer software (Sony Vegas) chokes on the .MOVs designed by the zi8, but performs wonderfully with MP4s. Naturally QuickTime rocks if you are on a Mac.
* The PlayTouch has some nifty “effects” for your video. I do not assume you’d ever use them in genuine life, but they’re entertaining to play with for a few minutes and maybe kids would like them.

There have been a few essential ares in which the PlayTouch lost out to the Zi8:
* The video on the PlayTouch had WAY too considerably contrast. In a regular outside shot with the sun overhead and some light shadows from trees, half of the frame was blown out from the sun whilst the shadowy parts looked totally black. The Zi8 handled these circumstances with aplomb.
* The user interface on the PlayTouch was significantly slower and much less responsive than the Zi8. Almost everything, from the menus to the time to start recording after pressing the button, felt considerably more sluggish on the PlayTouch.
* The video displayed on the screen even though recording is tiny and lagged by about one/2 a second. You’d think with a larger screen, the video displayed while recording would be bigger, but you’d be wrong (The PlayTouch does show the video bigger on playback in landscape mode, though). The Zi8 video display did not lag at all.
* The video on the PlayTouch did not appear as excellent as the Zi8 at any resolution. I do not know if it really is due to a decrease bitrate or a thing else in the compression, but the video from the PlayTouch had a lot much more blocking and jaggy artifacts.
* In something but vibrant light, the PlayTouch video was incredibly noisy. Significantly worse than the Zi8.
* The PlayTouch seemed to heat up when recording 1080p video. It did not get burning hot, but it was hot sufficient to trigger me some concern.
* The PlayTouch crashed sometimes requiring a reset.
* Battery lifestyle was around 1 hour five minutes on the PlayTouch, while it was about 1 hour 30 minutes on the Zi8.

To me it was no question: I returned the PlayTouch and bought a Zi8. Probably some of the shortcomings of the PlayTouch can be fixed in long term firmware updates, but the basic image quality issues are not able to be fixed in firmware — they are intrinsic to the CMOS sensor Kodak chose to put in the PlayTouch. I could overlook the crummy consumer interface for the low light improvement, wider angle lens, and MP4 container format, but the severe step down in video top quality makes it not possible for me to the take into account the PlayTouch.