The pocket camcorder is a relatively new category in consumer electronics and best understood as being a video camera that is small enough to fit in a jacket pocket and designed around three key elements; to be inexpensive, very simple to use, and produce clips that are easy to share over the internet. To reach these goals manufacturers are forced to sacrifice video quality and features, so that while a pocket camcorder is fine for recording birthday parties or pet tricks, they’re not the best choice for weddings or ballet recitals, for shooting in low lighting or from very far away. The clips they produce look great when uploaded to YouTube, but suffer, appearing pixilated or distorted, when you watch them on a big screen television, especially an HDTV.

Kodak’s first pocket camcorder, the Zi6, tries to fix this problem with the option to record video in 720P, High Definition resolution. Although the camera is still limited by its small, 4.1mm lens and 1.6 Megapixel CMOS image sensor, the general picture quality is still “average”, because of the increased lines of resolution, clips played on an HDTV remain crisp, clear, and free of distortion.

Camera shake is still an issue. When you have a camera that is only 4.5” large and you record footage with it by hand, there’s a considerable amount of shaking that goes on. When played on a 42” or larger High Definition screen, the camera shake becomes more pronounced, even exaggerated. You’ll need to use a tripod in order to avoid inducing a sense of vertigo into your footage.

Sample video shot with the Zi6, maximum zoom

Outside of a television, you can also watch High Definition clips recorded with the Zi6 on your home computer. From there you can use them to create a DVD or upload them onto YouTube, but in both cases you lose the benefits of High Definition as the act of transferring the clips onto DVD or into your YouTube account downgrades the footage for standard viewing. There are methods for converting the video files into a format that will allow HD playback on YouTube and other video-sharing communities that support HD, but that requires a lot of research and know-how.

Unless you plan to connect your pocket camcorder to your HDTV often, having the option to shoot in Hi-Def doesn’t give the Zi6 a clear advantage over competing products like the Flip Ultra or the Creative Vado, especially when it means that the Zi6 has a higher price tag.

In design, the Zi6 is also larger than its competition, yet still compact and thanks to a rubberized surface, very comfortable to hold and shoot with. It has a large, 2.4” LCD screen, the biggest of any pocket camcorder on the market, offering vivid image quality and fair resistance to direct sunlight. Like its main competitor, the Flip Ultra, the Zi6 also has a spring-loaded USB connector that swings out from its hiding spot with just a push of a button. You don’t have to search for the right cable, just press the button and connect directly to your computer. In general, the casing and controls seem very durable and resistant to abuse.

The main controls consist of just two buttons and one mini-joystick. One button switches the camera between playback and shooting, the other between delete and stop playback, which leaves the mini-joystick for everything else. This is a big problem. Moving the joystick left and right switches between shootings modes (still, VGA, HD at 30 frames per second, HD at 60 frames per second), while moving the joystick up and down triggers the 2X zoom. Clicking the joystick like a button sets the camera recording while clicking it again stops it. This creates a frustrating issue. With both the zoom and recording controls mapped to the same switch, it becomes way to easy to accidentally switch off recording each time you try to zoom in. This happened to me every time I used the camcorder. There were several instances where I looked down after shooting a scene only to realize that I had accidentally stopped the recording ten minutes earlier. This is Kodak’s first attempt at a pocket camcorder and the controls should be the first thing they redesign before they make their second.

 Too small for tapes or discs, the Zi6 records first to 128 MB of internal memory (of which 30 MB is available for still photos) and then beyond that onto SD memory cards (up to 32 GB). Shooting Hi-Def at 30 frames per second uses about 1 MB per second of memory, so the larger the SD Memory Card you can get (sold separately), the better.

In addition to video, you can also take still photos using the Zi6 as a 3 Megapixel camera. There are only two shooting modes; portrait and landscape, which is enough for simple snapshots and slightly better than most cellphone cameras.

Sample still photo taken with the Zi6, resized for the web

For power, Kodak has chosen regular batteries and includes both a set of rechargeable AA Ni-MH batteries and a mini wall charger. The charger, for some strange reason, isn’t designed to tell you when the batteries are done charging. Two red lights will turn on to let you know that the batteries are charging, but will remain on forever until you either remove the batteries or unplug the charger. The only way to know when the batteries are done is to count the hours yourself. According to the manual, it should take 15.5 hours, so mark the time when you start charging so you know when to come back and unplug everything to prevent overcharging.

Sample footage taken with the Zi6

For software, Kodak includes a modified version of ArcSoft MediaImpression (Windows only), a very simple program that offers only three options: you can browse and view your clips, transfer or “import” them onto your computer, or upload them to your YouTube account. It installed and ran without incident and for the three simple tasks it offers, the program works well. Of course if you wish to edit your clips or add title cards or special effects, you need to find your own software.

Is the $180 Kodak zi6 worth buying over the leading $160 Flip Ultra? There are many big reasons to spend the extra $20; improved playback on HDTVs, large LCD display, support for SD memory cards, included charger and both VGA and HD video cables (which are not included with other pocket camcorders). There is, however, one small, niggling issue that screams against and that’s the combined zoom and stop recording controls which ruined more than half of my shots. When you zoom in, it is far too easy to accidentally click the stop recording option, a symptom I feel of this being Kodak’s first attempt at a pocket camcorder and a design flaw I’m sure they will correct when they release a follow-up model next year (when other manufacturers will no doubt offer their own HD pocket camcorders). For this reason my advice is to wait. Sometimes it’s the little things, especially the annoying ones, that can make all the difference.