Kodak Zx1 Pocket Video Camera review

We thought the Zi6 offered reasonably accurate colour and did fairly well in low light, although not as well as the MinoHD. It also did a good job adjusting when we went from brightly lit environments to darker scenes, and compensated for overly backlit subjects. With an upgraded processor, the Zx1 seems to adjust its exposure and autofocus more quickly. However, for rock-solid video with any of these models, you really have to keep the camera still, and it helps to use a tripod -- there's a threaded mount on the bottom of the unit.

Our comments regarding video quality refer to the highest video-quality setting, which is HD60 -- the '60' refers to 60fps. The lower VGA setting is useful if you're low on memory -- files sizes are much smaller when captured in lower resolution -- or know you're going to be compressing your video for Web or email distribution.

Kodak has built some software into the Zx1 that's automatically installed when you plug its USB connector into your desktop or laptop PC. Kodak includes ArcSoft MediaImpression, which provides the usual shortcut upload to YouTube, as well as some editing features that let you trim your clips; adjust contrast, colour and brightness; and splice your clips into a cohesive movie complete with customised background music and titles.

This software is for Windows only, however. If you own a Mac, you can copy your video and still images to your computer by dragging and dropping the files from the camcorder, and then edit your video using iMovie.

Conclusion
Overall, we like the Kodak Zx1 Pocket Video Camera. It represents decent value for money and is definitely a better deal than the Zi6. While Kodak hasn't really done anything to improve video quality, we think the Zx1's design -- aside from the USB situation -- marks a step forward for the company as it tries to distinguish its mini-camcorders from the competition.

Additional editing by Charles Kloet