Buy Creative Labs Vado HD 720p Pocket Video Camcorder with 8 GB Video Storage and 2x Digital Zoom (Black)

The Creative Vado HD is hands-down the best option among the current breed of three pocket-sized 720p camcorders. Sony's entry into the market segment will surely shake things up next month. Meanwhile, the Vado HD's field of view (wide angle lens) reigns supreme and makes its competitors inferior despite their other advantages.

I'm an Emmy award-winning reporter/photographer with a serious set of HD gear as my main equipment at home. I was looking for a back-up camera for use in cop ride-alongs and for home use to capture my toddler when my 3-chip Sony HDV camcorder was left behind because of size/weight/etc.

The Flip Mino HD started the whole craze and I can see its small size/price was attractive. After quite a bit of web research, including the excellent side-by-side video comparison of the Flip Mino HD and Kdoak Zi6 on YouTube, I concluded the Zi6 was superior in picture quality and features for its price point ($150).

The Zi6 is awesome. The macro feature has a fixed focal length of 2" and can take detailed close-up photos better than any camcorder of any price/size. The 60-frame mode also captures fantastic slo-mo shots at twice the frame rate of other camcorders.

However the Kodak designers clearly made a compromise on the lens. They decided since it has no optical zoom, they would "cheat" by keeping the field of view a little tighter (zoomed in) than one would expect. The result is disappointing during real-world shooting. In a car or at an intimate gathering when you're just a couple feet from your subject, the Flip and the Zi6 can't frame a head-and-shoulders shot. They get just the face with the subject's hair and chin cut off by the frame. This simply isn't practical for the vast majority of shooting situations I could envision at work and at play.

So I ordered the Vado HD from Amazon for comparison before taking the Zi6 back to the store for a refund.

The Creative Vado HD has a wide field of view with a comparable image quality found on the Zi6. The lens is superior, though the codec and compression seem just a bit lower quality than the Zi6. At low light, the Vado is darker but does not suffer from the slow-shutter-speed blur that the Zi6 imparts to achieve lower-light sensitivity. The picture is stunning for a camera this size and the HDMI output to TV is a big plus.

The Vado HD is considerably smaller than the Zi6. It comes with the 8GB of storage already built in for two hours recording time at highest quality. The Zi6 requires the purchase of additional SD or SDHC storage which is both an asset and a liability. The Vado can shoot for two hours and then you have to upload to a computer whereas the Zi6 can keep shooting until you run out of SD cards (think vacation).

I use a Mac and found the .avi files of the Vado HD just as easy to use as the .mov files of the Zi6 when editing in Final Cut Pro or viewing in Quicktime, so long as you download the free Perian plug-in. In both cases, rendering is required to import the video into a timeline.

The Vado HD can be recharged using the USB connection (lithium ion removable battery) while the Zi6 uses rechargeable AA batteries and an external charger. The biggest advantage of the Zi6 is that you can use standard AA alkaline batteries in a pinch.

But let's get back to why the Vado HD wins hands down: the wide angle lens. It not only captures MORE of the scene in a single frame, it is STEADIER. A fact of videography is that the more you're zoomed-in, the more shake is amplified in the image. Conversely, the wider the shot, the less shake appears in the image. While neither camera has an image stabilizing system, the wide angle lens makes the Vado HD appear much smoother.

The microphone on the Zi6 does seems superior to the Vado. That and the 60 frame slo-mo mode, along with the macro feature, could be the difference depending on your chosen application. I'd actually like to have both cameras in my tool kit if the budget allowed.

But the Vado HD is the clear winner for me. Add the $29.00 underwater housing good to 5m (16 feet), and you've got a great system for shooting in the rain/pool/snorkeling/exterior car mounts, etc.

Oh, you'll see a lot of reviews saying this camera is shaky -- you've got to have a steady hand. It's light and the viewfinder is "screen only," meaning there's no camcorder-style eyepiece viewfinder. In my experience shooting video in Iraq, relying on a screen on any camcorder can be deceiving. As your hand moves, the screen and the background make the shot look more stable than when you're looking through a viewfinder. And that extra anchor point against an eyepiece makes the camera more solid. Finally, this is a VERY SMALL and VERY LIGHT camera. Practice shot composition and holding things steady (not walking for example, slower pans and tilts) and you'll be very happy. Add a Gorilla Pod for portable stability!

So instead of spending $150 on the Zi6 and $50 on SD cards, buy the Vado HD for the same $200 and get a better camcorder.Get more detail about Creative Labs Vado HD 720p Pocket Video Camcorder with 8 GB Video Storage and 2x Digital Zoom (Black).