Creative's Vado HD 720p pocket camcorder reviewed: toe-to-toe with Mino HD

First was the netbook craze -- suddenly, everyone was cool with a miniaturized laptop. Now, the same sentiment has apparently bled over to the camcorder realm, with the Mino HD, Zi6 and Vado HD all vying for that precious space in your front left pocket. The latter, Creative's latest, was recently reviewed over at CNET, and while it'd be wonderful to find a clear cut winner, critics simply couldn't say that it was definitively superior in all ways to Flip's formidable rival. In short, the Vado HD's video quality was slightly less awesome than that of the Mino HD, but the feature set on the Creative was found to be far superior. Before pulling the trigger on either, we'd have a peek at the read link to see what aspects are most important to you.

[TopaZ @ Dec 11th 2008 12:55PM]

I'd be more interesting in comparing both of these units to the Aiptek, which is about half the price!

[TopaZ @ Dec 11th 2008 12:57PM]

Nice grammar, self!

[charles willis @ Dec 11th 2008 1:24PM]

Yes, I know people like smaller when it comes to gadgets, but it doesnt necessarily mean better. I recall apple stopped making the 12inch macbook because it was basicly useless. I think technology tries to be to cutting edge sometimes. I mean I am videographer and the HDD and DVD camcorders are worthless when you want to do some video editing. I wish the people who design technology product would really consider all the the things people might want to do with it before bringin to us.

[MickeyMoo @ Dec 11th 2008 1:34PM]

They stopped making the 12" PowerBook (which had the same screen resolution as the 14") because it was essentially an overpriced version of the 12" iBook with no expansion slot or backlit keyboard in an aluminum skin - they settled on 13.3" for the MacBook and 15/17 for the MacBook Pro.

[BlurMagic @ Dec 11th 2008 2:51PM]

Low rank for a stupid review and a website plug... Man. You suck!

[SITEiNK @ Dec 17th 2008 4:54AM]

your a loser.
low rank or not, i am sure his site is getting a lot of hits because of it.
why don't you just leave him alone?
or are you too gay enough just to post something relevant rather than comment about other people's signatures?

[Zinger314 @ Dec 11th 2008 1:04PM]

Who cares about video quality when BOTH cameras will produce video as jittery as hell?

[Devron @ Dec 11th 2008 1:13PM]

Can we add the Kodak HD cam to the mix also? I saw it running the 60FPS/720P and it looked great. (But I agree about the need for image stabilization in any of these models. Perhaps that's going to be a standard in the second wave of these things.)

[Scott Lawrence @ Dec 11th 2008 1:16PM]

Agreed. I have the Zi6, and I love it, but I had to build a stabilizer for more than just video snapshots.

(A variant on the homemade stabilizer on Make:Magazine... just the top cap where the camera connects, 2' of steel pipe, wrapped in hockey stick grip tape, then a 2.5lb weight at the bottom. Works great!)

[Busty @ Dec 11th 2008 1:22PM]

Where did creative find that design and plastic? Time capsule from the '80?

[Patriks7 @ Dec 11th 2008 1:47PM]

No offence, but I don't see the Time Capsule resemblence.

[BlurMagic @ Dec 11th 2008 2:53PM]

umm... what?

[oakie @ Dec 11th 2008 1:26PM]

i'd be all over the Mino due to its superior video quality. because, you know, i'm all about superior image quality which is why i'm shopping between these two cameras.

[TIMMAH! @ Dec 11th 2008 1:57PM]

Well hopefully the manufacturers will get their acts together. There seems to be a sweet spot in the $250 range if they can get a decent HD offering in there. What kills me is that tape-based camcorders were getting to be very inexpensive. In going to flash media, the manufacturers threw out all the complicated mechanics and motors of tape transport (which technically should make these things much easier/cheaper to manufacture) and yet they're still charging astronomical prices.

[Cass @ Feb 22nd 2009 5:00PM]

Amazon is having a special now where you can buy the Mino HD for around $204 and you can get two free accessories:

http://todaysepicdeal.wordpress.com/2009/02/22/flip-video-minohd-camcorder-60-min-black-w-2-free-accessories-20574/

[Steve @ Dec 11th 2008 2:46PM]

I picked up a Kodak ZI6 last night, and honestly, my Canon SD800IS takes better video, or at least equal. Except the Canon is 640x480 where the Kodak is 720. Bah. Maybe the Mino or Vado are nicer

[ace587 @ Dec 11th 2008 2:50PM]

sanyo xactis IMO are the best

[BJ is Gooder @ Dec 11th 2008 3:00PM]

I want something like this...not sure this article answers all the questions I have, but it's a good start!

[Game_playa @ Dec 11th 2008 3:37PM]

I like this better than the Mino

[rwf @ Dec 11th 2008 3:48PM]

I think the biggest plus of the Vado of the Mino is that the Vado has a mini-HDMI connector on the camera itself- and it comes with a cable! While the Mino can also do HD (maybe a little better according to the article), how are you going to get that 720p on to your TV? While there are plenty of solutions for that, none are as easy as just plugging it in, like with the Vado.

[Tobruk @ Dec 11th 2008 4:57PM]

The Creative product is missing a major feature, no SD slot! Sure, 8GB/2.5hrs of video might sound good to the average consumer but, try taking this product on an extended vacation without having computer access....it's completely useless! I just bought a new JVC GZ-MS100 flash memory based camcorder for the same price as this useless toy.

[Jan @ Dec 11th 2008 6:18PM]

Tobruk,

You have to keep in mind the purpose of products like the Vado is capturing small (short) video clips and then sharing then on-line via the USB connection to YouTube, Vimeo, PhotoBucket. I bet 98% of users will never fill up the 8GB of memory before they upload or back-up to their computer.

If you plan on an extended vacation then you should dfinitely get a camera with extra battery packs, tapes or memory media that are interchangeable or expandable and whatever you'll need. I would prefer not to have to keep track of all that extra crap and have a simple device that I know I'll never max out the memory on.

I am glad it does not have the SD slot, I don't think its necessary when you have a generous amount of built-in memory.

[Jason @ Dec 12th 2008 12:07AM]

I was strongly considering a Canon HF100 which definitely takes better video than one of these little guys (1080i, image stabilization, etc)... but it occurred to me why none of my friends with camcorders ever use them for anything.

They're too freaking huge. These new compact camcorders, once they incorporate image stabilization will pretty quickly sweep away the larger models for most consumers.

[FrankR @ Dec 12th 2008 1:03AM]

PC Magazine just named Vado HD it's Editor's Choice winner. Read it and weep Mino.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2336712,00.asp

[Don @ Dec 12th 2008 12:49PM]

PC Magazine rated the Creative Vado HD higher and PC World also rated the Creative Vado HD (only 1 point) higher.
The video quality comparisons vary by test. Each wins some. The feature set is what put the Vado HD ahead..given a virtually tied video quality.

[Clayton @ Dec 21st 2008 11:08PM]

What do you guys think of the Aiptek Action? I just got one a couple of weeks ago and have liked it so far. It has it's flaws, but for $149 you can't complain too much.

It has the optical zoom lens and it shoots 1080p and 720p 60 frames per second.
And it uses a component out cable to plug into your HDTV.
You can plug in a 32 GB SD card too (what about the Flip and the Vado?)
Also has a user replaceable battery.
2.4 inch LCD

I like that it has an AV-in function too, so I can download videos directly from my DVD player.

Here it is at Walmart.com:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=9208238