One of the first decisions that I faced was whether to get a traditional hand-held HD camera or a pocket HD camera. Having purchased a Canon hand-held camera with DV tape over two years ago and having used it exactly once, the decision to go with a Pocket camera was fairly easy. All hundreds of gigabytes worth of video clips that we had taken over the last two years were shot using a variety of Canon PowerShot cameras that are primarily use for taking still pictures, but since we have one of these cameras with us at all times, they really did a great job of serving that dual purpose, but because of quality, but primarily because of conveniece.
When I first started thinking about a Pocket HD camera, my thoughts went straight to the Flip UltraHD Camcorder
or the Kodak Zi6 HD Pocket Video Camera
. These types of cameras were made very popular lately by their ease of use. However, while I was doing my researched, I ran into a couple of new PowerShot digital point-and-shoot cameras that support HD video including the Canon PowerShot SD970IS
and the Canon PowerShot SD960IS
and decided to take a look at them. Most of the buying guides that I had seen previously only compared the traditional so I had to compare those with the PowerShot multi-purpose cameras myself.As with any product comparison process, the decision as to which product is most suitable for you depends solely on your actual needs. The most expensive product might have the most features, but if you're only going to use 5% of those features, then there's no need to buy that most expensive product.
Making the Selection
The chart below summarizes the various features of the different camcorders/cameras I considered. The features that stand out are highlighted in green while the ones that I considered to be a disadvantage are highlighted in red.
Flip MinoHD Camcorder, 60 Minutes  | Flip UltraHD Camcorder, 120 Minutes | Kodak Zi6 HD Pocket Video Camera | Canon PowerShot SD970IS | Canon PowerShot SD960IS | |
Retail Price | $199.99 | $199.99 | $159.95 | $379.99 | $299.99 |
Amaon Price | $168.99 | $161.98 | $127.82 | $314.88 | $259.95 |
Max. Video Resolution | 1280 x 720 @30 fps | 1280 x 720 @30 fps | 1280 x 720 @60 fps | 1280 x 720 @30 fps | 1280 x 720 @30 fps |
Max Still Camera Resolution | N/A | N/A | 3 megapixel | 12 megapixel | 12 megapixel |
Built-In HDMI Output | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Optical Zoom | None | None | None | 5 x | 4 x |
Built-In Memory | 4GB | 8 GB | 128 MB | None | None |
Memory Card Support | None | None | SD/SDHC/MMC | SD/SDHC/MMC | SD/SDHC/MMC |
Recording Capacity (in HD) | 60 min | 120 min | Unlimited | Unlimited (43 min per 8GB card) | Unlimited (43 min per 8GB card) |
LCD Screen | 1.5 in | 2.0 in | 2.4 in | 3.0 in | 2.8 in |
Dimensions | 3.94 x 1.97 x 0.63 in | 4.25 x 2.19 x 1.17 in | 4.5 x 2.5 x 0.9 in | 3.73 x 2.24 x 1.04 in | 3.85 x 2.12 x 0.87 in |
Weight | 3.3 oz | 6.0 oz | 3.8 oz | 5.64 oz | 5.11 oz |
As you can see from the chart above, each camera has it's own advantages and disadvantages. Initially, I was attracted to the Flip minoHD camera because of its light weight and low cost. However, after comparing each of the advantages and disadvantages, I decided to get in a different direction. To help you with your own decision, see the summaries for each camera below.
Flip MinoHD Camcorder, 60 Minutes
Advantages | Disadvantages |
Light weight. At 3.3 ounces, it's pretty much the lightest HD camcorder in the market today | Does not take still pictures, which means you have to carry another camera around |
Low cost. It's not the cheapest HD camera, but at $199.99 retail, it's still very attractive from a cost perspective | Does not support HDMI output, which means you have to transfer the video to a PC, burn it to a DVD or transfer it to an Apple TV before you can view it on an HD TV |
Easy to use. Due to the limited focus, there are very few buttons on this device and not a lot of menus to navigate | Does not support any external memory, which means that you have to unload the video you shoot to a PC before you can shoot more video. |
No optical zoom. Although the camera supports minimal digital zoom, that is pretty much worthless as digital zoom takes away from the quality where optical zoom relies on the lens to zoom in | |
Small LCD screen. At 1.5 in, that's the smallest screen possible and doesn't show much details |
Flip UltraHD Camcorder, 120 Minutes
Advantages | Disadvantages |
Decent size built-in memory. At 8GB, that's much bettern than 4GB, but I still wish that they added support for external memory cards as well. | Does not take still pictures, which means you have to carry another camera around |
Low cost. It's not the cheapest HD camera, but at $199.99 retail, it's still very attractive from a cost perspective | Does not support any external memory, which means that you have to unload the video you shoot to a PC before you can shoot more video. |
Easy to use. Due to the limited focus, there are very few buttons on this device and not a lot of menus to navigate | No optical zoom. Although the camera supports minimal digital zoom, that is pretty much worthless as digital zoom takes away from the quality where optical zoom relies on the lens to zoom in |
Built-in HDMI support, which allows you to watch video directly from the camera on your HD TV set | Heavy. At a whopping 6 ounces, it's twice as heavy as its minoHD sister camera and the heaviest camera in the lineup |
Kodak Zi6 HD Pocket Video Camera
Advantages | Disadvantages |
Low cost. At $199.99 retail, it's still very attractive from a cost perspective | Still pictures are low quality, but it's better than nothing |
Light weight. At 3.8 ounces, it's one of the lightest HD camcorders around | At 128 MB internal memory, I'm not sure why this was added. You can only shoot a minute or two worth of video before the internal memory fills up. Luckily, the this camcorder supports external memory, which makes your shooting ability limitless |
Easy to use. This camera tries to copy some of the Flip line features and doesn't a decent job at that. | No optical zoom. Although the camera supports minimal digital zoom, that is pretty much worthless as digital zoom takes away from the quality where optical zoom relies on the lens to zoom in |
Support for external memory cards | Does not support HDMI output, which means you have to transfer the video to a PC, burn it to a DVD or transfer it to an Apple TV before you can view it on an HD TV |
Canon PowerShot SD970IS
& Canon PowerShot SD960IS
Advantages | Disadvantages |
Combines a decent HD camcorder (1280 x 720) with a high-end still picture camera (12 megapixels). This is great while you're on the road as you don't have to carry two individual cameras for video and still images | Almost twice as heavy as the low-end stand-alone HD camcorders |
Includes an optical zoom, which gives you the ability to zoom in without compromizing the quality of the video or the still image | Expensive. Almost twice as expensive as the low-end stand-alone HD camcorders |
Built-in HDMI support, which allows you to watch video directly from the camera on your HD TV set | No built-in memo |
Support for external memory cards, which gives you virtually unlimited capacity to take videos. This is extremely useful when traveling without your PC. You can purchase several SD cards and replace them in seconds as they fill up. |
After a lot of consideration, I picked the
Canon PowerShot SD970IS
because it met all of my needs for both video and still images and the fact that it was expandable in terms of the amount of recording that you can do and HDMI connectivity. Your needs may be different and a basic HD camcorder might suffice if you don't care as much about still images or expandability.Finally, I would like to point out a few other cameras that seem to have very nice features, but I did not consider them for this review because I'm not familiar with the brand or its quality. For example, the Aiptek A-HD 720P 8 MP CMOS High-Definition Camcorder (Black)
takes 1280 x 720 and 8 megapixel images for less than $100 and its sister camcorder the Aiptek Action HD GVS 1080P High Definition Camcorder with 5x Optical Zoom (Silver)
takes even better HD vidoe at 1280 x 1080 and has an optical 5x zoom for less than $200.In the end, we all have our preferences and sometimes, you pay a little extra for a brand you trust. Is it worth it? I'm not sure, but I love my SD970IS camera so far. Most the video has been transferred to an Apple TV and everyone is always impressed that the high quality video we're watching came from that tiny little camera.
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