Aiptek is
making a habit of bringing portable HD recording to some seriously affordable levels. The HDV21X Action HD 1080p High Definition Camcorder w/ Optical Zoom (known as the AHD Z500 Plus in Europe) records HD AVD HD (1,440 x 1080, 16 x 9) on a 5 megapixel sensor at 30 frames per second and 720P at 60 frames all for a paltry $199.99 at your local Wal-Mart. Expect to get up to 8 hours of 1080p video on a 32GB SDHC card. As for still images, the Z500 shoots at 8 megapixels and even sports a macro mode for both video and still. Also on board is a 3x optical zoom, CIF mode for easy YouTube uploads, a 2.4-inch swivel-mount TFT LCD, and component outputs for all the HD goodness. To top it all of, its diminutive size is worth mentioning: 4.4 x 2.75 x 1.3-inches.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
lakersin2025 @ Jun 11th 2008 11:29AM
Damn. Now if we can just get Canon to record in true 1080p on their consumer cams.
S4Rs @ Jun 11th 2008 12:42PM
Thats amazing. There must be some kind of catch. And to even be able to take 8mpx pics too. I think I finally found a replacement for my aging sony dsc-m2.
FrankTheCrank @ Jun 11th 2008 1:09PM
This looks cool. I really want something to replace my Panasonic 3CCD DV camera.
Plus, being able to import movies via flash memory is a huge plus.
$199, it's got to be shit.
Thrasher @ Jun 11th 2008 1:31PM
Hey- I bought one of these last week to try to record an event for one of my kids. I don't have much experience with it yet, but, as you would expect, there are some interesting trade-offs. You can indeed shoot at 1080p, but it burns up SDHC card space quickly, 720p/60fps is probably good to shoot outdoor action scenes, while 720/30fps works for indoor with good light. I ended up with huge recording problems at my event, because of the horrible lighting. The cam has an LED light, but it only throws a few feet- not enough to make a difference for me. If you shoot indoors, make sure you have lots of light. Sound recording was OK, not great, but I picked up what people were saying. The 3x optical zoom is slow and jerky, and of course the zoom needs even more light. I suggest you edit out the zooms in post and use the fixed shots; that makes for a better final video anyway. The standard battery is 1000mAh, about 30-45 minutes of recording time. You should buy more of those batteries, and an external charger. Aiptek also offers an 1800mAh battery, which should give you ~90 minutes. They don't, however, provide an external charger for those, so you need to charge them in the camera- a hassle. If you shoot a multi-hour event, such as mine, you'll need extra batteries and a couple of 16GB SDHC class 6 cards (I got mine at Amazon, Transcend, for about $73/each). The thing is amazingly small and light. I easily fit it (plus extra cards, batteries, manual, various cables, etc.) into a compact camera bag. I recommend a mono- or tri-pod for stability, but shooting without one in good light is OK but shaky. When I decided to buy one, I had to try several WalMart's in my area (San Jose, CA).before finding one in stock. I'm glad I found one, it works well enough for ad hoc projects. But do not expect the same quality as you would get from Canon, Sony, Panasonic. For $200, what the heck! Have some fun! But I'll probably buy a Canon Vixia later. I really like the flash recording format- this is about as easy as it gets. As a mac user, I had heard problems with getting the Aiptek files into my Mac and editing them in iMovie. But I had no issues at all- copy the files to your hard drive (they automatically go into iPhoto), then open with iMovie. Bang- you're there. All in all, for $200, this is a pretty sweet deal.
Tim Schneider @ Jun 15th 2008 7:49PM
How is image stabilization? That's generally the bane of all these new crops of cheap video cams or digicams masquerading as videocams.
I have a Kodak v1273 (digcam) that shoots in 720p @ 30 fps.
It's okay, but shaky. Not bad to have with you for that moment you want to capture video, but dont expect Canon or Sony quality out of it! :-)
Looks definitely interesting though, something to keep in mind!
Thrasher @ Jun 11th 2008 6:49PM
Because my event was indoors with very low light, the image stabilization didn't help much. I took a few digital pictures using the 5MP camera option, but as with the video, they were too dark to be really useful. The camera also offers 8MP and 3MP modes. You can only use the digital camera when you are not doing video recording. There is an option to record from TV/VCR/DVD at 640x480 using the included composite cable.
There is a lot of stuff built into this camera, especially considering the price. Just do not confuse it for a high quality camcorder, HD or SD. Use it for what it's good for: light, cheap, easy video recording in good light.