Aiptek offers bargain basement HD Camcorder

[BJ_M]

This week, Aiptek announced that it had launched the GO-HD, a 720p HD camcorder that will will retail in the United States for $299.

Aiptek says users will be able to record approximately 2 hours of 1280 x 720 HD video clips, using H.264 format, to a 4GB secure digital (SD) flash memory card.



The GO-HD measures approximately 4.5" x 2.75" x 1.25" and weighs 7.5 ounces making it one of the smallest camcorders available. Other features include a 3x Optical Zoom with Auto-Focus, one touch recording, a 270 degree Swivel-Reversible 2.4" TFT Color LCD Display and built-in charger, so it can be recharged via USB when attached to a PC or by attaching the included AC charger cable.

ImageThe camcorder offers three recording options including 1280 x 720 at 30fps, 720 x 480 at 30fps, and 325 x 240 at 30fps. All three formats are saved in as AIPTEK* .MOV Video Files.

The GO-HD also functions as a digital camera with a 5 Mega Pixel CMOS sensor for still capture up to 2560 x 1920, and a 2-inch Macro Zoom and Auto-Focus.

For $299 U.S. you'll get the GO-HD camcorder, lithium ion battery, an AC charger cable, USB cable, component cable, remote control, camcorder pouch, wrist strap, user's guide and Media Player 11

[BJ_M]

[yoda313]

wow 2 hours on a 4gb sd card??? Thats better than an hour on a mini dv tape isn't it?? That's pretty impressive. I like the future for whenever I eventually buy a new camcorder - though not in the next year I imagine.

[VegasBud]

BestBuy is selling them on its' website for $279.99. It says they ship within one business day.

[xxiangg]

Costco.com has this one for $250 for 2 weeks.
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11218186&whse=BC&Ne=5000001+40 00000&eCat=BC|79|83&N=4001459%204294910439&Mo=0&No =0&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&l ang=en-US&Sp=C&topnav=

Same earlier reviews
say that its PQ is quite good considering its price. More surprising is
that it did an OK job under low light. The major complain is that its
mic will pick up its motor noise when doing zooming. Certainly, coverting
its movie to other formats may not be easy.

You can download some sample movie from the reviews.

http://forums.steves-digicams.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=569962&forum_id=92
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=844531

[classfour]

Give me a 4GB SD card, and I'll record MPEG2, DVD quality on it with my 1 1/2 year old JVC Everio GZ MC200 (or any newer Everio microdrive camcorder) that I can author with TDA.

Have you had your hands on an Aiptek? Unless they've come along in the past six months: I wouldn't drop money into one.

Heck, even a three year old Panasonic SV-AV10 feels like a surgical instrument alongside the Aiptek Mp4 camcorders that I've seen - with much better quality, even at 15 fps.

[guns1inger]

I have used other AIPTek kit in the past, and I have to agree - unless they have changed their quality control and manufacturing standards recently then you will get a lot less than you paid for.

[dnix71]

That 14.9 MB panoramic.mov clip wouldn't play in VLC on my G4. All I got was a cropped still of the first frame and sound. ffmpegX choked trying to play it.

Quicktime Pro played it with slightly jerky motion. If I paused it the picture resolution was very good.

MPEGStreamclip did better than VLC, the picture wasn't cropped, but the motion was jerky and out of sync with the narration.

iSquint gives this as the file specs: Panoramic.MOV':
Duration: 00:00:30.9, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 4055 kb/s
Stream #0.0(eng): Video: h264, yuv420p, 1280x720, 30.00 fps(r)
Stream #0.1(eng): Audio: aac, 48000 Hz, stereo

It took iSquint almost 15 minutes to convert the 30 second clip. The converted mp4 was only 4.9MB but the motion was restored at the expense of major loss of video quality.

The sound is poor (windy, scratchy) like my handheld camera because the mic is internal.

[dcsos]

The name says it all

"Hello welocome to APE-TECH
Please listen to the menu as the options have changed"

but your main option remains:
not to buy Aiptek products :-)

[DereX888]

The name says it all

"Hello welocome to APE-TECH
Please listen to the menu as the options have changed"

but your main option remains:
not to buy Aiptek products

Thats just bad translation
I had once a great phone with stupid name like FOCK, umm, I mean VOQ
Name means nothing... they all from same factory somewhere in Asia

[dcsos]

You are actually correct, the name means nothing (the post was a joke)
but seriously: The AIPTEK written drivers for THE AIPTEK pen never worked correctlty on 9xx or any flavor of NT so I would skip over this lousy company..

Anyone have an experience that would allow us to give them a chance with this new product?

[satviewer2000]

Well you get what you pay for.

[jeremymiller]

I like it and it's good for family video, kids stuff and birthday party and stuff. The picture quality beats any mini-DV cams I have ever used and it is easy to use. Again, it is only $250 for 720p quality. It is not meant for recording high speed chases or disco night. It is good for everyday family use. The 8GB SD card is wonderful, which makes tranferring archiving a lot easier than the tapes.

[handyguy]

haha costco is now at $229.99

2 lithium batteries? Generous:


5MP CMOS sensor for taking photos

3X Optical Zoom

Record video at up to 720P at 30 fps

Uses Quicktime's H.264 the highest MPEG-4 standard available

2.4" TFT Color LCD Screen that swivels up to 270 degrees

SD slot supports up to 8GB of SD/SDHC memory

NTSC/PAL support and plays back on an HDTV, Standard TV, or PC.

Led Lights for low light recording

Charges via USB 2.0 with included cable

Product ships with built-in lithium battery, a second lithium battery and charger

Also ships with component cables, av cables, and remote control

Also comes with plug-in software on CD for those customers wanting to convert files to play back in Windows Media Player.

Requires Microsoft Windows 98SE/ME/2000 /XP or above;Direct X8.0 or above, 128MB of Ram, 64MB Video Card, 4x Cd-Rom.

For a limited time includes Free Instant Theater Docking Station.

[jeremymiller]

$229 is even better! Editing the .MOV clips are not bad on Vista. Vista's Movie Maker takes the files and output them to .wmv 720p clips. They still look great on the 720p LCD HDTV. They don't bad at all after even after being converted to 480p DVD Mpeg2, actually better then the miniDV converted DVD Mpgeg2.

I am not trying to help them sell this thing, as I am not sure how long this thing will last. It is not the most sturdy piece of equipment around and support from their US site is non-existent, so far firmware upgrades go. The online community of people who own this share the latest firmware they got from the German product site, and some have issues with it. BUT, all said and done, if I get a year out of it, I feel it worth the money and fun already.

[thecoalman]

actually better then the miniDV converted DVD Mpgeg2.

Sample frame?

[SingSing]

I figured out none of you is going to buy this cam. Because you all already figured out this is a piece of junk.

[ricland]

Why is this toy even being discussed?


The Sanyo Xacti beats it hands down and is currently being sold at Walmat's for $300.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5634188

ricland

[dcsos]

Why is this toy even being discussed?

Because it's capable of HD imaging

The Sanyo is not capable of beating the AIPTEK as it doesn't produce either PROGRESSIVE SCAN or HI-DEF
So, what's the point of comparing it here?

Sanyo is not a HD cam but shitty non DV-Cam electronic junk!
It doesn't do anything standard at all, look:

MPEG-4 - 640 x 480 - 30 fps - 66 sec - with 19MB built-in memory ¦ MPEG-4 - 320 x 240 - 30 fps - 177 sec - with 19MB built-in memory ¦ MPEG-4 - 320 x 240 - 15 fps - 253 sec - with 19MB built-in memory ¦ MPEG-4 - 176 x 144 - 15 fps - 326 sec - with 19MB built-in memory

[thecoalman]

Sanyo is not a HD cam but shitty non DV-Cam electronic junk!

Just to add you can get a very nice still camera for the same price or less with those same "video" features. Those types of cams are very deceiving in their marketing, they'll label them camcorder and even make them look like a camcorder but they aren't any different than most still cameras.