Aiptek Digital Camcorder, any good?

[deadrats]

hey guys, i'm thinking of getting myself an early christmas present, namely this:

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00356208000P?mv=rr

it records in the H264 format, at 1280x720 30fps or 848x480 60fps, and it only costs $120. it only has 1 gig of built in storage but it does allow you to use a 32 gig SD card for additional storage and it also works as an mp3 player.

so what do you guys think, for the dough is it a good deal? anything better in this price range?

[Hawkes]

I had an Aiptek video camera a few years ago. It was a piece of junk. The company I used to work for does video mystery shopping, and now uses Aiptek decks to link up to their hidden cameras because they're small and it saves time transferring HDD files instead of capturing them off MiniDV tapes.

As I understand it, sometimes they get a weird phenomenon happening where the video on their expansion SD cards gets corrupted and they have to go through some complicated process to get it usable again.

In other words, I wouldn't recommend this as a "good" camera. With video it's especially true that you get what you pay for. If you just want something to screw around with sure, but don't get your hopes up if you plan on doing any serious video production.

[tmw]

This isn't a good deal, if you want quality video. In good lighting without extreme action I'm sure it works okay. However, compared to "real" video camera's the Aipteks are toys.

If you are set on that price range and want a capable video camera, look at the DV camcorders. Sure, it's standard definition, and really old technology, but you set the price range. The video quality will be better, especially in lower light, although not in HD.

If you want something newer and HD, also look at DXG brand camcorders. They are basically the same shape as Aiptek (e.g. toys compared to "real" video cameras), but provide another alternative in the same price range. They are even sold at Walmart too.

Just my thoughts--it's definitely subjetive.

[SatStorm]

For it's price is great.

[deadrats]

thanks for all your answers, i realize it's a "toy", especially for that price, but i'm not really looking for a hi end production quality hi def camcorder, just something that i can keep in my pocket when i go fishing so that when see a shark (i've seen hammerhead and whale sharks, and whales) or when i go to the mountains and i see a black bear or some other wild life i can get some nice footage of them. (<--or if i can talk a certain chick into putting on a show 8) ).

basically something that would give me a decent image quality and that if it gets damaged i won't really care all that much about.

[xxiangg]

Aiptek has a fixed len. It only has digital zoom.

I bought a Panosonic DMC-T25K recently. It shots the same HD video.
It has a 10X zoom made by Leica and you can zoom in/out during
movie recoding. I took it to a recent trip to So. Cal. The video quality
is very good. It was $200 a few weeks ago when I bought it.

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=106673&t=1010389&highlight=TZ5

Or you can get it from Costco for $240 with free SD card and a case.

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11324383&whse=BC&topnav=&browse=&lang=en-US

If it is not just a X-mas gift for kid, I believe TZ5 is a much better deal
than Aiptek.

[Hawkes]

It's true, there are a ton of MiniDV camcorders that aren't 'toys' in the $200 price range that will serve you much better for your purposes. Once you get down to spending another $50 on an SD card you'll already be pushing the limits, and I'm guessing most people would rather shoot decent quality standard-def footage than crappy high-def.

[rschult298]

i recently bought the kodak zi6 for my son for xmas so it has not been used yet,but i have the kodak m1033
camera and it takes 720p video.looks pretty good for a camera so i figure this video camera should do even better.
i got it at sears for 159.99.


http://www.amazon.com/Kodak-Zi6-Pocket-Video-Camera/dp/B001BO7R00/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/177-...9091303&sr=8-1

[xxiangg]

I agree that from $120 up to $200 is a big jump.
The problem with Aiptek is that the lack of real
zoom. I bought an Aiptek older model (which just
had stardard resolution) and returned it after I
found that its zoom was really a joke. There is
no need to do it in carama during the shotting.
I can get the same effect with video editing
software. In my opinion, $120 is not cheap for
a zoom-less camara.