Side-by-side comparison of Kodak Zi8, Sony Z5 and Flip

Posted by Steve Hull on Friday 18 June 2010 at 8:42am
Tags: cameras | equipment | hardware | microphones | podcasts | video |

Comments (0)

The setup used to record the video, from left to right the Kodak Zi8, the Sony Z5 and the Flip Ultra.  Note the viewscreens of the three cameras and the microphone cable leading from the Kodak camera.

As you'll see, the differences between the three are striking in terms of both picture and sound.  The Flip's results are the poorest, but that's no reflection on the quality of the device.  It's over a year older than the Zi8 (a long time in the camcorder market), it's only SD and it can't take an external mic, and given those limitations it does fine.  By the way, note how the Flip makes me look like a Klingon.  The rippling forehead isn't the fault of the Flip, but rather an artefact of the post-processing as the Flip's 480 lines of video are uncompressed, converted to 1080 lines and re-compressed in the finished product.  Problems like this can be minimised with a little experimentation in the post-production phase.

The Sony Z5 with a Sennheiser wireless mic system gives (unsurprisingly) the best results, but the most interesting setup is the one with the Kodak Zi8 and an anonymous lapel mic.  The picture quality on the Kodak is quite good: it's very, very sharp (shooting in 1080p with a Zeiss lens) and the colour rendition is acceptable, though not nearly as nice as the Sony.  Remember, however, that we've just used the standard room lighting which is far from ideal.  But notice what a big difference the external mic makes!  Even a cheap and cheerful mic like this works wonders, because it can be placed where it should be placed, next to the source of the sound instead of inside the camera.  The only thing missing from the Kodak is a headphone socket, for without that there's only one way to know how the video will sound, and that's to do a test video, download it and play it back.

Comparison of three different video setups.
If you cannot see the video above, please use this link to download the video file (11.7MB).
Or use this link to download a much larger HD version of the video (98.8MB).

If you're interested in finding out how to get the most out of your pocket camcorder, take a look at our advice documents, the Basic Guide to the Flip, the Basic Guide to Videoing Interviews and the Basic Guide to Videoing Lectures.

Comments (0)