Customer Reviews

Aiptek A-HD Pro 1080P High Definition Camcorder (Silver)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My sister-in-law showed up last Christmas with a new Sony hard disk HD camcorder. She said she paid over $1,000 for it. I pulled my Aiptek out, took some video, plugged it into my plasma and no lie it looked better than hers. I kind of felt bad - I think she was really bummed. If all you're looking to do is just have a camcorder that you can shoot soccer games, outdoor outings, etc.. this is what you need. The owners manual for the HD Sony's is an inch thick and I hardly ever used all the features in the majority of camcorders I have ever bought. I am so pleased with this camera. It works best outdoors in good light and is so-so in low light. The picture is amazing, the battery life is excellent, and you need at least a 4-8 gig SD card.

I've owned video equipment over the span of 30 years since it became generally available to consumers, starting from a $3500 combination of huge shoulder mounted camera that required a separate VCR slung from the same shoulder. This little hand-held gadget provides 10 times the resolution for 5% of the cost in a package 5% of the size of the original. I never thought such an inexpensive product could produce such quality, but indeed the HD resolution is just that, and the color reproduction exceeds the VHS-C camera I had been using for the past 15 years. It's a gem. You can carry it around in your pocket unobtrusively, and it even comes with a remote and tiny counter top tripod. The only negatives I've so far noticed in the month I've had it are that the tripod socket is a bit shallow to accommodate the mounting bolt on my huge old tripod so I have to use a washer between the camera and the tripod to effectively shorten it to get it tight; and when in AV-Out mode to monitor what the camera sees on a television, the camera's screen goes black, but that may be a matter of adjustment that I haven't discovered, and it has no real effect since what the camera sees is being displayed on the television monitor. And I'm mildly concerned that there seems to be no way to prevent inevitable eventual scratching of the lens, such as lens cover or separate disposable-quality accessory lens; or even the ability to completely replace the lens; but that may just be a function of the overall inexpensive level of the equipment. Otherwise, I find this camera more than satisfactory for casual convenient videography and the price beats a similar unit available at Costco.

If you have good lighting and a steady hand the video from this camera is excellent. Best results come with well lit rooms or outdoors during full daylight. Lower light situations are not too bad (perhaps on par with some standard definition videos).

The auto-focus is slow and can cause some blur if the distance to the subject you are recording is constantly changing.

The camera is good. It offers 720p 60 frames per seconds. Looks good in the HD TV. It comes with a remote control. I used 4G SD cards. Enough for 1 hour game.
Shots at night are not pretty good. You need to have good illumination.
I don't really like the pictures, you have to be too still to get a good one.
For the money is excellent. I just take out the SD card, take out the movie, post it in youtube. Or I just put them in my laptop with HDMI output and I can play them back in the TV, if I took the video already from the camera. You can play it in the HD tv from the camera with the component cables.

I bought this to get HD camcorder, and thought that the 3x optical zoom would suffice.
However, I find that I've barely used it since the required light levels are so high that you tend to be outside, where the 3x zoom is not sufficient.
Recently bought a stills camera with built in video function, and have used that more. It has better zoom, and better low light capability.

So this is disappointing; it will probably be good because it's solid state, and can record very low res (like web cam) for very long time, but not what I wanted it to do.

Aiptek A-HD Pro 1080P High Definition Camcorder (Silver)

I purchased the A-HD Pro 1080P to use it as a DVR and in that aspect it works well. I use a Sony 580 line helmet cam which I usually connect to a Canon Eaura video camera but I wanted something lighter, much lighter to record BMX racing. The A-HD Pro 1080P is by far lighter and captures the video input quite well, the only draw back is that the Canon captures at 60 fpm and the Aiptek at 30.
As far as using the A-HD Pro 1080P as a camera, the picture quality is good as long as there is good lighting, I would not recommend this camera at indoor sporting events unless there is an extreme amount of lighting.

Length:: 0:14 Mins

Overall, a very nice camera that's easy to use. Love the picture quality, the size of the camera, and it's SD slot. I suggest you use a class 6 card of at least 4gb. I have an 8gb card and it holds approximately 3+ hours of 720p 60fps footage. The stills are beautiful and you have the option of shooting stills in 3/5/8mp.

The only thing I don't like is the fact that it saves videos in .mov files. Another reviewer had stated that simply changing the file name would work, initially it didn't work for me and I had to do the time consuming task of converting the file on my PC. However, on my husband's Mac, the camera is completely plug & play and I was able to make a movie on iMovie. Later, I figured out how to change the file name and it makes life a whole lot easier. Example: file0001.mov, rename - file0001.mp4. Also, if you just decide to upload a movie straight to YouTube from your camera without editing it, you can upload directly to YouTube without conversion and then once it's processed, you can download the file from YouTube in an mp4 format. So, essentially, your using YouTube to convert the file for you.

Indoor filming is less than desired (as it is with most pocket camcorders), but there is a "night shot" mode which helps out a bit. In my personal opinion, shooting in 720p 60fps is just as great a video quality as 1080p and my personal favorite. My camera came with the extended life battery and so it lasts for over 2 hours which is really nice and I love that it's rechargeable.

A few negatives: 1) The auto focus is annoying. The camera often times is focusing in and out, making the finished video blurry. Even when it's in a stationary position this happens. Unfortunately there is no way to disable the auto-focus. 2) There's no lens cover, but I read somewhere about rigging one up with the ring on the top of a one gallon jug (??). I may give it a try.

For the price, you really can't expect too much, but overall, this is a pretty slick little budget HD camcorder.

This video was shot with 720p 60fps under normal conditions with no wind and no external mic.

I think the main reason this camera is so cheap is because it uses flash memory and is made by a not so well known company. Before purchasing, several online reviews (outside of Amazon) and retail employees told me this camera was only good for dirty youtube style videos. Quite frankly, I've never seen a camcorder that didn't have that look to me. It really has more to do with lighting than anything, no matter what camera. This camera actually looks WAY better to me than the 640x480 Sony camcorder I had before it (which I paid over $500 for at the time).

This camera has all the features most people could ever need in a camera. It is easy to use. The only single problem I've found with it so far is that the case scratches very easily. It will probably look like hell after a few weeks-months of use, but as long as it still works the same, it was worth saving at least $500 over the next 1080p camcorder.

I bought this camera recently but now use it almost exclusively. It's the second videocam that I've owned and this one is a real improvement over its predecessor. The videos come out HD and I upload them onto YT with ease. Honestly, they're pretty impressive. [...]. Further, you can set the camera on high resolution and it creates some absolutely beautiful pictures. Yes, its size is a little ungainly but I have Carhartt shorts with a side panel pocket that's just big enough to hold it. I have to say this camera is one of the best buys I've made.

Great battery life, great video, great pictures, decent size and shape!! I bought mine brand new at Wal-Mart for just over $200, and it has been a wonderful camcorder, used it to record my sons first attempt at crawling, first steps, and to record all of our dogs playing in the yard!! The auto focus is a little slow, and video quality is not as good in low light, but I would still recommend this to anyone not wanting to spend a fortune on an HD camcorder!!