Customer Reviews

Aiptek Zoom DV 8 MP Digital Camcorder and MP3 Player

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

 

 

I used it for 5 days, not many complaints. Battery life is approximately 2hours of constant use (says the manual), but I was taking pictures all day (taking a picture than turning off) and it was still half charged by the end of the day.

Like:
Video qaulity is pretty good (don't expect great quality). It's a little better than VHS.

Native full and widescreen formats.

Charges through wall outlet or computer USB port (same cable for charging and for transferring).

Accepts up to 2gb media card ($40) and stores up to 6,000 photos or 2hours of video or 25 hours of music.

Includes pretty strong light for video (also the photo flash).

small in size (like a small photo camera)

Has good qaulity 3X optical zoom

very convinient rotating lcd display.


Don't like:
Michrophone is not high quality.

Cannot fastforward MP3 files (you can video).

Pictures look good but it is NOT 8-megapixels camera. It's not even 3megapixels. It is 1 megapixel. All other settings are simply digitally magnified. I took pictures in all 4 settings (1,3,5,8 mpxls), then magnified the 1 mpxl photo and it looked no different than any other photo with higher settings.

Sometimes it freezes in MP3 mode when you're trying to select next music file. You have to power it off and then on again.

Speaker sound isn't strong (it comes with headphones plug of course and also with a pair of headphones).

Battery lid comes off easily. I had to cover it with scotch tape. But you don't really need to take the battery out because it charges through the included cable.

Did not play some videos that I imported FROM computer.

Takes about 4 seconds to take a photo while holding the shutter button.

Can't custom-name your music or video files. It simply gives number to each file.

Can't change the order of MP3 files. They are stored in the order they were imported.

The darker it is outside the more firm you have to hold the device otherwise pictures are slightly blurred.
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Not great quality of each of the functions (not bad eaither) but having many functions in one very small device is very convinient. It can replace your old video camera too.

I bought this camcorder for my husband for Christmas. He wanted something to pop into his pocket for impromptu events. We have an old Panasonic VHS-C camcorder, but the battery never lasts more than 30 minutes and it is getting harder to find a VCR to play it on. We wanted something that would record directly to an SD memory card, and this is the only one we could find. However, so far, it has performed very well. The 3X optical zoom works good and the outdoor videos were perfect. In fact, my husband filmed my granddaughter jumping on the trampoline, and he was able to get a freeze frame of her in mid air. It was not blurry or anything. The indoor videos were not quite as good, but he hadn't figured out how to turn on the flash/LED light for low light situations yet. I figure with that turned on, the indoor videos will be very good. So far, we have been very pleased with this camcorder. We bought a 2GB SD card to go with it in order to have enough memory for what we want, and I also bought an extra battery. I would certainly buy it again.

I like this camera. The size is great, it's cool to carry around and has a wow factor. The screen is HUGE for a camera this size. I love it! Navigating the menus is graphically pleasing. Pics are ok, flash works decently.

I have one nagging problem: the video. (NOTE: I've only taken indoor video. Outdoor, daytime video may not be a problem.) If you get the right lighting and adjust the settings just right, you will get a good looking video for this type of camera. My problem is, it's rare to have everything so perfect. When you look around the room without the camera, you can see things normally. When you look at the same room with the same lighting through the camera, it's almost completely dark. You have to put the "low light" setting on all the time. The problem is that this setting is blurry, so you have to move the camera around very very slowly to not get a headache watching the video. (The manual suggests you only use this setting with a tri-pod. HA! This is the only way to see anything indoors!) The bottom line is: I have to constantly adjust settings on the camera before I take video in order to get decent viewable quality.

Exacerbating the problem is that the video lights are two LCD lights, and they are absolutely useless. They have a flashlight "pointing" effect rather than a flooding effect. So if you use it, the center of your view will be lit in a circle and fading to dark towards the edges of the screen. Even with such poor performance, the lights are still too bright for ppl to look at the camera while it's on.

Speaking of completely useless, don't even bother using the image stabilization. It makes the video EXTREMELY blurry... unusably blurry. They should rename the feature "Image Messer-upper".

Having said all that, I really do like this camera. I've focused on the video because it's probably the one thing that bothers me about this camera. Everything else is great. Even though I've harped on the video, it is possible to get decent quality video once you adjust the settings. It just nags me a bit that it's not easier. I shouldn't have to turn on the low light setting ALL the time, and that setting shouldn't make things so blurry.

Then again, I bought this camera for $200 on Aiptek's website and got $100 worth of accessories for free. So I try to remind myself that I DID buy a low-end pocket-sized camcorder. And that's probably the most important thing to remember. If you buy this multi-function camcorder for what it is, you get a great product. If you want a $1000 high-end camcorder the size of a small digital camera, you're not going to get it for $200.

UPDATE: (16 Mar 07) I finally got a chance to use this camera outside on a sunny day. The video was EXCELLENT! BEAUTIFUL! I am SO MUCH MORE pleased with this camera now that I know that, at least in normal daylight settings, I can get GREAT looking video. No "low light" setting necessary. No blurriness at all! I even played it back on my tv, and it still looks great!

The prior review decrying Aiptek/Macintosh incompatibility is flat wrong. MPlayer plays Aiptek's ASF (MPEG4) files perfectly. I suspect there are other programs that would do the job as well, but haven't researched it. MPlayer is free, and took me all of about 10 minutes to find and install. Download and be happy.

FWIW, today I bought the similar Aiptek PVR (no optical zoom, and half the price on sale at a major chain). I intend to use it skiing, where I don't want to risk a more expensive camcorder or deal with additional weight and bulk.

In purchasing the Aiptek, I was expecting very basic VCR quality, and that's what my camera delivers in a small and inexpensive package. Build quality seems entirely adequate for this class of product. The user interface is very easy to pick up. In my view, this is a useful and versatile device.

Especially when paired with a Mac. :o)

This camera isn't heavy duty or the best camera out there by a long shot. What it is, is a good starter camera for a preteen or teenager. The battery life isn't great so you will need to spend a little more on the good batteries for this camcorder. The batteries it comes with should just be thrown away because they don't have enough power to work the camera, or use them for something else.
We have a Mac and had to e-mail with customer service before we figured out how to be able to view the movies on the Mac. It will download the videos onto the Mac without a problem but NOT play them unless you download another program onto your computer. Luckily, my son is more tech-savvy than I am and was able to do this without a problem. It did take a few days between each e-mail to the techs so it did take over a week to get it working.
The picture quality is acceptable for casual use.
My son loves it now but next year he's going to require a serious upgrade.
Great affordable camera for beginners.
It was marked down to 69 dollars in Target and is worth that, no more.

It works pretty good. Sometimes the videos were a little blurry when we were recording our babies running around their play pen.

something that everyone should consider before a purchase of this class of lower-end "camcorder" ... you get what you pay for. internally, these are essentially digital photo cameras that have had slight optimizations for digital video. they are not high-quality video recording devices with high-quality optics. don't expect your videos to look like the latest movie blockbuster.

if that isn't acceptable, pay 3-4x more for a real camcorder. as for other models in this price range, read the reviews. they have the same complaints as you see here. not that the complaints aren't valid, it's just that you must consider what you're paying for.

if you're looking for something that will record sometimes jerky, sometimes blurry, often poorly lit, but nonetheless endearing video of your kids birthday party, etc, then you're on the right track here.

I agree with other reviewers who say manage your expectations. You are getting what you pay for here. But, it's a fun little camera with some interesting features, and of course the price is right. I bought this camera with some hesitation after reading on the Aiptek site that the camera supported "File Upload Only" for Mac. So, I took a chance. The good part is that it seems to work pretty well with iphoto. The images import without much problem. The bad part is the MPEG 4 files will not work with Quicktime. I called the company and they advised me to buy an application called Flip4Mac. I paid $30 for the basic software. The bad news, it still doesn't work. I can now open the MPEG files in Quicktime, but it only plays audio with a white screen in the player window. Not exactly a solution. I read on the Flip4mac forum that others have had the same problem. They claim a fix is in the works. Long story short, if you're a mac user.. buy something else. This probably is not worth the annoyance.

I'd love to read a review from anyone who has purchased this camera, the Aiptek Zoom DV-6 MP Image Stabilizing Camcorder w/3x Optical Zoom. I see the claim that it has 3x OPTICAL zoom and cannot help but question this because I am unable to find this product on aiptek-dot-com and this cam has supposedly been available since July 30th, 2006. Am wondering what gives with that?

Please someone, post a review of this model and hopefully, some picture results too. Let us know about this 3x optical zoom, please!

I had to pick a rating, so the four star rating was based on the MPVR version of this camera -- which I own and find to be a very decent gadget. Mine is over a year old and still going strong - no problems with that model. MP3's sound terrific. I convert movies for viewing on the camera while on the go and... "wow" for its quality. I have recorded sounds and more. Very decent! Just drag and drop my files from my PC to the SD card and I can switch out movies and MP3's. I am happy with that model, but it does not have any optical zoom - just digital. Still get pretty good pix tho, just use the various settings... My little homemade movies are good, very decent, but without additional lighting, indoor movies will be dark. This camera doesnt handle well in strong sun - I use an umbrella over my cam as I film. Big diff.

So, is this newer model really all that much better? Can't wait to know! 3x optical sounds good...

I returned this camera after trying very hard to like. Picture quality (movie or still) is totally unacceptable. I did not even get one good still picture. Forget about indoors video or still. The falsh and video light are useless. The overall quality of the camera is low.