Customer Reviews

Mini DV VD80 Pocket Digital Video Camera with 2GB Micro SD Card Black

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I have found that both the audio and video are excellent quality! One issue though is the durability. Of the five I have purchased, none of them are working any longer. Each has a different issue as to what went wrong with them. Now the hard part. What is the warranty, and how would one obtain parts? I have also found that the plastic clips do not hold up very well, and where would one go to buy just the clips? This is the biggest issue with these systems, otherwise they are very good.

Don't waste your time or money. I would give it a negative 5 stars if I could. I purchased one that took ok video outside but as soon as I got it indoors the lighting goes lighter, then darker at 1 second intervals. The quality was very bad so I called and sent it back and they called me to tell me they could find nothing wrong with it and sent it back to me. Upon return, it does the same thing. It's a worthless piece of junk.

The video quality was much higher than expected. I just need to find a way to keep the camera steady.

Very good quality. Sound playback could be better but the video is outstanding. Don't know for sure if it cuts off and saves the battery between shots. Is sound activated. The literature could be more clearly written and it is very brief.

there is a site that deals with radio control xhelihelicopters that carries these and several other designs of microcamera. They sell them for about a quarter of what they cost in here.Check them out if you really want to buy one of these.I have hidden the site name in my comment so you know where to go look.Hint : it is just 5 letters long and isn't actually part of another word.

i bought this product maybe about 2 months ago and already it wont work anymore..what i mean by it wont work.. well it wont turn on nor will it charge anymore.

They said when decibel of video is more than 60 then it will be record video automatically. I test it and i need to cry loud !! for start to record... :-(
It pc web cam to but the software come on cd won't install on my windows 7
:-(

After reading some of the concerns about durability, battery life and initial set up problems, I was prepared to be disappointed by my Mini DV VD80 with bundled 2 GB micro SD card. However, it has worked flawlessly for me except for one minor problem (below).

Image quality: Excellent detail, but somewhat washed out in full sun and poor in low light situations. Excellent image with most well lit subjects

Sound: Very good sensitivity with little noise. If you hear a popping noise, copy the file to your hard drive before playing it and it will go away.

Macintosh compatibility: The camera didn't show up on my desktop at first, so I ordered a micro SD card reader. However, now it mounts as a flash drive and copies to the hard drive on my Mac, although somewhat more slowly than most of my USB 2 drives. Maybe I overlooked the icon at first. The AVI files play using the free VLC player.

Build quality: It is in a heavy (aluminum?) black case, held together with screws, with excellent fit and finish. The accessories (belt clip and wall mounting bracket) are plastic, but appear well made and work well together.

Battery life: About 1/3 of the interior volume is battery (I peeked!). It is rated for 2 hours of recording and I have recorded up to 1 hour on a single charge with no problems. It gets slightly warm during continuous recording. Battery replacement would require soldering.

Voice activation feature: My unit turns on with normal conversation 5 feet away, but not necessarily immediately. Once activated it stays on for several minutes, then pauses if there is no sound and finally turns off.

Setting the time: The video superimposes a date and time stamp on all recordings. To set the current values, you must copy a text file named "time.txt" containing the current date and time in the format "2011.01.14 06:26:00" (don't use the quotes) to the root directory of the micro SD card. It uses 24 hour time, so 4 PM January 14 would be "2011.01.14 16:00:00". The included miniCD contains a small program to create this file, but it did not work for me under Windows XP. The first time you make a recording, the time and date are set and the text file deleted from the SD card.

Installation: Being a Mac person, I initially had trouble figuring out how to install the drivers on my Windows XP machine. It turns out that you don't use the folder named "Driver". Instead, run the file "STK02N 2.0.exe" in the folder "PC Camera" on the included miniCD to install the driver so the camera will be recognized as a flash drive. No driver seems to be needed on the Mac. I did not try to set it up as a webcam.

Problems: You can easily make video files with hundreds of megabytes of data. Copying to your computer can be slow and viewing the videos directly from the flash drive gives poor results. I once accidentally turned off the camera during a copy, causing my computer to warn me that files may have been damaged. Sure enough, when I booted up the camera the normal green light turned orange after a few seconds and I could not get it to record a new video. Deleting all of the files on the SD card solved this problem.

Field of view. The camera seems to use a "normal" field of view typical of a point-and-shoot still camera. This is not ideal if you are carrying the camera and trying to record your surroundings, where a wider angle view would capture more with less image jiggle. Since there is no viewfinder, it is not easy to aim exactly. My unit seems to look up about 15 degrees, perhaps to compensate for a forward droop when clipped to a front pocket.

Overall: It think this is a remarkable gadget. I already have a Panasonic Lumix ZS3 that shoots HD video with Dolby, so this one is just for fun. It's cheap enough to play with (tie it to a kite, mount it on a model plane or helicopter). It might be useful for surveillance, but the limited field of view and modest sensitivity of the voice activation feature are somewhat limiting for this use.

Note: Amazon now offers a similar or identical unit with bundled 4 GB SD card for slightly less. However, 2 GB is plenty of storage for this unit unless you never offload the files.

First of all the directions are tiny tiny and in very broken and bad english you have to translate/figure out what they are saying. Here is my translation.
FYI. I have a dell lap top running windows 7.
Part A set up:
1. Put in micro sdhc memory card. It does not have one and it will not work with out it. (I suggest you buy from amazon or you will pay $40.00 for a 2 gig version from Best Buy.)
2. Put in driver disk. You will need a "rar" extractor to get the driver unloaded.(ignore anything not in english) I use "free rar extract frog" (A free program...duh hence the name.) You can download for free from [...]. Search for "rar frog extractor"
Make sure you unpack it to your desk top because I could not get it to work otherwise.
3. Then run the spca1528_v2220_mulitilan_090217.exe file by double clicking on it.
4.Plug in your dv using the cord that was sent with it to your pc. The battery can be dead but the dv will still work when hooked your pc by usb cord.
5. Ok it should be ready to go.
6. Charge battery by leaving plugged in to your pc or charger sent with it. How long? I don't now and the mfg is not saying. Over night?
Part B How to operate
1. Push the power button on the side. Not the MODE button!

2. 2 blue lights come on and a red one shortly after and is on very briefly showing it is booting up then it goes out. (Mine does not have any yellow lights like the directions say.)

3. After boot up you can push the grey button on top to start contious recording. Mine recorded for 3 min before shutting down after charging all night! I hope yours works better.

4. For voice activation you push the mode button after it boots instead of the top grey button. The red light will flash quickly. If you YELL at the dv the red light will start flashing slowly which means it is recording.

5. When charging 2 solid blue lights mean it is charging and not recording.

Part C Use as a PC video camera

1. Download "Capture Flux" a free program if you don't already have a video camera program. It's a free program of course! [...]

So i paid a total of $70.00 for a PC video camera. >:-( The rechargeable battery does not work. I'll try and charge it again. I'll change this review if I get it to charge this time but it should have charged the first time.

its only worked 32 minutes ive never been able to charge it the battery wont charge i guess. I have no way of getting hold of sevice. I hope it has a warranty because this one will not work. very unhappy mw