MinoHD Camera's

[Joey Ketcham]

Have you guys seen the MinoHD cameras or have one?

My brother got a MinoHD Camcorder for Christmas from his wife, they are about the size of a cell phone and record an hour worth of video. I've seen similar products sold in places such as Best Buy, but the ones I have seen that claims to be HD quality isn't and generally produces poor video quality.

When my brother first opened it and I saw it advertised on the box as HD quality I thought "yeah right, doubtful". I was surprised when we hooked it up to my parents HDTV, the video quality is nice and clean and is actually amazing for a camera of that size and price. The video quality is way better than the 8MM camcorder I have. I was so impressed with it I plan on buying one to take me with me chasing next year. It has a built in USB connector so you can plug it straight into your laptop and copy the HD video over which is nice.

http://www.amazon.com/Flip-Video-Mi...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1230240159&sr=8-1

I figured I would pass this along, I hadn't seen anything posted about these on here in the past.

 

[Billy Griffin]

Joey,

These cameras use the H.264 video codec, which does delivery exceptional quality comparable to HD. Indeed they are a handy camcorder for those moments when carrying around a large camera just isn't possible.

We use a lot of them for "in the field" safety training video clips, and we've had great success with the results and using them in our editing/post production as well.

Not bad for a camcorder less than $200 bucks!

 

[Joey Ketcham]

I was very amazed at the video quality, I've seen several similar items advertising HD quality video and wasn't, more like video taken with a 3MP camera quality. I plan to get one soon.

I did a search on youtube and found a couple of sample videos shot with the MinoHD, be sure to watch these in HD mode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jdhs5cVf058

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itvuMoFnzX0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5y0A9N1-E8

 

[Dan Robinson]

I have an Aiptek A-HD ($135), a similar type of camera that I've been running as a dashcam for almost a year. It records 720p. The image quality, like this new camera, is great for the price, but it has limitations. It of course has horrible CMOS rolling shutter for lightning, and the audio is nearly unusable. There is also no focus or aperture control, and no optical zoom. The codecs on these are a very low bitrate, which you'll have trouble with with high-action scenes (like falling snow). However, it is the best dashcam you could want. I run it full time, all the time. When the card runs out (after 2 hours on a 4GB card), I just delete and restart recording.

Although they don't replace a pro or even a consumer camera, The HD pocket cams are great for the price. For something that cheap, there's always a use for it.

Here are a couple of clips from my Aiptek:

http://stormhighway.com/blog/dec608hdvideo.shtml

http://media.stormscenes.com/dashcam/feb12008a.wmv

http://media.stormscenes.com/dashcam/feb1608a.wmv

http://media.stormscenes.com/dashcam/jan3008a.wmv

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

I wasn't aware of this -- this is quite interesting. These are stunningly good videos from a $200 pocketable camcorder. I don't think I'm going to feel so bad now about not being able to afford to shift to a 5DmkII workflow -- for the little bit of video I might want to shoot, this would be perfect.

 

[Jim Saueressig]

The videos do verify the complaints of a jerky video.....

 

[Joey Ketcham]

It's a nice camera, like Dan said it's not going to be profession grade quality and the audio is like any other from a build in microphone, but it's definitely worth the price.

 

[Jim Saueressig]

looks like on a few videos it might do well in low light unless there is also a very bright high contrast area which will blow out.

Seems like pretty impressive video for $200. Definitely better than my old Hi8. Should be a nice carry around for anything you don't need to zoom.

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

What I wonder about the MinoHD is how long that battery is going to last. That is, since you can't remove, replace, or service the battery in any way, once it's toast (after maybe a couple hundred recharge cycles), the camera is useless. At 220 bucks, I want something like that to last at least a few years. I'm guessing the internal battery will be fried before then.

Looking around a bit, a better buy for the money would probably be the Aiptek Action HD, which does 720p at 60fps (the Mino only shoots at 30fps), and a psuedo 1080p at 30fps, and has a replaceable battery. Oh, and it has optical zoom and shoots macro (will focus as close as 2 inches from subject).

Some guy has a dashcam demo up -- tell me that wouldn't make a sweet dashcam! And I just noticed that Walmart is selling it for $149.

 

[Dan Robinson]

When I first bought my Apitek in January, the battery would last 2 hours. It's down to about 45 minutes now. It has an AC adapter that I just leave plugged in all the time, it runs off of that unless the car isn't running.

 

[Darren Addy]

The Aiptek sounds interesting, and I like products that have lots of user reviews on them, which give you a much better read on the product (IMHO). It's worth reading through the reader reviews on this model at Amazon. There seems to be a lot of confusion on their similar model numbers.

It is funny that the model that Ryan linked to (at B&H) is found on the official Aipex web site as listing it as a "Walmart Exclusive". The Walmart page linked to has an attractive price, and more customer reviews, but it is clearly a different model than the one I linked to above at Amazon.

It is worth noting that everybody seems to HATE these things as still cameras (no biggie if you plan to use it for only video). The bigger limitations (to me) would be that it is a fixed focus lens, and has only a 3x optical zoom (Walmart model) or 5x optical zoom (my amazon link above).

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

The Aiptek sounds interesting, and I like products that have lots of user reviews on them, which give you a much better read on the product (IMHO). It's worth reading through the reader reviews on this model at Amazon. There seems to be a lot of confusion on their similar model numbers.

It is funny that the model that Ryan linked to (at B&H) is found on the official Aipex web site as listing it as a "Walmart Exclusive". The Walmart page linked to has an attractive price, and more customer reviews, but it is clearly a different model than the one I linked to above at Amazon.

It is worth noting that everybody seems to HATE these things as still cameras (no biggie if you plan to use it for only video). The bigger limitations (to me) would be that it is a fixed focus lens, and has only a 3x optical zoom (Walmart model) or 5x optical zoom (my amazon link above).

The Aiptek A-HD+ 1080P High Definition Camcorder (Silver) isn't the same thing as the aformentioned Action HD -- and actually, the Action HD is considered a better camera that costs more. The A-HD+ is 4x DIGITAL zoom (which is basically useless since you degrade the video feed), the Action HD is 3x OPTICAL, and also is not fixed focal but has an autofocus system (that you unfortunately cannot shut off, since it does like to hunt and peck a bit in lowlight). The Action HD -- the 'higher end' (if you can call anything this cheap that) one is $149 right now at Walmart

No idea why the heck their model numbers are so confusing, but it appears to be one of those Chineese made midnight specials, so maybe the marketing folk responsible don't understand the US market very well.

 

[Jim Saueressig]

I grabbed an ActionHD 1080p at wally world tonight. I figured I would give it a try as the only other option was the Kodak Zi6 which has a serious dropped frame issue from the reviews I read.

First impression was okay as it has a nice flip out screen and was a lightweight little critter. I tried it inside tonight and even in average or above inside lightning the thing was worse than my old hi8 by far. And still pictures? Complete fail. After a 5ish second delay you will blur it anyways.

Focus is horrible, it is always looking in lower and even average light

I will try it out in the bright light tomorrow but I have some pretty serious doubts about its use in lower light storm type enviroments due to its noise levels.

Luckily I have 30 days to return the beast to wally world because its not looking good so far.