Comments on: Review: The Kodak Zi8 HD Video Camera

By: Michele

Michele — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 23:57:34 +0000

Very useful review, expecially for the firmware update. It’s not as simply as i thought, infact my card reader can’t manage with sdhc cards. Fortunately i found an old sd card and it worked.
By the way i totally agree that the video editing for a window-user is so hard! The ArcSoft’s software is terrible and the others works good for the video editing but there’s always a problem when exporting…let’s try a demo of this Pinnacle…

By: admin

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:01:18 +0000

Hey there, thanks for the comment.

I can’t really say why Pinnacle wouldn’t be working for you - it was by far the best / easiest option for me.
You say you’ve tried importing from the Zi8, does that mean you have tried using the ArcSoft application to transfer the file from the camera to your computer? If not, I recommend that. Are you using the H264 file, or have you converted it to a .MOV?
Failing that working, if I were you, I would just try out demos of different software until you find one that worked. As I wrote, I could not get Vegas working, but tried out a few others until Pinnacle worked for me.
Good luck.

By: i ate a bee

i ate a bee — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 04:52:34 +0000

Thanks for the terrific write-up.

I bought a Kodak Zi8 this week, and am having a hell of a time trying to find video editing software that can handle the .mov files. Your article inspired me to try out Pinnacle Studio 12 Ultimate, which looks like a brilliant program… if only I could get it working. Unfortunately, I’m not finding it as simple as you describe - Pinnacle won’t accept the .mov file, no matter whether I drag and drop from the desktop, from a card reader, or try to import directly from the Zi8. I wonder what I’m missing? If you had any advice I would be hugely grateful!

By: admin

admin — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:57:24 +0000

Thanks for the comment, Alan.

For the firmware update, I used the Kodak online references to find out how to do the update.

It may be possible to do it with just the USB port (which is awesome) but, if nothing else, that should be clearer to consumers. The info I used was here:

http://tinyurl.com/ydh6akp

Still - good to know that other people can get around this by using the USB port.

Thanks again.

By: Alan Smith

Alan Smith — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:37:06 +0000

I own the ZI8 and would agree that the .MOV files are a hassle. I would however disagree with your firmware remarks. The upgrade happens just fine by plugging the camera into the USB port on your computer. No flash card reader required.

All in all, the camera is leaps and bounds better than the flip camera if you can edit the video.

By: sillysillytom

sillysillytom — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 01:09:43 +0000

This is a fantastic article. I am experiencing all this first hand and will now likely look into a new video editing app. About ready to toss in the towel despite the fact that this is a really cool video camera. Thanks for this post. sst from vloggerheads.com

By: greg

greg — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 01:05:36 +0000

thank you for this review… i bookmarked this!
(and this is the first time i have ever replied / commented on a blog… did this message come through?

Best

Greg

By: admin

admin — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 20:52:42 +0000

Thanks Steve, I did use the ArcSoft app that comes with the camera, but found it a little limited for editing. And weirdly, its conversion process made some files unreadable by Vegas and Premiere. So I didn’t want to mess around with it too much for fear of what it may do!

I appreciate your comment, and your excellent vids on this product. Thanks!

By: steve garfield

steve garfield — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 20:32:40 +0000

Excellent review. Did you try the included Windows editing software? I used ot for a simple assemble edit, adding clips together on the timeline, and it worked fine. As a Mac user I haven’t had any issues using iMovie 09 with videos from the Zi8.

I agree with you that on the next version I’d love to get a headphone jack on there.