Aiptek A-HD 720P Flash Media Camcorder.

Author's Rating:

Pros: Video quality, ease of use, price

Cons: Sound is acceptable but not great, lack of stabilization software, no optical zoom

The Bottom Line: 
720p HD at a budget price, an easy to use camera that produces jaw dropping results. What more can you ask for?

Author's Review
After reading the above reviews for this camcorder, I wasn't sure that it would be worth buying even at a very good ($119) price. Since I had an awards ceremony coming up for a family member, I thought it was worth a shot. Boy am I glad I took a chance on it.

The HD quality is excellent and drew complements from all who watched the video. Remember when you first bought an HD set and sat back and enjoyed the quality? Well shooting videos with this camera is just like that. It's great to have sharp, clear home videos. They are pleasure to watch. Even the non-HD playback produces a much better picture than a standard camcorder.

The camera does have it's drawbacks but they are tolerable. The sound can be hollow and the position of the mic emphasizes any comments you may make. The sound can be improved by adjusting the bass and treble on playback. The camera does lack stabilization software but the use of monopole (essentially a one legged tripod) yields stable videos without the quality degradation that stabilizing software would produce.

Unlike another reviewer, I found the menus pretty intuitive to use. The simple one button on off makes it easy to use even for my wife, a well known technophobe. A optical zoom would greatly improve the functionality of the camera. Being a PC user, I'm not a huge fan of Quicktime but the videos played in Vista without the need for any software installation. Battery life was not an issue during the 2 hour ceremony. Enough juice for selective taping plus repeated playbacks. Be sure to charge for the recommended 8 hours even though the full charge light comes up sooner. The need for a SD card is not a big drawback for me.