Sweet 'n' Sassy Girls

Vado HD Review

Posted on 10. Jul, 2009 by Trish in Review

Have you ever written a whole post out, only to save it and have it disappear?  That is what just happened to me!  So now I am going to try to recreate the whole post for you.

I have never owned a video camera until late last year.  Then New Baby was nice enough to send me a Flip Ultra to do some vlogs.  It was of course 1000 times better than nothing!  It was small enough that it fit into my diaper bad and I could use it wherever I was.  As I used it however, there were some things I noticed that I wasn’t a huge fan of.

First off, it drained batteries to no end.  I got so sick and tired of constantly having to replace the batteries.  I even started looking into rechargeable.

I also noticed that the lighting had to be perfect or the video quality wasn’t that great.  Even just a slight difference in the lighting made it grainy or washed out.  It was hard to get the perfect lighting, so most of my videos are slightly grainy.  The sound could also be really soft unless you were super close to the mic.  Since I was using it to do vlogs, I didn’t want grainy video or soft sound, so I started looking to see what other options I had.  Here is a video I did with the Flip:

That is when I came across the Vado pocket camera from Creative Labs.  After looking through all the features I decided I wanted the Vado HD.  I was given one from Creative to try out, and I have to say I love it.  The picture quality is amazing and I haven’t had a problem with the sound yet.



One of the best things about it is that it has a rechargeable battery that charges when plugged in to your computer!  No more buying batteries!

I love the fact that it has a nice large viewer (2 inches) so I can see if the video is good or if I have to re-shoot it.  My daughter also loves to watch herself on it, and it’s big enough that she can see without having her face super close to the camera.  I can also hook it up to the TV and watch the videos that way.

Another thing I was a fan of was the recording time.  I can record 2 hours of HD plus quality, 4 hours of HD quality, or 8 hours of VGA resolution, compared to the 60 minutes my Flip Ultra records.  It looks like they have now made some changes to the Flip Ultra and it now records 120 minutes, but the one I have is only a 60 minute one.

I can also take a still shot from a video and it is a good quality still shot.  The Flip can do this too, but the still shots I tried to take from the Flip were all blurry.

(The Vado HD)                                                                                                                                

(The Flip)

There were a few things I think could be improved on, however.  There is a little tab on the USB connector to help pull it out of the camera.  This is a good thing!  The thing I didn’t like is that it is on the bottom of the camera, so the bottom is not a flat surface.  This makes it impossible to place upright on a table or somewhere to record.  You either have to have someone hold it, or go out and buy a tripod, like I did.  I liked being able to set the flip wherever I wanted to record.  I think this tab would be better on the side as opposed to the bottom.


The next thing I wasn’t a huge fan of was the editing program it came with.  I don’t need to do much editing, just cutting out bloopers and such and piecing it together nicely.  Maybe adding a title or text throughout the video.  With the Flip, the program it came with would ask me if I wanted to save the videos right to my computer and then delete them off the camera.  It was very convenient.  With the Vado I had a hard time trying to figure out how to save them to my computer and then to delete them I have to go in and manually delete them one by one on the camera.  I wish the program would allow me to transfer all my current videos to my computer and then delete them, like the Flip does.  I still have not figured out how to add more than one video clip to a movie.  It has a button to add more pictures, but not video.  I honestly don’t even really use it anymore.  I just turn to Windows Movie Maker to edit my videos because it is easier.  I consider myself fairly computer savvy, but I had a hard time trying to figure out this program.  I highly recommend making it more user friendly.

That being said, I will still always turn to my Vado HD for any video I need, unless I can’t find it.  I think it is very easy to carry around, has great features and great picture, and is perfect for what I use it for- vlogging and taking video of my family.  I don’t know how it compares to the Flip Mino or a Flip HD version, but I know it is such a better quality than the Flip Ultra I have.

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