In March I bought an Aiptek AHD200 720p High Definition Camcorder from QVCUK for less than £110. It’s an excellent quality camcorder that feels like it should be twice the price. But now there’s an even higher spec Aiptek for £175 at QVCUK.com which will be available only up until 12 midnight tonight (Sunday 22nd) on 3 easy payments of £58.40. It’s the Aiptek AHD Z500 1080p HD camcorder.

Looks like the big brother to my AHD200 has finally arrived and as you can see in this review here the recommended price for this model is £250, so it looks like QVC have a fabulous deal on today.

This is how chaotic things get in the Fruit Bytes HQ some days.

Created with iStopMotion 2 which is very addictive and a lot of fun. This is the first time-lapse video I created a couple of days ago.

Last month I bought the Aiptek AHD200 High Definition Digital Camcorder. I was ill at the time of receiving my new toy so didn’t get any proper time with it to give my thoughts. I have been playing with it over recent weeks and yesterday I was in various environments which meant I could test out how it copes with going from light conditions to dark and vice versa.

Specification

• Digital video camcorder (video resolution): HD 720p (1280 x 720 pixels) / up to 30fps, 16:9 ratio
• Digital still camera: 8M (3200 x 2400 pixels)
• Sensor resolution: 5 mega pixels
• File format: MOV (AVC MPEG4) / JPEG / WAV
• Internal memory: 6MB for storage
• External memory: SD card (Min. 256MB up to 32GB SDHC)
• LCD Display: 2.4″ TFT panel
• Digital Zoom 4X
• HDTV (Component out) / NTSC/PAL colour system supported
• Voice Recorder
• Built-in microphone and speaker

Video and Audio Quality

For a camera that cost me £109 (usually around £150 on Amazon.co.uk) I am blown away by the video quality. Of course, the demonstrations I’d watched before purchase were the very reason I went for this as it was so unlike regular camcorder footage. Going from a dark spot in a room to a light one didn’t give this any trouble in adjusting. This is one of the stills from the footage I took. This image was captured in iMovie by freezing the frame and taking a screengrab.

The audio is fine although I do find that the microphone can be quite sensitive at times. I took some video in my relatively quiet home office and there was a bit of a hum which I couldn’t identify. With most of the videos I take and plan to take, I will almost always be taking the original sound out and putting music over the top, so that aspect doesn’t really worry me too much. But, in some environments the sound is absolutely fine.

Samples

I put five videos onto Vimeo last night. I didn’t fiddle with them too much as I didn’t have the time, but I have been asked by a few people to show them some examples as they are interested in picking one of these up. So, I’ll let these speak for themselves…

The Noisy Purple Room (3s) Original audio.
The Baltic Art Centre (54s) Original audio.
Chavs on Macs (13s)
Outside the Baltic (14s)
Newcastle upon Tyne (1m 10s)

Final thoughts

I was never going to be in line for a top-of-the-range HD camcorder simply because I don’t take any serious video. I am definitely more of a still photography girl and I was having to juggle the two yesterday. This particular camcorder is very easy to use and that’s one of the things I like about it most. Just simply pull out the screen and it switches on so you’re ready to shoot in an instant. I am more than happy with the results of the Aiptek AHD200.

Usually I’d put a shout out like this on Twitter as there’s a lot of knowledgeable folk on there who no doubt would be able to point me in the right direction. But since this would go way beyond 140 characters I think the best place to ask is here.

Does anyone know of a way to speed up a video I’ve captured - to make it look like a time lapse thing? The video will be captured on my high definition camcorder and not via iSight, so that rules out the likes of Gawker which was used by my mate Nathan when he created this bit of marvel.

I edit movies in iMovie 08. I have had a look through the help files and I don’t think that speeding up a clip is something that can be done in there. How about Final Cut Express 4.0? If anyone can help then you’ll get a virtual hai-five!

All day I’ve been thinking about what I was going to write about Flickr and it’s brand new feature which allows it’s Pro members to upload a 90 second video clip. I think it’s a good idea and personally it’s been rather nice to see some of my overseas friends in all their animated glory as they, like me, are testing out the new feature with a quick upload to say hi. It’s not something I will use on any regular basis as I have Vimeo with their HD support for that, plus I don’t take a lot of video, but it’s good to have the option, just as those who are against the idea have the option to click or not click

So like I said, I was going to write a lengthy one on this but I’ve just seen my feelings already expressed excellently by my Twitter and Flickr contact Michael Mistretta - and I think he’s done a better job of it than I would have