It took a few college tries, but Kodak's line of pocket handicams now officially blows Pure Digital's wildly popular Flip series out of the water. Inside and out, the Zi8 is brimming with upgrades (1080p) and little touches (a legit microphone jack!) that set a new standard for this class of cheap cams.
Significantly sexier, with a slimmer body than previous Kodak cams, the Zi8 comes with a re-tooled USB connector that's easier to use and harder to unleash unintentionally. Instead of a rigid plug that flips out switchblade-style via a button on the front, the Zi8's USB is deployed by a subtle lever integrated into the bottom of the device. Even cooler, the connector is an agile rubber cord, which allows you to plug in the camera without removing drives from other ports on your computer.
Storage comes via an SD card slot. There's no built-in memory, and unfortunately no card is included with the camera.
Of course, the video itself is solid. We shot side-by-side with Kodak's earlier iteration, the Zi6, in a variety of environments (indoors, the beach). In stark sunlight, natural low-light and indoors, the image quality of the Zi8 was consistently superior. Colors are richer and contrast is deep. The lens angle is also a tad wider. The sensor adjusts from dark to light much quicker and image stabilization is noticeably better. Nearly every quibble we had with the Zi6 and Zx1 was addressed in the Zi8.
There's much to love and little to gripe about. And we just don't get to say that very often.