Thought I would share this with you guys who cant afford the good stuff yet and shoot on a budget like myself. Ran across this handy device in Target and did some research and found it to be one hell of a deal.

Records in HD format with an AV IN port. This means you can hook up those sick bullet cam shots from any external camera.


September 19, 2007- The online video community has been tossed yet another high definition budget cam, this time by Aiptek, manufacturer of pocket camcorders and other budget electronics. Joining Aiptek’s $300 optical zoom GO-HD cam, the A-HD records 720P 30fps HD video to SD/MMC cards and can fit comfortably in a pocket. The A-HD is equipped with a 5MP CMOS chip and records HD video at a frame rate of up to 30FPS in the following modes: 1280 x 720 (H.264), 720 x 480 (D1), and 352 x 240 (CIF). Stills can be captured in the following sizes: 3200 x 2400 (8MP), 2560 x 1920 (5 MP), 2048 x 1536 Pixels (3MP). Video clips are recorded as .MOV MPEG-4 files and can be stored on SD/MMC cards up to 8GB in size. One hour of 1280 x 720 HD footage or 770 8MP stills will fit on a 2GB SD card. The A-HD also includes 6MB of internal storage, which will not even hold one second of HD video in the highest quality.
The A-HD has a 4x digital zoom, 2.4” LCD screen, flash, and LCD panel controls. Connectivity includes A/V out, component, and USB terminals. Users can also record video clips directly from a TV, VCR, DVD player, or any other device with RCA outputs. The A-HD is outfitted with a Li-ion battery that can be charged through the USB terminal from a computer. Night Shot and red-eye reduction are also included.
The Aiptek A-HD’s, being a ridiculously cheap high definition camcorder, has no real competitors at this price point. The closest model is perhaps the Sanyo VPC-HD2, which sells for several hundred dollars more. Also available is the Canon Powershot TX1 (Specs, Recent News, $424.15), having churned out the best HD video performance in the pocket cam category thus far. On a strict price basis, the Pure Digital Flip and Flip Ultra might also pose a threat. They are currently enjoying a huge marketing momentum. Even though the camcorders are standard definition, at this price point one could argue that standard definition might do a better job of obscuring the poor video quality, whereas high definition might simply highlight the flaws. Sony has their own competitor, the NSC-GC1 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $199.00) Net Sharing Cam, which shoots standard definition video at a maximum 640 x 480 30FPS and costs more than the A-HD. The Aiptek A-HD retails for $169.99 and is available on Aiptek’s website.

While the overall functions of the camcorder are limited the quality is exceptional. Nowhere will you find HD for $150

 

Is you were to use this for a bullet cam it would only be as good as your external lens. That in mind it may be a good back up deck for one of the 1000-3500 entry level pro HD bullet cam setups. Also if you look at the storage and relate it to quality of the image, its a 720 image not the 1080 true HD, but something like the HVX-200 on the same image setting of 720HD only records 1min to 1GB. That thing claims an hour to 8GB, only way to do that is to down grade image quality. That and its a single CCD CMOS. You would be better off getting a SD GL1 in the end if you wanted to shoot stuntriding. If you wanted to use it a strictly a SD bullet cam deck on the other hand it would be a pimp little piece if quality wasn't the biggest concern. Just don't let the HD part trick you into thinking it would be HD footage if you used it as a bullet cam deck.

 

Your very correct. But for the budget filmer 720p is still 3x better than standard camcorders out there shooting at 640x480. A 520 line bullet cam would definitely show the difference. I looked into pocket DVR devices to record to off my bullet cam and found the price to be much higher than this with a lot more trouble with vibration. a 2gig memory card in the Aiptek will get you about 1 hour of video on the HD setting, which is not bad at all. Its definitely convenient to carry around and the battery life is exceptional. Compared to its competitors you cannot beat the quality for the price!

 

I would have to play with one for a while to believe that it will turn out ok. But you have to consider color/image quality not just pixel size. A 1CCD camera like that one with a built in MPEG-4 compressor probably wont look even close to as good as a old school 3CCD GL1 (or any of the older SD 3CCD cams). And I think I read it was 8gig for an hour but if it is 2gig for an hour the quality would suffer for anything other than an internet or video phone clip. But I could be easily proven wrong with some time on the camera. And you're right, you cant beat the price, I'm one of those sunsabitches that would need to personally see quality to believe that it would have any given the math behind it.

 

Yessir! Thats why I bought one to check it out! I'll post up some vids for ya

 

Right on, it almost sounds like you should be able to host a raw clip without any compression for the internet if its real small (10seconds or so) because the cameras build in system. That would be very interesting to see.

 

Please post up some clips because the Aiptek I bought last year form target had HORRIBLE shutter speed and the AV port worked off and on..... I had to return it to the company 3 times for replacements....... I got tired and bought a Samsung SC-X210L....... the aiptek is sitting around here somewhere............

 

Sounds about right, but who knows, they may have straightened everything out by now. If this thing has anything close to a decent image it would be fun to bring around home video style. I miss having a bar camera, if someone spilled beer on my HVX I would lose it and start tossing helmets everywhere.

 

I'll post up some tonight. You could definitely host up raw clips that are under 30 seconds

 

i'll be rideing.

see you at the canyon.