Kodak PlaySport (Zx5) HD Waterproof Pocket Video Camera - Red (2nd Generation)

I bought the red camera used (like-new) from Amazon Warehouse for $84 and received it on Friday (3/2) and charged it up overnight. The next day I took it with us to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo as the perfect test for it since we would be walking around in bright sunlight with lots of motion and colors around us. This little camera passed with flying colors. First of all I just want to make one thing straight, this camera is NOT intended to replace your average camcorder that comes with all the bells and whistles that you're afraid of damaging or losing in public. This camera is a fun, simple, and inexpensive way to capture life on the go especially when dealing with spur of the moment situations involving the outdoors and your family. Fits in your pocket very easily (smaller than most cell phones). I tried all the video resolutions and effects as we walked around and found both the 720p settings to be ideal. The 720p/60 setting is better suited for sports or rapidly moving environments such as white water rafting I would assume, because the playback was too "crisp" and exact like a high speed shutter camera. Great for those speedy situations but a little dizzying when watching leisure outings of your family on your HDTV. The regular 720p setting was more smooth and lifelike while still providing great detail of your subjects. Operation of the camera is what sells it for me. If you are used to taking pictures with your cell phone then you already know how to use this camera. It was so easy to capture high definition video on the fly by simply holding up this small and unobtrusive device among the crowds at the petting zoo for example or as we maneuvered through the tight crowds at the carnival. Sound was good and I did not get any of that "wind" noise even though it was gusty at times as we walked around the Rodeo grounds. Playback was also simple as all you have to do is hook it up straight to your HDTV via a mini-hdmi to hdmi cable (bought separately) and press "play". Overall, this camera will suit active families where an expensive camera might be overkill especially if going outdoors. Simple to use and easy to operate with just one hand. Hint: Get the blue or red one as this makes it easy to find and identify wherever you place it.

This a great camera/camcorder for the price, and it works as advertised. The other users who have had bad experiences probably got defective units, but mine is working great. I would suggest exchanging them for a new one. Also be sure to use quality SD memory cards and have the latest firmware. My thoughts below... I took this camera with me on a tropical vacation with the intent to shoot underwater photos and videos, and it worked out great! There is an option in the settings menu to color-correct for underwater use. If you don't turn this on, your photos and videos will come out with a green tinge. Remember to turn this on for underwater use! There are 4 different options for video shooting: 1080p, 720 at 60 frames per second, 720 at 30 fps, and iPad compatible. The 720 @ 60fps looks especially nice and crisp with the higher fps setting. Use this setting for videos that you expect to have a lot of movement in. The 1080p will look choppy when panning around too quickly or shooting video that has a lot of movement in it. The 720 @ 30 fps and the iPad compatible settings are geared toward shooting video where there isn't a lot of quick movement. Even though the 720@60 setting produced the best video, I found myself using the iPad compatible setting the most. The file size for this setting was the smallest, and the video quality was still very good. I was very impressed with the results. I used a 16GB Sandisk memory card with this camera. At the 720@60 setting, you are able to record up to 2hrs and 45 mins of total video footage and around 12000 photos. Your mileage may vary. The camera function leaves something to be desired. Although it takes good-not-great photos (that's what your point-and-shoot camera is for), I recommend taking photos during the daytime and un-zoomed. The photo quality during low-light conditions or at night is extremely poor and very grainy. This is strictly a daytime or bright light camera. Also, the photo quality degrades significantly if you use the zoom function even in bright daytime light. I suggest not using the zoom at all and shooting during the day or with lots of light. The nice thing about the ZX5 over the ZX3 is the macro focus function. If you want to take photos of objects that are very close to the camera, select this function. Reading some of the other reviews, some of the complaints centered on the access flaps for the memory card not opening properly after use in the ocean or saltwater. The manual recommends rinsing the camera with fresh water and pat drying after exposure to saltwater. Here's a trick I used on my vacation: take a ziplock bag with you, partly filled with freshwater. After using it in the ocean, drop the camera in the ziplock bag of freshwater to keep the salt from forming and gumming up the hinges of the access flaps. Dry it and clean it off when you get home. I recommend thoroughly rinsing it and drying it with a towel, and then opening up both sets of access flaps to dry completely. There are sharing funtions on the camera that I did not use and turned off in the settings menu. I don't Youtube or Facebook so I did not explore these features. When unloading the photos and videos, unfortunately you cannot just remove the memory card and put that into the card reader in your computer. You must use the ZX5 to unload them. Hook up the ZX5 to your computer with the USB cable and turn it on. When the computer detects it, it will want to install software. You DO NOT have to install the ZX5 software to unload your photos/videos. Just open up the ZX5 from "My Computer" like you would a USB memory stick and copy/paste your photos/videos over. It's much simpler to do that than to deal with the software. I also do not recommend using the on-camera video editing feature. For videos that are long, the trim feature will start to lock up on you. Offload the video onto your computer and use other video editing software to do any trimming or splicing. Short video clips won't have this problem. Inside the box, there is an offer for a free HDMI cable if you send in a registration card. Not everyone has HDMI on their TV or computer, so I can understand why they don't include one already. Final thoughts: it is a great camcorder for the money. It is extremely compact, shoots terrific video (underwater or on land), and does a half-decent job as a regular camera. For those of you complaining about the photo quality, understand that you are using a $120 camera. Go get a thousand dollar DSLR if you want excellent pictures. This camera is perfect for those of you who want to take it on vacation or camping with the chance that you'll be getting wet. Remember my tip to take a ziplock bag of freshwater if you plan to go swimming in saltwater!

I have seven ZX5 Playsports (6 purchased apart from Amazon, with this latest one from Amazon). All of them either came with the latest 1.06 camera firmware version as purchased, or I have been updated to 1.06.This last one purchased from Amazon may not have antiglare even though activated via the menu option. Whether it is due to the anti glare feature or not, some of the Paysports have a screen that is incredibly able to be viewed at an extreme angle. That is not the case with this latest one. Other Playsports have screens that wash out the larger the viewing angle becomes, and this is the way the Amazon one is. There is no in-between. This latest is not able to be viewed at a large angel but is ok directly in front. This latest from Amazon does have anti-shake, which is inherent and not programmable and works, and seems to correct for relatively minor movements.One of the prior cameras goes to a purple screen in low light . I was going to return it to the other vendor but realized that when the screen went purple, it meant that the camera was below its limit of producing a decent picture, and it was worthless to continue. So the purple was like a too-low-light warning and the camera was kept. For cameras without this quirk, one must beware that even though the viewfinder picture looks good, the video quality may be lousy. Using underwater is where the real caution applies. Before using one for surface snorkeling, I placed it in a 5 gallon bucket for a little while. After taking it out and completely drying the exterior, some water had entered the compartments, but fortunately no damage as the water had not gone beyond the compartment entrance. After comparing with a ZX3 that had been used UW without problems, it was noticed the ZX5 doors did not seat down as far and consequently were not of course able to seal adequately. This year I got either brave or stupid and fashioned a 3/8" strip of double=sided velcro in a loop that fit tight towards the bottom of the camcorder; when slid up over the bottom of the compartments up to below the viewfinder the velcro got quite tight and compressed the compartment doors more. It passed the bucket test. The ZX5 survived 5 snorkel outings and only a very tiny amount of water had entered. If wondering why so many ZX5's , here are the features that keep me using this in spite of all the new cameras on the market. First, at one time it was less that $100 and semi-disposable. The quality of the 60fps 720 is pretty good for video and DVD's if ighting is adequate.For some lighting conditions there is a bit of ghosting, it just depends. Good lighting of subjects- no problem. For fishing the jumps can be frozen at the higher 60fps and come out fairly clear, but of course there is always a bit of compromise with motion. But how is it possible to be fighting a fish in a canoe by himself and hope to get a shot with a camera at the exact moment the fish is jumping? The camera is small enough to be mounted on a piece of 1/2" pvc with a velcroed cameras mini-tripod at the top so it can be swiveled quickly with one hand to quickly follow the path of the fish. It has a decent wide angle of view to hopefully capture the jumping prize, and a wide-angle magnetic attachment once available makes the video capture even more likely. The magnetic add-on wide angle is slightly fuzzy on either side, and it introduces a bit of curve but is close to straight and I can stand it. Have to use the add-on wide angle with tarpon because they will come up who-knows-where. Also the wide angle makes the subjects appear farther away. It is nice if the fish look their normal size to the extent possible when jumping. Anyway, the base ZX5 cameras do not have a curved horizon type effect so I prefer them to other action brands. The ZX5 may not be suitable for submersion but is quite able to handle rain etc. And probably most important for my specific use is to be able to keep the camera running during every cast, and after a few casts the fruitless casts can be deleted and the SD card card just keeps on going. The USB cord that charges and will keep the camera running is able to be powered from a 12V battery via the now-common little 12V-DC to 5VDV converter that costs around $10 and plugs into a cigarette lighter socket that is clipped to the battery terminals. So in spite of the disadvantage of ht ZX5 built-in battery and inability to have a spare, as long as the 12V source is available it is able to last a super long time in constant use. This constant-on capablity has enabled capturing all the action from the initial cast to the strike, jump, fight, and final release with the bonus ability to also use video editing and obtain decent stills of any fraction of a second of the entire day's fishing that includes the jumps, It is possible with masking tape to cover the one opened port for the USB (charging) cable to plug into, and to also with tape fashion a water resistant barrier around the arm that protrudes and everything else in this area to prevent easy water entry into this now somewhat vulnerable location. Pictures are ok for my purposes. This review might have been of use when the camera was still in production, but maybe will get read by someone with a similar specific application such as mine and still be of some benefit.

First off, I completely understand the level of product I was purchasing. I know this isn't a professional camera, and isn't going to produce pictures like one. Important factors for me in buying were mpeg encoding, water resistance, HD at 60 fps. Unfortunately, this is a camera that does one thing well, and a lot of things poorly. The one thing this camera does well is take video at 30 fps in full light situations. That is all. As a movie camera. It worked well on all but one setting, the 720p at 60 fps. I would say 1 out of 4 videos I shoot at this setting have serious problems. For about 1 out of 4 videos, playback of the videos suffer from a weird choppy accelerated mode. It is not my computer, or tv, as I have tested them on many devices. This acceleration also throws off the audio sync. Audio and video for one of these videos is at least 1-5 seconds off. I paired the camera with a brand name 32 gig SD memory card. I thought maybe the card was causing the problems. For the about 6 hours of video I shot,, maybe 50 videos so far, I did have one error that stated it could not record due to memory card write speed. And yes, this may be the problem. However, I have tested the read/write of the SD card on my PC with no problems, and have never had a problem with media keeping up with the source. Its always been the source that's the problem, in my experience. I believe this to be true with this camera as well. The movies in the other modes was smooth and went as it should. Picture quality. Great in bright outdoor sun. Falls off quickly at dusk, may as well be a webcam circa 2002 at night. Generally would not use it indoors unless the lighting is very good. As other reviewers have said, low light the camera is just not very good. As a still camera. Terrible. If you are shooting in anything other than bright sunlight, your picture will probably be blurry. If its even a little dark, the picture quality will also suffer big time. And here's the kicker that really turned me against the camera... in full sunlight, the only situation the camera takes really good pictures, about half the time, when you push the button to take the picture the camera will take 1-6 seconds to auto adjust to the light levels and focus. Its unbelievably annoying to "take" a picture...then wait and wait not knowing when the camera is actually going to TAKE the picture. There were a number of times I took a picture, and then just quit and put the thing away after waiting god knows how long for the camera to actually take the picture. Lastly, the waterproof quality. I would say it worked well. I didn't have any leaks. However, we used this once in the ocean, salt water. As recommended, we rinsed it immediately after getting out of the water. However, it was too late. The water got into the latch (as it is designed to, that part isn't waterproof). But when the water evaporated, leaving the salt, it completely jammed up the latch mechanism that opens the door to the memory card. I tried a number of ways to clean it and get the latch to work, the only way that worked was to literally take the door apart and clean it to get it to work. Frustrating and annoying. Overall, if you want a cheap waterproof video camera for a vacation to a sunny place, this should work for you. Stay away from 60 fps, if you bring it in salt water open the doors and rise out the latches immediately as well. If you want good still pictures, bring a separate still camera with you. If it weren't for the price, I'd give this product 2 stars.

This is a sport camera... if your looking for a blog type camera or something to record those ""kodac"" moments (lol) there are better cameras.. this is a waterproof camera/shock proof camera.... this means this camera is right for those maybe looking for a cheaper replacment to a GOpro... becouse it goes underwater the mic is built in such a way sound is a little diffrent... it reacts diffrent/slower in light situations becouse its a waterproof lens! so don't be expecting HIGH END MOVIE type of pictures!! if your looking for a camera to film fun at the beach and not have to worry about sand or water thats what this camera was made for!! I got mine a few months ago and waited to review it till now, to get a good feel of how it performs... And im VERY pleased with the results!! don't get me wrong the quality is great, i mean it shoots in full 1080!! not alot of cameras can say that at this price point! its super simple to use "even the menus" a 5yo can figure it out himself with no guidence... it really is point and shoot!! In short, GREAT for family outings and fun times.. and for getting those ""moments"" on film!! If your looking to make high quiality movies for projects/short film type things, obviously this aint gonna impress you"look at the kodac i8 for that"

We bought this camera this fall to take to Bali for some fun underwater filming--starfish, shallow coral reef, swimming pool waterfalls, nothing professional. The video quality is fine for the price, though the audio is a bit dim in volume during playback. It's easy to use and handy (small). The REALLY annoying feature that others have mentioned is the latch jamming on the side doors. If you never want to charge it or take out the memory card, no problem. Eventually, though, the battery must be charged which is impossible if the door is jammed shut. Equally annoying is that it won't lock shut after we've finally managed to get it open and charge it. The first six times we opened the door latches, no problem. And then it got stickier and stickier, until they wouldn't open at all. Once we got home we seriously investigated how to get the latch to slide. We followed the video that Mr Baised kindly provides on YouTube [...]. We did get the charging side to close after lots of lubricant was applied to the open latch (took the screws out, etc.). And now we can't get it to open. I have never given a one star to any product I've purchased on Amazon. This one may deserve better because the video is fine, but if it's a one time shot the manufacturer or Amazon should say so. Kodak, what's the deal? If you wanted it to be a disposal camera, why didn't you advertise as such? Update: September 2013 ---- Having taken a tiny screwdriver once again to the doors to get them open, as I followed a video on How To, and applying lubricant to help them open and close, we continued to use the camera in dry environments. Feeling pretty comfortable about having fixed that problem, we took it to the pool. After ten minutes of use in the very clean pool, it stopped working. A glimpse at the screen showed that water had gotten inside. The doors were absolutely closed. The memory card still worked so that I was able to download the underwater videos of the children swimming. But the camera has completely stopped working. No hope of a resurrection. I am looking for a new camera for shallow underwater videos.

I've been using this camera for a couple of years, in many different situations and just loved it. I started off using it for a daily video log, never once id mine lock up as some of the reviews have claimed. I don't believe most of the bad reviews anyway as I think there are hidden motives behind those bad reviews. I don't normally write any reviews but since I lost it just recently, or it got picked up by someone, I came looking for another in amazon. I thought maybe since I purchased it over 2 years ago now, there might be something much better out now, but looking at the reviews, this little camera is still among the top. I thought it took very good videos and decent pictures in a pinch. It has a very wide field of view, wider than the previous flip I owned. I did like the software the flip used for combining video clips together with music in various ways, but I ended up doing similar videos on my iMac with my Kodak. I've been going crazy trying to locate my missing camera and have decided just to give up and buy another. I liked it in black also as it was almost unnoticeable when using and it was very fast to start it up. I'd would keep near when driving and could start it recording in seconds to capture things id see up ahead on the freeway on trips and be able to comment on them as id drive past also. If I need to remember something id just start it up and use it as a voice recorder. I used it all the time. I have a Sony RX100 and a Fuji X100S for more serious photography, but use this mainly for on the go quick clips. This is the kind of camera that is perfect to use if you don't carry your iPhone around with you all the time. This would also be a great little camera for doing YouTube videos also. I only used it for straight 1080 highest quality video and the results impressed me most of the time. There was an update for the camera on the Kodak website, which I installed after owning for a short time, which I believe took care of any of the freezing issues people were having, which I recommend looking into prior to purchasing, as a matter of fact I'm going to also. I think there are some good reviews on YouTube also. One nice thing, if you get it and don't like it, or it freezes soon after purchase, Amazon will take a return.

The Kodak PlaySport Zx3 (the older model) was a pretty good camcorder (better than most in this category), so I was thrilled when I found out there was a new model coming out. However, Kodak made some changes that I was really disappointed about: SENSOR SIZE: When it comes to video quality one of the most important things to look at is the size of the sensor. The (new) Zx5 has a 1/3.2 sensor which is smaller than the (old) Zx3 with a 1/2.5 sensor. Basically, bigger is better when it comes to sensor size. Smaller sensors result in more "noise" which will affect the image quality. This is especially a problem in low-light situations. (I think the video quality is good in bright light situations, but it is a bit grainy in low light.) Now I don't expect too much from a $179 camcorder, but the older model which came out at $149 (and is now even cheaper), has a bigger sensor (with the same CMOS type and 5 MP size). What's up with that? Newer models are supposed to get better, not worse! BATTERY: The other significant change is that the Zx5 has an integrated battery. Yes, that means it's non-removable. Which means that you can no longer keep spare batteries for "just in case"... and you know the battery always runs out at the worst possible moment. And, even worse, if the battery malfunctions/dies the camera is useless and you have to send it to Kodak for them to replace the battery ($$). And besides, what's the point of making a camera that is capable of recording up to TEN hours (on a 32GB card) when a single battery charge can't last even close to that? If you can get past those two BIG negatives then you might want to read about the GOOD changes: ----Macro mode has been added. (7 - 17 cm). This is a really great feature. ----Focus range: Zx5 is ~4 inches to infinity, while the older Zx3 is ~39 inches to infinity. ----camera is now shockproof. (Good for those of us who drop things. I am guilty of that.) ----Special "Cool Capture Effects" added. This is really great for all you creative types. ----sharing videos online is a bit easier with this model. ("3-step sharing") ----records in MP4 format. The older model recorded in the MOV format. MP4 format is easier to work with in most video editing software. The other positives about this camera (but these are not new features): ----Waterproof (up to 10 feet)... but being able to record in macro under water is new. ----Image stabilization is pretty good for a pocket camera. ----Face detection ability ----Can record up to 10 hours if you get a 32 GB card ----Small and comfortable to hold on to. Comparing to Flip and Sony: I also considered buying the Flip UltraHD, but its image sensor is even smaller. It is 1/4.5. The Sony Bloggie was a good contender with its sensor being 1/2.5, and it takes better quality still photos, but it's not waterproof and it also has the internal battery issue. You're not going to find a perfect, pocket sized camera with all the features you want, and all for under $200. So, essentially, you have to decide which features are most important to you, and which features you are going to sacrifice. Overall, this is a pretty good camcorder and is filled with tons of good features, but I think it's really too bad that Kodak made those changes with the sensor and the battery. Otherwise, this really would have been an awesome little camcorder. Despite those 2 big negatives, I bought this camera anyway (instead of the Zx3). (I really wanted the macro mode and mp4 format). If most of your filming will be in low-light situations I wouldn't recommend this camera. It's good if most of your filming will be outdoors or in bright light. If you do decide to get this camcorder, or any camcorder that uses SD/SDHC cards for that matter, be sure you get a fast card (a Class 6 or higher). A slow card can cause problems when recording. Also, the HDMI cable is not included with the Zx5. They will send you one if you pay shipping & handling ($6.50). The other problem that people may not know of is that if you happen to own the Zx3 and already have an HDMI cable and think you can use it on this camera then think again. You're out of luck. The Zx5 uses a smaller cable. It uses the micro HDMI cable (type D). I did a lot of research before buying this camera and still had a hard time choosing. Hopefully this review will be helpful to you. (((I had to compress the uploaded video because of Amazon's file size limitation. The original is better quality.))) *********************************** ~~~Update 3-24-11: I don't feel this camera is as bad as what some of the negative reviews imply. Sure, I shot some video that was horrible and really grainy, but I was in really low-light and I was moving too fast. I got much better results after slowing down. And filming in really bright light gave great results. What I really love about this camera is that I can get really close to my subject. I was only about 10 to 15 inches away from the birds in the uploaded video. (You can't get closer than 39" with the Zx3). Also, my HDMI cable arrived today from Kodak so I was finally able to watch my videos on my 55" TV and I have to admit the picture quality was quite good. (so good that I'm changing my review to 4 stars). I actually seemed to get the best results from the 720p recordings. The biggest challenge is low-light. The lower the light levels, the more obvious the graininess is.