Aiptek AHD H23 Pocket DV Camcorder

Comments about Aiptek AHD H23 Pocket DV Camcorder:

Im a paintballplayer and a hobby-videographer, when I dont play, I do abit of filming. I usually do some sidelinefilming, aswell as close-up and chasefilming of other players. I am satisfied with the videoquality and the 720p 60fps mode is gold worth for my style of filming.

Im amazed that a cheap HD camera like this has a good image quality and load of functions and 23x zoom.

You can choose between 1080p 30fps, 720p 60fps, 720 30fps and a 480p mode. Personally I only use 720p 60fps, just for the smoothness and that you have the ability to pick up some amazing slow-motion moments.

The time-lapse mode works great, you can choose between different intervals from 1 to 5 seconds.

The slow-motion mode is decent, its doesnt have a high resolution, the slow-motion mode is not my reason for why I bought this camera, but its a cool feature though.

The sound is decent, not as good as a proffesional microphone, but its above par.

Another cool feature is the touch-screen, makes it easy to adjust things and look through the menus.

The image-stabilization is also a good feature and it works well.

And at this price, the camera feels decently rugged, it feels well put together, there is none of that shoddy plastic-feeling.

And now for the bad stuff...

For 230 dollars, there is nothing to complain about, except for one thing, and thats the video format of the camera.

Ok, it says AVI with H264 encoding, but somehow its not compatible with either Sony Vegas or Adobe Premiere video editing programs. And downloading codec packs or even using the codec packs that followed with the camera doesnt work either.
Atleast you can look at the videomaterial from Windows Media Player and VLC player.

The best thing to get around this problem is to get AVS video converter and convert it to another format. This program is easy to use and converts the material within reasonable time.

I give the camera 4 out of 5 stars,
Its cheap, it has a load of functions and the video quality is good.
But the video format issue, is what makes it a 4-star product and not a 5-star product.

Check out my YouTube channel (jon2511) for some video examples.

Comments about Aiptek AHD H23 Pocket DV Camcorder:

I shoot paintball videos and I needed an affordable backup camera w/ some zoom capabilty. The aiptek ahd23 answered my prayers because aside form the 23x zoom, it had the 60 fps feature w/c is recommended for sporting events. I was impressed too of an additional feature included w/c is the time lapse effect. Also, a slow motion feature where you can generate really nice fluid slow motion effects to your videos. The slow motion effect is set to a lower resolution though and not HD. For the price, too many features included, and it is really worth it. For the "Cons", I have big hands and the camera feels uncomfortable. I end up mounting it to my tripod for better handling. Also, it uses the H.264 compression w/c could be a problem to some movie editing software due to the codec incompatibility. I made a demo in youtube if you want a sample of the video quality of the camera. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3Y4IVeo3DU

Comments about Aiptek AHD H23 Pocket DV Camcorder:

Personal,

Comments about Aiptek AHD H23 Pocket DV Camcorder:

I was just looking for a second HD cam that I could set on a tripod and let record while I used my good camera to get the heart of the action. This looked perfect on paper, but...
The camera just didn't operate as it should - other than when it's connected to the wall charger and used a slower memory card. Here's the scoop: With a fully charged battery, and the camera operating using only battery power, sometimes when I open battery cover and the camera powers down, it won't power up again until I completely remove the battery and connect the camera to the wall charger. At this point I'd usually have to leave the camera plugged in for several minutes before the camera will operate again without the wall charger. Grrr. This means that the camera could never be used (with confidence) where there is no power outlet available - because you could potentially get stuck with a non-functing camera.

This camera also could not read my new San Disk Extreme Pro 8gb card. My old PNY Optima 4GB worked just fine. Hmmm

Other than this, I liked the ease of use, as well as the button and menu layouts - super simple. I didn't explore the image quality much...I was too busy sorting out the problems with the power and the memory card.

This cam is real new to the market...I hope that explains it's bugginess. I really wanted to like this one, but sadly I'm returning it...