Creative Vado
27 MAY 2008
Launch price
£80.00
Stuff says
Creative’s Vado is brilliant value for money and a fine little friend to fans of web video
PREVIEW
When it comes to shooting videos to Youtube and Facebook, you’ve usually got two choices. You can either go for low-quality footage that is easy to upload, or opt for high-res-but-long-winded capturing from tapes.
But now a compromise solution has emerged in the form of Creative’s new Vado. It shoots decent video footage that’s also immediately available to upload to your favourite site.
Micro cam
The dinky little VGA camcorder will record up to 2 hours of video on its flash drive, separating them into clips that you can easily transfer to your computer using its built-in USB connector.
If you’re using a PC, all the better, as Vado’s onboard software will offer you one-touch buttons to upload to YouTube or Photobucket.
The video is encoded using MPEG-4 AVI video format, so while it’s a long way from high-def, the results are very watchable and more than good enough for web.
Hardy boy
The Vado may bear more than a passing resemblance to a digital voice recorder, but its rubberised back and slim bod make it pocket friendly and hardy.
A one-touch button on the front starts and stops recording, and is surrounded by four additional buttons for volume, zoom and scrolling between clips.
There are super simple settings for low and high video quality and a couple of anti-flicker choices. Don’t expect exposure or white balance settings – this is grab and go video.
Playback and monitoring on the 2in LCD is presented in 640x480 VGA resolution and the unit itself is available in silver or hot pink. Sassy.
The Vado also runs on a rechargeable battery, which means you could carry a few around with you, juiced up and ready to go. Your boss will never be able to escape doing the ‘worm’ at the office party without being filmed again.