Camcorder News

September 1, 2009 – Creative Labs unveiled its second generation of high definition Vado camcorders, an upgrade to their ultracompact Flip competitors released last year. These models sport new color schemes and a new 4GB option, but seem to be otherwise identical to their predecessors. The bigger news from Creative is the announcement of a more Mac-friendly Vado Central—the video software built into the Vado for making simple edits and uploading to YouTube.

Creative's first step in keeping up with the Joneses might be the new 4GB option, which has a smaller capacity, but is available for only $180. That's $20 less that the cheapest high definition Flip cam from Pure Digital. For those who still prefer the 8GB capacity, the second gen Vado will offer this option for $200.
 

The aesthetic changes comes as no surprise, with the old matte black design giving way to a shiny black or white camcorder body. The second generation Vado HD looks more like the sleek Flip Mino that took the budget camcorder world by storm in 2008. The new designs also have their own accent colors: a sage green to compliment the white version and a brick red for the black.

Creative's shift towards Mac-compatability should help bring in a wider range of consumers. The new Vado Central will import your video straight into iMovie. Not only will the new Mac-friendly program ship with all second generation Vado cams, but it will also be available for current Vado owners, who will be able to download it from the Creative website later this month.