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Creative Vado Camcorder Review by Kaitlyn Chantry Published on Sep 5, 2008 11:28 AM   Intro Performance Format Auto / Manual Controls Still Features Handling and Use Audio / Playback / Connectivity Other Features Conclusion & Comparisons Photo Gallery Specs and Ratings	Advertisement

Compression (2.75)
The Creative Vado compresses video in the MPEG-4 AVI format. This is the same format used by most camcorders in this price range, including the Flip Mino and Ultra. The AVI format is fairly flexible and can be handled by pretty much every video editing software out there.

For the tech-minded readers out there, it may come as no surprise that the Vado's video compression is variable between two pitifully data-poor modes: 4Mbps (HQ) and 2Mbps (SP). This is less than a quarter of the bitrate featured by the majority of camcorders, most of which are now recording with a more efficient codec (AVCHD) than the Vado's MPEG-4. However, the Flip Mino has an average bitrate of 4Mbps, so the Vado is just emulating the competition here. It is striking that manufacturers like Creative and Pure Digital are releasing and selling camcorders with such poor compression at the same time that others (namely, the Canon HF11) are finally reaching the AVCHD spec's ceiling of 24Mbps. Clearly, there is a wide range of camcorder consumers out there.

For the consumers who are considering the Vado (or the Flip), quality video is probably not a great concern. But it is important to note that if you plan on uploading your video to the web, especially YouTube, it will most likely be automatically recompressed, further reducing quality. On the one hand, this might give you the freedom to shoot with any cheap camcorder on the market. On the other hand, the higher quality your original video is, the better it will look—even after being recompressed by YouTube.

Media (3.00)
The Vado again follows the model of the Flip by recording all video to its 2GB internal (non-removable) flash memory. It would be nice for these ultra-budget, ultra-compact camcorders to have a slot for optional SD/SDHC cards, but so far only the RCA Small Wonder line-up has this feature. (Though the recently released Kodak Zi6 will also record to SD/SDHC cards.)

Creative advertises that the 2GB will hold about 60 minutes of video, but we were able to successfully record for two hours before the internal memory was full. Most people do not record two hours of a blank, unmoving desk (as we did during our battery test), so it's likely that actual results will be closer to the 60-minute mark or a little longer. However, even if you get just 60 minutes of video, flash memory makes for durable storage. It's shock resistant and relatively weather resistant, meaning the Vado itself will probably be destroyed before data is lost.

Editing (5.00)
Not surprising for a camcorder that prides itself on being so accessible, the Vado has a simple user interface for uploading and managing your video. Like the Flip, the Vado has software built right into the camcorder. No discs or installs necessary. When you connect the Vado to your computer using the flexible USB arm, the camcorder is recognized as an external drive. Bad news for Mac fans: the Vado upload software is Windows-only. If you're working on a Mac, you'll need to view your video in QuickTime, edit in iMovie (or a similar product), and upload to YouTube the old-fashioned way.

But if you're working on a PC, the Vado gives you a relatively straight-forward tool for uploading. When you plug in the Vado, you'll find the camcorder listed as a new drive. Open the drive, and you'll find an application called Vado Central. Opening the application will bring you to a simple menu, which displays your first 12 clips.

From here, we expected to see just another imitation of the Flip. We were, in fact, unpleasantly surprised to find a rudimentary, featureless piece of software. The software built into the Flip includes a host of options for rotating, cropping, and stitching several clips together into one "movie." In Vado Central, you can watch your clips, copy them onto your computer, delete them, or upload them to YouTube or PhotoBucket. There are no editing options of any kind.

So, if you're using Vado Central to upload to YouTube, you'll have to upload the video exactly as you recorded it—including the 30 seconds after Jack's field goal when you were trying to figure out how to turn off the camcorder. If you want to edit the video, then upload to YouTube, you'll need to copy the video back onto the Vado or just upload in the usual way.

If you do choose to plunge your video straight onto YouTube, select the video you want to upload and just push the YouTube button in the upper-right corner. Either type in your YouTube username and password, or follow the link to create a new account.

Once your YouTube profile is confirmed, you can edit the title of your video, the description, the category, and its keywords (tags). You can also choose whether to make the video public or private. Click Upload and you're on your way!

The process for Photo Bucket is very similar and equally intuitive. If you want to upload your video to any sites besides YouTube or Photo Bucket, you'll have to use whatever method is supported by the site you choose.

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