Creative Vado Camcorder Review
By Jeremy Stamas
Reviewed.com Editorial Staff
October 08, 2008
The Creative Vado is an ultra-compact, lightweight camcorder, clearly designed to capitalize on the immense popularity of the Pure Digital Flip series. The Vado is a tiny piece of technology—smaller and lighter than many cell phones, and designed to fit unobtrusively in your pocket. With its integrated USB connector, the Vado connects to a computer with ease, as well as offering built-in software that lets you upload videos straight to YouTube. Being a bare-bones camcorder with poor video quality and simplistic interface, the Vado has a very reasonable retail price of just under $100.
The Vado's body design is sparse and simple. Few buttons are found on the camcorder's surface, which will surely please beginners. The lens has no moving parts, which means no optical zoom, no focus adjustment, and no shutter speed control. The Vado offers no manual control except for a 2x digital zoom—other than that it's just hold in your hand and press the record button. It's this uncomplicated ease of use that gives the Vado its niche in the camcorder market. In addition to the toy-like hot pink, the Vado is also available in gray.
The Creative Vado records to 2GB of internal, non-removable flash memory and contains a removable battery pack that recharges when the Vado's USB connector is plugged in (a fully charged battery lasts roughly 145 minutes). Pure Digital's Flip Mino uses a similar battery system, although it is not removable or replaceable, while the Flip Ultra utilizes standard AA batteries. The Vado also has an AV-out port if you want to watch your videos on a TV—something that will quickly establish how poor the video quality on the Vado really is. The internal software on the camcorder doesn't allow for any editing or adjustment and only assists you with copying footage to a computer or uploading to YouTube. Also, the software is not compatible with Macs.
Performance (read in-depth lab performance at CamcorderInfo.com)
With a $100 price tag, you're not going to get the best video performance—especially from a camcorder about the size of a deck of cards. The Vado uses a 1/4-inch VGA CMOS sensor, which records an image at 640 x 480 pixels. This is the same type and size of sensor used in the Flip Mino as well as some other ultra-compact camcorders, but it isn't even comparable to the high definition CMOS sensors being used by the elite camcorders on the market.
While both have very poor video performance, the Creative Vado is soundly defeated by the Flip Mino in nearly every category. The Vado overexposes more, has worse color accuracy, captures less detail, and has numerous compression errors (resulting in motion trails and sections of discoloration). Worst is the Vado's inability to render a usable image in low light situations. If you plan on filming nighttime scenes with the Vado, you'll quickly find yourself out of luck.
Comparisons (read in-depth comparisons at CamcorderInfo.com)
The most direct competition to the Creative Vado, the Pure Digital Flip Mino, holds a large share of the ultra-compact camcorder market. The reason it does so well comes down to its ease of use and design. It's a slicker looking product, with smoother controls, better internal software, and higher video quality. Like the Creative Vado, numerous pocket-sized camcorders have been released in an attempt to steal the thunder away from Pure Digital. The RCA Small Wonder, the Kodak Zi6, and to a smaller extent, the Sony HDR-TG1 and the Sanyo Xacti series, are all competing for a large slice of the ultra-compact pie. The Vado, at $99.99 MSRP, is the cheapest of them all. For the low price, however, you also get the worst quality, the least accessories, and the fewest features of the bunch. For just $30-$80 more you can find yourself with the same size camcorder, but with significantly better image quality.
For a couple hundred dollars more, there are larger camcorders with a plethora of options and wonderful video quality in comparison the the Creative Vado. The JVC GZ-MS100 records to SD/SDHC cards and also offers easy YouTube uploading, while the Panasonic SDR-SW20 combines a compact design with a waterproof body.
The Creative Vado does what it's supposed to do—easily record low-quality video for uploading to the internet. The only problem is there are many camcorders that do the same thing better, for just a little more cash.
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