Kodak Playfull: Almost Extreme HD 720p Video Camera
Posted: October 3rd, 2011 | Author: Buster Cookson | Filed under: Buster Cookson, Digital Camera News, Digital Camera Review, Facebook, Smartphone, Social Media, Technoid Computer News, Technoid Gadget News | Tags: buster cookson, Camera News, Extreme Video, Kodak, Kodak Playfull, Playfull, Technoid, Waterproof, Waterproof Video Camera | Comments Off
Remember Kodak? Yep, the guys that popularized photography. Apparently they still have a basement filled with boffins, not celluloid boffins but gadget creators. Kodak has been looking for an angle for a while now, looks like they’ve found it! The KODAK PLAYFULL Waterproof Video Camera! gives you full 720p HD video in a small, affordable package.
It fits easily in a pocket or purse and the Share button and pop-out USB arm make it seriously simple to e-mail videos directly to friends or upload to your favorite sharing sites. Playfull is up for pre-order on Kodak’s website. The slim 720p shooter weighs in at about 85 grams and sports a 2-inch LCD display, HDMI out, pop-out USB 2.0 and an SD card slot expandable up to 32GB. Playfull should be on the shelves in late October, priced at $120 for the black version, and the white at $100.
At a Glance:
- Waterproof up to 3 mts/10 ft under water for up to 2 hours
- Dustproof
- Image stabilization
- Smart face tracking
- Macro mode (automatic detection or user selectable)
- Expandable SD/SDHC card slot up to 3gb
- Records about 20 min per 1 GB at 720p HD at 30 fps
Kodak has aimed Playfull at the extreme market “Whereever, whenever HD Video” Not meaning to sound sanctimonious but, perhaps they’ve missed a market, kids? This pint sized camera would fit snugly into a 12 year olds. It’s ruggedness is perhaps not the utilitarian Getac look that Extreme sporsters are after?
Kodaks pitch “Bumps and bruises go with the territory, the PLAYFULL Waterproof can even take a fall from 5 ft” a 5ft drop is only extreme if your under 4ft tall!
Seriously, we’re not dissing the Playfull, we reckon every teen pool party needs on. The downsides of the Playfll seem only related to size, tiny screen: at 2 inches you may find yourself squinting more often than gazing in amazement, unless of course you have the visual perspective of a teen – gawking at tiny things for extended periods. The controls are very simple, a single round button under the screen acting as a record button, and the panel surrounding it can be pressed to change between still/video recording, playback, deleting or accessing the settings menu.
Playfull has a simple one button share system that Kodak brags “Just Press to impress” Tags to the largest number of social networks . . .
The downfall of the Playfull will surely be: it offers little that new smartphones don’t already offer, the upside is – not many 12 year olds have smartphones, it’s only $100 and it’ll sit in a pocket.
The Playfull is available for Pre-Order here > http://store.kodak.com/
Specs:
| Sensor type | 1 / 4–type CMOS |
| Lens | 31 mm (4:3), 35 mm equivalent |
| Zoom | 2X smooth digital |
| Image stabilization | no |
| Display size | 2.0 in. 112.3K TFT color LCD |
| Storage | 18 MB internal memory, SD/SDHC card expansion slot (up to 32 GB) |
| File formats |
|
| Focus modes | normal |
| Focus range | auto: 0.5 m–infinity |
| Face Detection | no |
| Capture modes |
|
| Capture effects | normal color, sepia, B&W, high saturation, 70′s film |
| Weather/Outdoor ratings |
|
| Review mode | delete, playback, FF, rewind, pause, volume control, tagging, Share, e-mail, add e-mail |
| Editing options (video) | trim, extract pictures |
| Share destinations | FACEBOOK, e-mail, KODAK Gallery, FLICKR, YouTube, TWITTER, ORKUT, YANDEX, KAIXIN001, and KODAK PULSE Digital Frames[1][2] |
| I/O interface | USB (2.0 high speed)/AV out/5V DC charging; HDMI |
| Tripod mount | no |
| Microphone | yes—monaural |
| Speaker | yes—monaural |
| Power | internal Li-Polymer battery (service replaceable), in-camera charging |
| Dedicated buttons | power, capture, review, menu, 5-way switch, delete, Share |
| Dimensions | 2.2 × 3.7 × 0.5 in. |
| Weight | 85 g with memory card |
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[AMAZON DIGITAL CAMERAS]
