Creative Vado

23/10/2008
By Staff Writers
In Cybershack Reviews

How often have your kids asked if they can borrow your camera? Well now you can shut them up with the Creative Vado.

How often have your kids asked if they can borrow your camera? You’ve just spend God-knows how much on a new device and they’re already clamoring around asking if they can borrow your newest optical toy to record something for YouTube.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could shut them up?

I’m probably sounding a bit too over-enthusiastic here but with Christmas time approaching fast, now might be the time to get them off of your video camera’s back once and for all.

Built inside of a small plastic case (either pink or grey), the Creative Vado is a small handheld pocket video camera like none you’ve ever seen released in Australia before. It’s a lot like the Flip, a video camera released in America powered by two AA batteries. However, since the Flip never made its way out here the Vado is in a league of its own.

Using a rechargeable battery that looks very similar to the sort Creative used to use in their Nomad & Muvo mp3 players, the Vado records video in 640×480 resolution onto 2GB of solid state memory built into the device. The two gigabytes useful for around one hour of high quality video aren’t expandable in the way other video cameras are but the device is also very different than “a regular video camera”.

Instead, the Vado reaches the YouTube generation, a group of people who record for the point of showing their stuff for their friends and the rest of the Internet to see. Many of us surf YouTube regularly so it should come as no surprise that lots of people like making stuff for YouTube regularly too. The Creative Vado is great for these people.

With a 2-inch LCD for playback and recording as well as easy controls, it’s obvious that this camera was made for the young. It’s small and light with an iPod-like size (we’ve used a Samsung Omnia for size comparison) and a weight that puts it at 84 grams. There’s also an in-built USB plug at the bottom for a way to move your video off of the unit and charge it up.

The Vado seems to be both Mac & PC compatible but they seem to work in different capacities. On the PC, you’ll get access either to the folder structure and drag your movies off yourself or the option to run the program it comes with right off of the Vado. While the camera is plugged in, it’ll charge and if you choose to run the software you’ll be given the option to make conversions to places like YouTube and PhotoBucket. Running off of a Mac will only get you the file & folder structure but that might be enough anyway because the Vado has no problems with you uploading the videos straight to YouTube.

As for how it performs, the video quality isn’t brilliant and pixilation can be seen if you decide to watch your videos on a TV screen, but most people who end up with a Vado won’t be looking for it to do that. The Vado is aimed at the web generation, the YouTube generation of individuals who love to show off what they’re doing for everyone else on the inter-webs.

Likewise the audio isn’t fantastic but priced at $149.95 and easily found at under that, it makes an excellent easy to use camera that’s sure to make a great gift for any of the little ones that have dreams of making movies.