Vado 3rd Gen
Are you looking for a small and affordable camcorder with great design, cool color, great image and sound capture?
The thin, lightweight Vado 3rd Gen is small enough to fit easily in your pocket, purse or the palm of your hand. It introduces you with a sleek new industrial design, the latest Vado Central software, improved light sensitivity, optional stereo microphone input, and availability in multiple colors for your choices.
Creative Vado 3rd Generation lets you enjoy a superior viewing experience on an HDTV with included an HDMI output. Take it with you everywhere you go and never miss a moment.
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Vado 3rd Gen Review
Amazing Tech
I also own the 1st Gen VADO, but this Creative Vado 3rd Generation blew my socks off when I got it. The picture quality, options and ease of use far surpasses any other handheld video camera I've used before. I've always been a big video guy, but the ability to toss a small Vado 3rd Gen into my pocket (or wife's purse) has encouraged us to capture even more family moments that we wouldn't have with other, bulky, HD cameras.
Props to Creative for venturing into this space and revolutionizing the HD video cam!
Love it!
I love this Creative Vado 3rd Generation, not just because it is an awesome purple (well, maybe a little)- but also because it is actually practical to use. I have 2 digital camcorders, a digital camera and an iphone that records- but somehow every time I go on vacation I leave the camcorders and digital cameras behind- not wanted the trouble of toting the travel cases and multiple accessories needed (memory cards, chargers, batteries, etc), I always plan to use my iphone since it is always conveniently in my pocket- but the record time is short and choppy and I am never happy with the still photo quality. Creative Vado 3rd Generation is a perfect solution- small and compact like a phone so it is easily transportable and takes high quality video and photos. Most importantly, functions are easy to figure out, unlike traditional camcorders where I had to search an owner's manual to figure out how to delete photos off the memory card. I am a complete novice at all things technological- but Creative Vado 3rd Generation is a fun, practical (and purple!) device. Can't beat that.
Creative Vado 3rd Generation Features and Design
At 3.9 inches tall, 2.2 wide and 0.6 thick, the deck-of-cards-sized Vado 3rd Gen hasn’t changed dimensions a bit for its third generation, but it has dropped a sliver of weight from 100 grams down to just 93. As far as mini HD camcorders go, this one really is a featherweight.
The design has been rounded off even more than previous versions, and dressed in a glossy checker pattern that feels a bit feminine – especially combined with violet, turquoise, bright red and black as color choices. Although the all-plastic Vado 3rd Gen doesn’t exude the quality of say, the alumimum-clad Flip MinoHD, it does feel generally well put together. The one exception seemed to be the rubber around the USB port, which gets picked at when you peel it out of the recess it hides in, and started to peel away from the metal on our review unit.
Specs for the Vado HD will look very familiar to anyone who has eyed the previous models: it uses a 2-inch LCD, offers 2x digital zoom, and, as we mentioned, sports identical dimensions. Unfortunately, unlike previous iterations, third-gen is only available with 4GB of internal memory, not 8GB. The lack of any storage slots will also prevent users from adding additional space if they need it.
While Kodak, Sony and even Samsung have stepped up to 1080p resolution on their latest HD camcorders, Creative and Flip have both remained content with the 720p resolution they’ve both been touting for over a year now. While technically superior, we will concede that 1080p content also gobbles a lot more memory without a major visible difference unless you plan to show it on a 1080p set. Still, we wish Creative had included the superb 60fps option Kodak includes for shooting 720p on both its Zi6 and Zi8. The Vado HD is only good for the standard 30fps.
Like Kodak’s Zi8, the Vado 3rd Gen now includes an external microphone port for recording better audio, and it doubles as a headphone jack for listening to playback on a pair of headphones. You’ll also find more common accouterments like an HDMI output jack, dedicated switch to flip between shooting stills and shooting video, and the all-important flip-out USB jack. This one is hinged on rubber for more flexibility, and handles charging as well.
Vado HD 3rd Generation Accessories
With its charger and data cable built right in, the Vado 3rd Gen doesn’t really need any accessories, but Creative throws in an HDMI cable for outputting video to HDTVs, and a short USB extension, which can be useful when dealing with the crowded ports on the back of a desktop. We missed the silicon skin bundled with the original Vado HD, but the accessories still stand above the likes of Flip’s MinoHD, which includes frills like an accessory pouch and lanyard, but no HDMI cable to pair with its HDMI port. We’ll opt for the HDMI and make due with a sock and string, thanks.