Creative Vado Pocket Video Camera

From the world of ‘stand-alone’ devices, meet the Creative Vado that’s been designed specifically for one purpose and one purpose only – to be a pocket video recorder and nothing else. There are actually very few devices like this out there. By that I don’t mean video recorders, but devices that are created to perform only one task. This is the first step from Creative, who has gone on to up the ante and develop an HD version of the same product.

Form Factor
The Vado is one of the simplest devices I’ve come across. It’s well designed, and easy to operate. The rubberized shell makes it convenient to grip and gives it a sturdy feel as well.  With dimensions like 100 mm x 55 mm x 16 mm and a weight factor of just 84 grams with the battery, the Vado is extremely easy to carry around. It has a 2.0-inch antiglare display with a 640 x 240 pixel resolution so you’ll never have to worry about the sun or bright lights preventing you from seeing what you’re aiming at or replaying.

The navigation system, in the form of a large five way Nav-Pad is also very well designed and the only other buttons on the player include one that takes you to the gallery and the other to delete files. When simultaneously pressed, you’ll enter the settings screen. A small 3.5mm AV out port is located on the side of the Vado and a section at the bottom beside the USB ports compartment is designated for a stand to be screwed in.

What’s truly a bonus is that Creative has attached a USB port onto the device for PC connectivity as well as charging. This small but flexible cable is very neatly tucked away at the bottom and has a little portion sticking out that you have to tug on to release. The fact that the Vado also has a removable and replaceable Lithium Ion battery makes it all the more appealing. You can simply pop up the rear panel and change it at any time.

Features and Performance
The Vado is almost devoid of features. The few that it has include the date and time setting for videos, Anti Flicker option in two frequencies – 50HZ and 60HZ and a language selector choice of video quality. It basically records videos at VGA quality i.e. 640 x 480 pixels with its onboard CMOS camera. It can however, record videos at two levels, as mentioned - HQ which is higher quality and SP which is slightly lower quality of reproduction. The amount of video recording time is of course directly dependent on your selection of the quality. The Vado stores videos (up to 2GB only) in MPEG-4 and AVI formats at 30 frames per second. But don't think for a second you can playback videos of the same format that you copy paste onto the device. It's not a PMP.

You’ll be able to record approximately up to 120 minutes of footage in SP mode and about 60 minutes in HQ mode. This is not too bad, but it would have been so much better with a little more Gigs added to the equation.

On the plus side, it still makes for great device to carry around on trips as it weighs hardly anything and is conveniently portable. On the down side you’ll have to carry along a separate camera just for images as the Vado is not capable of taking pictures.

What Creative has so generously provided as part of the memory that the device carries is the Vado Central application that allows you to directly upload your videos to YouTube and Photobucket. It’s a simple software and a no-brainer to use. The use of an AV (RCA to 3.5mm pin) cable, which you’ll have to get separately, will allow you to lug the device directly into a TV set for viewing.