I have not gotten into the personal camcorder scene yet, but my interest has been growing ever since the iPhone 3GS hit. I have taken a few frames of low 3GS video, and I have liked it. Flip has an HD camcorder that can do 720p; that seems better, but I haven't been able to justify the price yet. Kodak has now released the Zi8, a full-blown 1080p camcorder that really takes the Flip Ultra HD something to worry about.

Not only is the resolution of the Kodak Zi8 higher than the Flip camcorder, but it is better designed, a bit sleeker, and it has a larger display. The display on the Zi8 is a full 2.5 inches, which beats the Ultra HD. A half inch may not seem like much, but when it comes to video camera resolution, it is meaningful. The Kodak camera also looks less like a toy than the flip cameras. Even though it seems more serious, it is still very simplistic to use with a straight forward interface. Storage is handled by the SDHC slot which can handle cards up to 32GB, which will give you about 10 hours of full quality video.

There are many reasons to prefer the Zi8 over the Flip camera, but the largest one is the price. The Zi8 will retail for $179 when it is released in September, which makes it a cool Hamilton cheaper than the competition. Here is the Zi8, it might very well end up being my first personal digital camcorder.

Product page via OhGizmo!