Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8375 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Aiptek
• Model: AHD300
• Released on: 2008-07-03
• Dimensions: .39" h x .39" w x .39" l, .0 pounds
• Display size: 0.9448818898

Manufacturer's Description
The PocketDV AHD300 records in High Definition (HD) 1080p (1440 x 1080 pixel), has a frame rate of 30 frames per second and boasts a 5 megapixel CMOS sensor. The high definition recording is in 16:9 format, whilst CIF and D1 recording is recorded and played back in 4:3 format. SD and SDHC (high capacity) cards up to 32 GB are compatible and will allow up to 8/16 hours of HD recording (1080P/720P). It records in a format called AVC (Advanced Video Codec) / H.264, whereby 30 minutes of recording uses 2/1 gigabytes of memory (1080P/720P). Recharging presents no problems via USB or the power adapter. The supplied remote control, the swivel-mounted 2.4" TFT LCD display, as well as night mode for recording in dim light are also great features so you can experience a compact, lightweight and straight forward HD camcorder and still image camera.

Box Contents

Customer Reviews

interesting little camera
After reading loads of reviews on amazon products I feel I should give something back and write a review of this camera, which I bought about 2 months ago.
As far as I tell, there are no differences between this camera and its little sister, other than this one uses a larger version of HD - 1080 horizontal lines instead of 720.
First off, the images, in good light are amazing. The colours are vivid, with no bleeding. And Sharp too - very sharp. There is almost no bluring, even when shooting fast moving subjects. Unfortunately there is a reason for this. The camera must shoot at a very high shutter speed, which looks great but means there is terrible low light capacity (especially as the lens is tiny). Night vision doesn't really rectify this either (although its better than some).
Although the camera shooting in progressive, not interlaced, It must do so in a upwards scanning motion. I'll try to explain.
Shoot from a window of a car and you'll notice when you pass a vertical line like a streetlamp, it will be slightly leaning in the direction your car is driving. Its an interesting little tic. Whats better - a blurred line or a leaning line? This is the reason for the 'billowing sheet' effect that someone mentioned on the little sister (720p) reviews.
One aspect I love is the 60fps feature. Put it into an editing program (I use motion2 on the mac) with a timebase of say 25fps and you have yourself smooth, slow motion, which looks very cool.
I don't use this camera for sound at all so I can't comment on the microphone.

Aiptek AHD 300
I bought one of these for in-car recording and find the picture quality pretty impressive. The MOV files upload direct to VIMEO/YOUTUBE in HD format without any editing. 1080p recording is very sharp in good lighting conditions, as is 720p. The "DVD" setting is comparable to regular standard definition camcorders and benefits from 60fps resulting in smoother motion. There is no video stability but for normal shooting conditions it's fine if you're not shakey with it. It's easy to use with good controls and clear menus; the included remote control is useful, especially for playback. The viewing screen is a little dark and isn't the best I've seen but is adequate. Focus is manual; either MACRO or Infinity which works for most situations and also removes any potential auto focus hunting. Sound could be a bit better (there is some hiss) and is mono. It takes pretty good stills too and has a "proper" camera flash (unlike similarly priced budget HD cameras from Toshiba). Don't expect it to look and feel like a rival to a Canon/Sony/Pansonic etc but this is obviously reflected in the price.

An extremely affordable HD video camera
I've been looking for an entry point into HD video recording and was disheartened by the cost of some of the equipment I was seeing. I decided to give the AHD300 a try and it wasn't long before I was thoroughly impressed.

This thing is small, tiny small. My hand is bigger and it'll certainly fit in your pocket. There's also a screw hole underneath the camera so you can mount it on a tripod. If you get things just right, you end up with a beautifully crisp image and very smooth framrate (30fps). If your movements aren't smooth just be sure that you don't move the camera too quickly as the picture will go in and out of focus (with a stand, this problem is eliminated).

You have the options of recording at full 1080, 720 and even some none HD resolutions.

The battery lasts 70 minutes and I think that 30 minutes comes to about 1GB.

The quickest way to see your videos is to plug the camera into your HD tv, viewing them on a PC isn't reliable as the framerate tends to drop due to CPU issues, and converting the videos takes time (understandably). It's fairly good in low light, with a preset for night scenes. The audio is very sensitive, unfortunately there's no room to plug in your own mic. I confess, I haven't done much testing with sound as I'm all about the video.

I give it 5/5 because, for the price, it's absolutely incredible. If you're planning to upload content to iStock there are better, more expensive options, but if you know how to set up your scene this is certainly capable of producing stunningly high quality footage.