Similar to the the other Kodak pocket camcorders, the Zi8 features a red four-position toggle switch on the back that you push to initiate record or playback and toggle to zoom in or out, select a shooting mode, and choose a clip to play. Also on the back of the camera you'll find buttons for switching between Record and Play modes, deleting clips, and accessing the camera's settings.

Versatile though this camera is, the proof is in the shooting and the Zi8 has some problems. Most importantly, the camera's 1080p video is not very good. In this mode you typically get framerates around 20 fps, which makes for video that's jumpy rather than smooth. The Zi8's 1080p video is also pretty grainy when viewed at full size, particularly with video shot indoors under low light.

Also, when shooting 1080p video, you have a 35mm equivalent of a 61mm lens. This means that if you get within about 4 feet of your subject, that subject is going to completely fill the frame (and then some). You can back up, but then the audio sounds "boxier" or noisier because the microphone picks up more of what's around it--the sound of voices bounced off walls in a room, or street noise. Try to shoot at arm's length from your subject (and that subject could be you pointing the camera at yourself) and the video is blurry. The Macro setting is no help here because it focuses only on objects that are really close to the lens. These two issues make shooting at 1080p largely undesirable, which is too bad given this is one of the camera's premiere features.

Shoot at 720p at 60 fps and you get much smoother video, but the frame rate doesn't alway reach that 60 fps peak. 720p at 30 fps delivers more reliable frame rates. And, at 720p, you can get closer to your subject without blur. But even in these shooting modes, the Zi8 has some difficulties. Overall, this pocket camcorder takes longer than others I've used to adjust to radical changes in lighting conditions--moving from shadow to light and back again, for example. When comparing the Zi8 to the ( Macworld rated 4.5 out of 5 mice ), the Flip camera adjusted a good half second before the Zi8. And the Zi8's 4x digital zoom stutters so badly that it's useful only for first zooming in on a subject and then pressing Record. You wouldn't want to shoot and then zoom in unless you wanted an intentional stutter effect.