Aiptek Action HD GVS

With its sleek, discrete yet solid design, Aiptek’s camcorder is the alternative to your over advertised Sony or Canon camera. It can easily record in 1080 high definition and 60FPS (16:9 ratio) without a sweat, making it perfect for events such as sport matches, rallies, parties, you name it.

With the pricing of around $169, you can’t ask for more if it also has a gyroscopic stabilizer for blurred motion and out of focus takes. It has its own internal hard drive and a SD card slot that allows for up to 32GB.

Aiptek Action HD GVS features

The fact that it records in .MOV format makes it more interesting. They have the Apple mindset down pat. But you will require a strong graphics card in order to make it render well when you transfer it to the PC, although you shouldn’t have that problem if you use Mac.

But it doesn’t escape the bad quality in low settings problem. This camcorder in particular needs a lot of light for indoors videos to be shot well, so you would have to buy the extra light accessories to get the best results.

Other issue I noticed is that when you do panning shots, there’s an increased contrast between colors and balance. It’s completely unnecessary unless you avoid the problem by panning slower.

Aiptek Action HD GVS downsides

This model captures 5 megapixel stills and they’re acceptable with the close up feature. You also have a 5x optical lens with auto focus and a 4x digital zoom, which combines into 20x zooming capability.

The microphone works well in stereo with the lowest background bass buzzing sound possible, but the additional output lets you use a better one. The battery can last from 6 to 8 hours if you save time on standby mode.

Overall, it’s a great option that will require some sophistication in regards to the editing software that you’re going to use and the already mentioned video graphics cards if you want high rendering, high quality videos. With this model it’s worth the effort for that price.