Aiptek 3D-HD High Definition 3D Camcorder (Black/White) Reviews

Average Customer Rating - 4.2 out of 5 stars

20 customer reviews

It's not perfect, but for $199 it's pretty good, September 1, 2010
I've have the Aiptek HD 3D video camera for about a week and the bottom line is ... its a 3D video camera for $199.

It take real 3D video at 720p (1280 x 720). When played on my Panasonic VT-25 3D TV, the 3D quality is excellent. The carving depth I get is comparable to that of 3D Blu-Ray movies like "Cloudy next to a Chance of Meatballs" and ... well, there aren't profoundly of 3D Blu-Ray movies out yet. That being said, at hand are several things that could be improved'

Image Quality - The videos look great when things don't move around too fast. The pictures of my infant grandson are fantastic. The video I took while riding a wooden roller coaster are amazingly jumpy. The frame update rate doesn't look like more than 10 frames per second for the coaster video. I suspect that the JPEG encoder can't hold up with that much change from frame to frame. The built-in 2.4" 3D TFT LCD display have a very limited left/right viewing angle to see the 3D effect. The glasses-less 3D viewing blind is a nice touch, but I probably would have been only just as happy with a 2D display.

Ergonomics - It's pretty okay designed. The lenses are at the top of the unit and you naturally hold the part from the bottom, so I've never had the problem of putting my fingers over a lens like I do on some cameras. The buttons are straightforward to reach and control with one paw, except for the thumb-joystick in the middle. It's one of those up/down/left/right to select and push for OK multifunction buttons. Its too easy to push or too sturdy to move up/down/left/right, so I often push the button when I wanted to move it disappeared. The unit's size is small enough to easily fit within a pocket, and it feels pretty good within my hand ... although I have pretty big hand.

Documentation - The Users manual is 12 4" x 6" pages per discourse (5 languages). The software manual is 3 4" x 6" pages per terminology (13 languages). The quick start guide is 2-3/4" x 13-1/2" per language (8 languages). It's a touch light on the details, but I'm not sure I would have read more instructions if they be available. I would really have appreciated a book of tips on 3D videography. Things like have a foreground, avoiding a foreground that is only fairly in frame and how close is too close, would have gotten me up and running beside better videos faster.

Reliability - The camera hasn't broken yet (I've single had it a week) and it doesn't feed flimsy, but it have locked up three times on the three days I used it for more than a few minutes. Each time I was doing something different (fast forward through a playback, turning on the camera, stopping a recording) and the unit a moment ago froze. None of the controls did anything so I had to remove the battery. One time I lost several minutes of video (which I'm sure be my best ever). I certainly hope they make firmware updates available when they work out these concluding few bugs.

Value for the price - It's a 3D video camera for $199! (I think I mentioned that.) What more can I say? Well, you want a SD/SDHC memory card and they don't include one. I used a 2 GB card I had laying around, but that wasn't big ample for a day of home movies. I'd recommend at least 16 GB. You also probably inevitability a spare battery (3.7v 1200 mAh NP-60 Lithium Ion Battery Pack) although I ran out of memory (with the 2 GB card) up to that time the battery was drained so I'm not sure how long it last on a charge. The "case" they provide is a velvet sack which protects against dirt and scratches, but not much else. It comes with a pretty nice set of Red/Cyan eyeglasses (plastic frames, not paper) for those without a 3D computer or TV (why would you buy this if you had neither?).

Software - I haven't used the software too much, but it seem pretty intuitive. There's no CD to lose, the software is loaded on the camera. When you connect the standard mini-USB port to your computer (through the provided cable or any standard mini-USB cable) for the first time it installs the software. The software lets you make plans for your clips, merge clips together, convert from the side-by-side format to red/cyan format, upload to Facebook and upload to YouTube. It doesn't seem to have an editor and none of my video editors handle MP4s, so I couldn't shorten the videos to 100 MB for Facebook upload.

Bottom Line: It's a 3D video camera for $199!

Better with the Mystery Firmware Update, October 8, 2010
After getting over the excitement of a 3D camcorder to support my 3DTV, the disappointment begin. There were few, if any, instances where the camera be shooting in the promised 30 Frames Per Seconds. Normally the camera would dip down to 15fps and at that point, I stopped taking the camera with me everywhere I go.

So why the high rating?

I stumbled upon a video on youtube shot with my camera and the title to the video be "Aiptek 3D video with new Firmware" The video looked great and be running at a steady 30fps. After asking a few questions, I discovered that Aiptek's European website had a downloadable firmware that fixed the framerate. Nothing be available in the US site, so after asking a few people who have the firmware if it was safe, I installed it into my camera, and sure ample, my usability has taken a huge turn for the better. For 200 bucks, and with this firmware, the camera is an awesome introduction to the 3D world.

Great results for price!, September 30, 2010
Have be playing with camera for 4 days. I'm really impressed with it. I present it top marks based on implementation for its price. Is it equal to Panasonic's 3d camcorder at $ 1,200+? Of course, not. But Aiptek always delivers cutting-edge technology at inexpensive prices ahead of the main brands. Perfect? By no means. But, inexpensive, reliable, innovative, and fun. They deliver with sometimes having presence results.

The Pros:
1. Pretty amazing 3d effects, if subject matter is not too close to the camera (forget macros, close-up shots) and you have layer of different objects at different proximity from the camera; foreground, background, and as many things as possible within between.
2. Decent image quality. Not 1080p sharp, but still well brought-up for two images laid over each other. I hold uploaded footage to Youtube and Vimeo and they look great. Haven't viewed them on the Plasma tv.
3. Decent low light dramatization. This surprised me. It is always a problem and I usually break out studio lighting for indoor photography at night. But get very good results at hours of darkness with existing lighting, including still images in need flash. Not grainy at all.
4. Battery natural life extremely good.
5. Simplicity of design and operation

The Cons:
1. 30 frames per second? Don't plan on photographing anything in speedy motion.
2. No image stabilization. Tripod, tripod, tripod. For everything.
3. Software really basic. Maybe too important.

Happy with purchase. Does the job for underneath 200 bucks. Fun.

Not a finished product, not good, September 28, 2010
First off I'm an Aiptek devotee, for the most part they have pretty apt stuff at a cheap price. I've owned the Aiptek GVS and currently have the Pen Drive HD which I bought @ Amazon for $40 which was a steal. I arranged to take a risk based on my bygone experiences with Aiptek products, even though this 3D model has be shot down in reviews for on other forums. I usually can tell whether I expect something is a keeper or not within the 1st hour of using a product, possibly even less. This one sadly I must right to be heard is going back. Besides the framerate issues people hold been complaining about, the video competence is really bad and does not seem to be HD. Colors looks faded and blocky picture. Seems more similar to a phone cam, like an Iphones quality (not the unsullied Iphone) I would say most people don't enjoy 3D TV's but there is a built-in software that includes a converter to anaglyph 3D. However after the conversion, the videos are adjectives grainy and look even worse than the raw format. The lone slight positive is that the stills are pretty good at 2D or 3D but I think most society are buying this for the 3D video features. So I'm not sure how people are giving this more than 2 stars. If for $80 - $100 as a stand alone still camera it might be worth it. I mean it's clearly 3D but at least put a little work into it. To me $200 is not really throw away money, some society here who have reviewed this keep commenting how "hey, it's simply $200", what do you expect. Sorry, not for me. If the quality was as appropriate as the Pencam HD, this would be an awesome purchase. They should have advertised as a 3D VGA camcorder because I know HD and this is not HD.

Samples, remember to shift to 720P:

Aiptek pencam: [...]

Aiptek 3D (2d sample) [...]

It Actually Works!, September 7, 2010
Being a big 3-D fan, I was awfully excited when this product was announced and, because the price was so low, I pre-ordered it right away in need having seen any reviews (because no reviews however existed). I wasn't entirely sure if I was buying a novelty gadget or a truly adjectives device. To save myself from being disappointed, I expected the former and hoped for the latter. It turns out that the camera is much better than a advance gadget, but don't expect to throw away your "normal", digital, point-and-shoot camera or your "normal" camcorder. You'll still need those when you want a perfect, printable photo and a great deal of extended video. However, when what you want is a 3-D picture or short 3-D video, the Aiptek 3-D camera is a great, practical, and inexpensive option.

The first question I have was: "does it really work?" I'm happy to vote that the answer is a big yes! The resolution of the parallax-barrier display is pretty low, but the 3-D effect is really great and the display serves the purpose very well. I expect the Aiptek 3-D photo frame, near its higher resolution, will be much better (it's still backordered as of this writing, so I don't have one yet). Please construe that when I say "low resolution", I'm speaking about the resolution of the built-in display, not the resolution of the actual images/video, which is much difficult. 5 megapixels for images (2592 x 1944) and 720p for video (1280 x 720) doesn't sound approaching much nowadays, but you'll almost certainly NOT want to print the metaphors you take with this camera anyway. Doing so would require you to convert to the Red/Blue (anaglyph) format. This works, but it's far smaller amount than ideal. Rather than that, I believe you should expect to only scenery these images/videos on the camera itself, the corresponding 3-D photo frame, or a new, 3-D TV. When you decide those are your primary viewing vehicle for the content you create with this device, the resolution becomes far more palatable. Indeed, the resolution of the descriptions exceeds the resolution of the camera's display and even the resolution of the 3-D photo frame (800 x 600). For this reason, I think Aiptek be smart to use a relatively low resolution in order to hang on to the price so low.

The image and video quality is adjectives, but as I said earlier, if won't replace your existing camera for those times when you want very dignified quality. The image ability is about as good as the really best cameras being put into cell phones (which also don't compete with a unswerving, "regular" camera). I'll reiterate though: the quality is completely acceptable considering you're getting metaphors in full 3-D. Other than the 3-D feature, within aren't a lot of frills: no image stabilization, no optical zoom, no flash, etc. It make sense though because that's the only way you're going to draw from 3-D at this amazingly-low price-point. The camera has a tripod mount so, if you really need supplemental frothy, you can pick up one of those little LED lights that screw into tripod mounts for not very much money. As for video, it does record within 30 FPS, but if the action is moving quickly, it doesn't look similar to it. It looks like 10 or 15 FPS (it may still be recording 30 frames per second, but I'd guess 2 or 3 of those frames develop to be identical). I've noticed the reduced frame rate is a bit less pronounced if within is more ambient lighting. FYI: I'm using a Transcend, 16 GB, class 10 SD card. That's probably not as fast as a SanDisk class 10 card, but it should be enough to accommodate everything the camera can throw at it. It may nouns like I'm speaking only negatively almost this camera, but it's definitely not my intention to discourage the purchase of it. I just want you to be clear on what it *doesn't* do so that you own appropriate expectations. In reality, I'm thrilled with the part of the camera and it exceeded my expectations.

I've quickly learned a trick to taking 3-D video and photos. It have to do with framing the images; I'll try to explain it here, but it's rather difficult to articulate. If what I'm about to say doesn't breed sense, just ignore my ramblings- ha. First, realize that everything within the image has a position along the Z-axis (the direction toward you and away from you [as challenging left/right and up/down]). Next, realize that the frame around the screen itself has a position along the Z-axis. What this way is, some parts of the photo appear to come "out" of the screen and more distant objects appear recessed "into" the screen. The frame surrounding the display is somewhere within the middle. If the part of the image that extends out of the blind is cut off by the frame surrounding the display, it can hurt your eyes a little and look a bit confusing. This make sense; how could an object (the frame) block the view of a subject if that be reluctant (the frame) is more distant than the subject? That's a logical paradox that my brain translates into confusion and/or eyes that have a hard time focusing. The trick is to not allow anything "in front" of the frame to be cut past its sell-by date by the frame. If you adhere to this, the 3-D effect looks much more natural. I'm sure I'll verbs to learn effective ways to frame 3-D descriptions as I become more experienced. In fact, that's part of the fun!

I'll sum everything up here: The camera is really well-mannered and the 3-D effect is outstanding. I believe it to be much more than a gimmick/novelty. To keep the price low, the camera sacrifices some other "standard" features you might be used to, such as optical zoom and a flash. For me, the tradeoff is in good health worth it: I get to take my own, good-quality, 3-D video/images for below 200 bucks. I'm not sure what I'm more impressed with: the technology or the price. I suppose it's the combination of the two that make this a strongly-recommended "buy" within my book.

[UPDATE: October 20, 2010]
As Reynato U. Barrera kindly pointed out in his review, nearby is indeed a (buried) firmware update and it does indeed fix the slow frame rate! This is great news. I don't believe Amazon will allow external URLs or I would provide a direct link, but if you jump to the Aiptek EU site (use ".eu" instead of ".com") you can find the firmware update within the product page. I purchased the camera in the U.S., but because the camera will consent to you define the refresh rate (60Hz vs. 50Hz), I wasn't worried around using the firmware I downloaded from the EU site.
[/UPDATE]

Aiptek best for Nvidia 3-D, November 23, 2010
Well, I never thouught I would be writing these words but after buying the Panasonic HDC-SDT-750 3-D camcorder, The Fuji W3 & This Cheaply made Aiptek 3-D camera I have to say that the Aiptek is the best.
No, not the power of the 3-D photos & Video but it's still the best because it features compatibility with the NVIDIA 3-D system.
You would thing Panasonic would include NVIDIA 3-D within their softwear but they don't, so it's impossible to watch 3-D on the Toshiba 3-D laptops or any other device which has NVIDIA 3-D.
Imagine that?
Aiptek made within China which is the cheapest 3-D camera available is automatically recognized by NVIDIA and instantly is installed in my Toshiba A664-3DV laptop.
I can survey 3-D videos & Photos with my Aiptek 3-D camera and it's matching Side By Side 3-D format as the Panasonic 3-D camcorder and yet the Panasonic can not be viewed on my laptop within 3-D.
I have contacted Toshiba, NVIDIA and Panasonic Tech support and they all speak the same sad story.
Panasonic desires to have a firmware update imediately as it it really an insult for China to be ahead of Japan's leading electronic 3-D camcorder company.
If you own any laptop or computer beside NVIDIA 3-D you will want this Aiptek 3-D camera.
I should mention the Fuji W3 & W1 both work okay with NVIDIA 3-D but you must look at each profile one at a time by constantly returning to the main menu of the 3-D photo folder.
When Aiptek comes out with a better level 3-D camera to compete with Panasonic you can throw away your HDC-SDT750 because Aiptek also lets you shoot 3-D photos and Video. Panasonic single allows 3-D video and again I must stress, PANASONIC IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH NVIDIA 3-D SOFTWEAR.
Shame on you Panasonic.

Blown away!, September 4, 2010
I'm blown away by this little device. I've tried creating my own 3-d camera using two Kodak Zi8's mounted directly next to one another. I've made some pretty good 3d photos from that customized set up, but hold never been able to create apposite 3d movies. Can't find anything for a PC that makes the job unbelievably easy and one has to spend some time synchronizing the video and making sure the layer line up.

I haven't been competent to try this out on a 3d HDTV, but the images that can be viewed, record, and played back are amazing enough in recent times when looking at its build in 3d screen. I'm still not sure how the 3d screen work; I've always thought some form of eyewear (anaglyph, 3d-shutter, polarized, etc) would be needed to direct the separate images to the left/right eyes, but the 3d eyeshade is amazing. Tiny, yes. But, amazing nonetheless.

Given the other products out there on the market, similar to $600 cameras, I'd say this is a pretty good settlement for anyone wanting to experiment with 3d. It may not be perfect, but I give attention to it adds something to standard 2d video/photos. It's gimmicky, but it's also recording events contained by 3d that you'll never be able to capture a second time. It's small plenty to carry around in a pocket, take standard cards for recording video, and seems to occupation fairly low light environments MUCH better than my Zi8s ever could.

I resembling it so much, I'm tempted to by a second one and I don't even know why...

Bear in mind - you can't see 3d on your HDTV by connecting it directly via HDMI unless you hold a 3d TV. What you'll get is just side by side video from the two camera perspective. I haven't yet tried the software for converting to anaglyph. I'm basing the feature of the 3d video on watching the playback on the device's own small (and bright) screen. But what that shows me is that the 3d is working well from those 2 little cameras. If the anaglyph processing doesn't work too economically (maybe it will), I'll still have the files saved contained by 3d format to playback in a few years when I eventually buy a 3d TV!

Fun camera, September 8, 2010
This camera is an amazing buy at $199. It performs as advertise, producing 3D stills and videos. As a long-time 3D enthusiast, I'm delighted beside the camera.

Why not 5 stars? My chief concern is the frame rate. The video appears choppy at times. The resolution of the 3D viewfinder is less than I would like, although the 3D effect is striking. I experienced some ghosting and color distortion when viewing the video on a monitor near anaglyph glasses. However, this was no worse than video from other sources, and represents an inherent reduction in the anaglyph process. I do not have a 3D TV, so cannot comment on how the descriptions appear using that system.

Yes, it would be nice to have a flash, optical zoom, microphone jack, etc... but this is a $199 camera!

All in adjectives, this camera is a lot of fun.

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