Kodak Zx1 Pocket Cam - A Rugged, Weather Resistant Zi6?

Kodak has raised the bar on the pocket video camera with its latest Zx1. The made-for-YouTube budget camcorder boasts 720p recording resolution similar to other top picks in the name game including Flip Mino HD ($230), Kodak Zi6 ($179), Creative Vado HD ($199), and RCA EZ300HD ($159), but same as the Zi6, the Zx1 kicks it up a notch by increasing frame rate to 60fps, allowing slow motion playback. The new slimmer Zx1 adds "Rugged" and "Weather Resistant" to Kodak's photo "street cred". This is finally a camera you take the places that are worth remembering. Why didn't someone think of this sooner? Stamped with a seal of approval from the Postal Service(not really), Kodak claims it will withstand rain, snow, sand, dirt and more (really!). The body is reminiscent of the Motorola SLVR with its brushed metal control pad with 2" LCD.

The Zx1 pocket camera is fueled by the two always handy AA size batteries, which they include, rechargeable and pre-charged and a charger for instant fun. Not sporting much internal memory (a mere 128MB), there's an SDHC card slot for taking up to 10 hours of video, but only if you buy your own 32GB SDHC card. The bundled software is only for XP and Vista PCs but the files are recorded in a standard H.264 MOV format that should suit Apple video editing software quite well. With MSRP of $149 hitting below the belt of all the other offerings, expect this to be a popular choice for those looking to get into the action movie biz.