Kodak PlayTouch Zi10 camcorder

Touch-sensitive screens are taking over the gadget world and Kodak has now upgraded its successful Playtouch Zi8 pocket video camera with a 76mm touchscreen on the back of the new Zi10 model.

Most of the screen area is taken up by six touch buttons above and below the viewfinder display, so when it’s recording you see a small version of the video across the width of the screen.

On playback, though, the screen is rotated to fill the full size of the screen. The record button is, sensibly, still a physical one, below the screen, and is circled by a glowing white rim.

The camera itself is about the same size as a smartphone, though quite a bit thicker in the main. It's comfortable to hold and is available in four colours: black, silver, red or blue. The removable battery should give a couple of hours’ recording time and a charger is supplied. There's only 128MB of internal memory, though, so you’ll need to add the cost of an SDHC memory card to the price.

The PlayTouch Zi10 can take high-definition (HD) video in the 1080p resolution, as well as five-megapixel stills, and has an HDMI socket behind a rather flimsy cover on the side. This is also where the swing-out USB plug is located, through which the camera can charge itself and, after running Kodak's Share software from the camera, upload your sparkling videos directly to websites such as Youtube or Facebook.

The Share software and a cut-down version of Arcsoft’s Media Impression are stored in a protected area of the camera's memory so they can be run directly on any PC it's connected to. While the included editing facilities are rudimentary, it's still handy to be able to make basic changes to your videos before uploading.

Quality was generally good, with reasonable results in low light as well as standard conditions. In low light, things tended to look a bit yellow, but you can always compensate for this in the video-editing software.

Image stabilisation is included, and though it’s done by the camera’s electronics rather than the more reliable mechanical process, it worked well. Overall, the Zi10 is a decent HD video camera, but the touchscreen makes it a little expensive.