The third generation of Creative Vado's HD mini-cam will be unveiled in the United States and the United Kingdom. just prior to the end of the holiday season and comes without at least two previous features — one good and one not so much.
The protruding lens from the first and 2G models is gone. But the new 3G version comes with only half as much storage capacity as it predecessors. Still, the 3G version does have manual exposure settings to allow for extreme lighting conditions (from too little to too bright), which appears to make the newest version somewhat more practical.
The Vado HD 3D also has a headphone output and an external mic option—similar to the Kodak Zi8—as well as automatic motion detection start-up for remote or long-term subjects. And it includes one-step HD video uploading to YouTube, Facebook, and Photobucket, among other services, according to the Electric Pig in Great Britain.
But in a move that seems a bit counter-intuitive, while the previous 2G Vado HD was available with as much as 8 GB, the 3G edition comes solely (for now, at least) as a 4 GB HD unit.
Creative Vado said says the 3G Vado HD will hit the United States in mid-December and soon thereafter, in the United Kingdom.
