I’VE MENTIONED THE KODAK PLAYSPORT HD MINICAM a while back, and now reader Stephen McSween sends this review:

Glenn – When you mentioned a couple of months ago that Kodak was coming out with an HD 1080p waterproof video camera for $150, I pre-ordered one from Amazon. It came in time for my trip to the BVI’s last week. It was great for both snorkeling and beach shots. I set it on 720p 60/s (the second highest setting) in H2O mode and recorded lots of reef footage (an arcane word), a large sea turtle grazing on the ocean floor and an octopus peeking out of its coral cave. I’ve owned two Pentax Optio WP waterproof cameras which work great for still shots underwater and have the advantage of a flash, but the video is much more fun. Obviously you need decent (but not great) light with the Kodak as it has no independent light source. One minor issue: I had to manually reset it to the H20 underwater mode whenever I turned it on. That only takes about 5 seconds, but it made me reluctant to turn it off and wasted the battery. Otherwise, it’s ready to record within a couple of seconds after hitting the power button. I still got around an hour of video on a full charge. Overall a great purchase for $150. What an amazing time we live in. Steve

Amazing, indeed.