GE DV1 review

The DV1 has optical image stabilisation. This helped with smooth handheld pans and when holding the camera steady on a subject, but we weren’t impressed with its performance when walking; the image jumped up and down all over the place, leading to an off-putting rippling effect in recorded video. The Flip Ultra HD was far more steady while we walked around and up and down stairs.

The DV1 also doesn’t cope particularly well in low light. It’s not a patch on Kodak’s Mini in very dark conditions – video stays smooth but is very dark. Footage taken in a restaurant didn’t have too much grain, but a lack of detail and smeary colours gave people a Plasticine-like appearance. We were impressed with its microphone, though – subjects speaking to camera sounded clear over background noise.

When you plug the DV1 into your PC, the SD card is mounted as a drive and the option to install Google’s Picasa 3 software pops up. Picasa’s browser shows all the photos and videos on your PC, and gives you simple editing options. As with the ArcSoft MediaImpression software supplied with the Kodak Mini, you can trim clips and upload them to YouTube, but there’s no FaceBook option. However, you can select parts of a movie and export them as separate clips. For more advanced editing, you may want to try a different package, such as VirtualDub.

We wanted to like GE’s DV1. It’s £52 cheaper than the Flip Ultra HD 3rd gen, is easy to use and has a great thumbnail video review mode and good-quality microphone. Unfortunately, we weren’t impressed with its indoor or outdoor video quality. We think the Flip Ultra HD is worth the extra money.