I have been using this camera for over 6 months now with some FANTASTIC results. It's not a toy camera! Great video, great pictures, great features. Look here http://www.vimeo.com/13978989 for a video of butterflies and flowers and then you'll be buying one too!

Initial impressions good but a few issues after long term testing:
1. Highlights are blown/clipped on bright days.
2. The left-right zoom button not intuitive (should be forward-back)
3. Zoom motor has gotten considerably noisey- you can easily hear it.
4. Auto-focus does not seem to work as well as it did earlier. Many times will not focus when you zoom in on something (we're only talking optical zoom and something easy to focus on).
5. Sometimes rolling "jitter" in the sky portion....

Everything is great with this camcorder, EXCEPT the .mov format. When using the ARC software to convert .mov to .wmv the audio delays, the longer the video clip, the longer the delay. Wish the camcorder had option to record in format other than .mov! Still, gets 5 stars as it is an awesome camera for the price!!

It's a great HD camera. More superior than the Action-HD+ that I have. External mic feature works flawlessly. Video is stable and clear. Only complaints are the auto focus, which tend to be slow and sometimes won't focus at all, and extremely short battery life. I already bought a spare battery but still not enough.

We love this camera and the HD/hdmi playback on our large screen TV. The only reason for the 3 stars is that after 3 months it would not turn on. The only way we could get it to work is to hold in the power button. Makes it rather difficult to take video. We are sending it in for a replacement and hopefully we will be happy again. This is truly a great camera.

Pros:
Video Quality is top-notch -even at low light.

Cons:
1. Very difficult to take photos in focus without a tripod. Macro mode helps, but it can still be blurred.
2. A few glitches in the system (for example, in the menu, the AF Lock shows that it is on, but when selecting it, the check mark is on the off selection. Once you change it, the option doesn't save. Also, at one point, all of the screen icons disappeared. Had to set the system back to the default settings to get them back)

Just like they said in the advert, small doesn't have to mean short in function. It's great. But there is a reason why i am unhappy (1) Once you insert your AV out cable, the screen goes blank. Why would you be capturing video and you cant see? That to me is frustrating (2) You can be capturing and send Audio to a computer at the same time, but you can send recorded audio and video. Please help

I like Aiptek. Specs looked good- had to have! Some disappointments. Stabilization has this jiggle or "Jello" effect, mainly on lower half of image, mainly noticeable when zoomed (optical) in. Very annoying.  Friend has the cam and repts same thing. Autofocus- bit of searching but not too bad. Sound picks up everything, sensitive, although a bit high pitched. Zoom button on the top of the cam moves left and right, not fwd and back. Tend to tilt cam when using. Tests at: vimeo.com/coneofconfusion

Pros: Good Picture quality, video recording and playback. Features of a good digital camera and video recorder

Issues: The mic captures the hissing sound of the motor running so the audio is not clean. it is pronounced when zooming and the the motor noise is recorded as well. This is a big drawback.
2. The image stabilization is not perfect, produced blurred images
3. Low light shooting even with the light on produces very grainy pictures

So far so good but I can't get the .MOV to upload to youtube? It says could not convert? But I put the SD card in my computer and transferred the file to my computer first instead of just plugging in the camera to a USB port. I'll try it next time. So far the pictures on viewing on the computer is great. Now I need to get a DVD plaver that will play them on my high-def TV. The image stabilization isn't as good as my old Sony but I am not unhappy with it yet.

Aiptek Answer: Thanks so much for posting your thoughts! One idea we had was that you might be hitting YouTube's size restrictions for uploads. File size, video length (actual time) and even the format could all be possibilities. According to YouTube, files cannot be larger than 20GB. No longer than 10 minutes and must be .WMV, .AVI, .MOV or .MP4. If you continue to have issues, please feel free to email us anytime at: tech@goaiptek.com, or else just give us a call and we'd be happy to help you out in any way that we can. Thanks again!

I've only had this for a couple of days but so far it's great. I've taken pictures with it, recorded video, and tested the picture in video feature and they all work. One thing about pictures taken in video, depending on the zoom the picture may be blurry if it's far away so a tripod would be recommended depending on distance from the subject.  The only reason I rated this a four is because I have not tried the computer software but I will soon and will add my comments.

This is an excellent product. Ease of use, quality of optics, wide angle view, and particularly quality of video recordings not only rivals but exceeds technical specifications of many similar products much higher priced. I have owned other Aiptek HD camcorders before, this one is truly the best ever.

This is a great camcorder. The resolution is great, even at the full zoom. The still picture functions are perfect. I would recommend this camera to anyone who is looking for one.

I was excited when Aiptek introduced their HD H12 Extreme 1080p camcorder. The lens and video quality are second to none. Shooting video at 1280x720 @ 60fps results in great video that can be imported into any video editing software. I've encountered a problem with importing video clips shot at full HD 1920x1080i into my video software. Also, I've noticed that the battery runs low after 30 minutes of video shooting. There seems to be a problem with Windows identifying the hardware.

So far I love my Aiptek H12. The video quality is great, its small and easy to carry around, and it's lots of fun.  My only issues are the battery life is terrible (and yes I charged it for over 8 hours the first time), and I wish the sequence shots could go for longer than 1 second intervals.

I'm very happy with the camera. It is well made and exceeds my expectations.

This is everything I have been looking for in a camcorder/camera. With other camcorder/camera the quality of video clips were poor and very jumpy especially when your subjects move. But with this camcorder/camera The difference is very noticeable. This camcorder/camera has Great quality video and very good picture quality. I Am very Happy with it. I already purchased a full size tripod and 8 GB memory card from your company, but didn't receive a 30% discount that would have been nice. Thank You!

The image quality is absolutely amazing. I've owned two other Aiptek HD camcorders, and this one is by far the best. The 12x optical zoom is my favorite feature, along with the image stabilization. My only critique is the auto-focus is a bit dodgy, and I'm still working out the best way to work with the AF lock. Otherwise, this is by far the best HD camcorder I've owned.

This camera replaces a Canon that was primarily suited for stills and was adequate for small video clips. I would say this camera is the opposite: It is terrific for shooting high quality video in a package that is both convenient to carry and easy to use. The picture quality seems very good for stills as well, but the format of the camera and the somewhat awkward placement of the shutter button makes it less of a pleasure to use than my old Canon. Excellent value overall.

I love the new camcorder. I have one problem with the software I use (Pinnacle) to create videos. It does not fully load the 1080i files. I wish the battery life was longer.

My mission was to find a compact camera, with HD and that allowed an external mic. The H12 not only fit all those needs, but did it at a great value price and the performance is wonderful. I doubt you can find as good a camera at 5 times the price.