Refurbed Zi8 at B&H

[RonH]

$149, Black

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/800687657-USE/Kodak_8796062_Zi8_Pocket_Video_Camera.html

[chris]

Like finding a unicorn.

Okay, a refurbished unicorn.

[Bill Pryor]

New ones are now in stock for $179.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/6 ... amera.html
Adorama had them before B&H.

[RonH]

For that extra $30 the new one costs, you could get a used hard drive from B&H with a 30-day warranty, to store all the new video your refurb cam will take before it dies.

[Bill Pryor]

Good point. I've never known a refurbished hard drive. I have known at least two that appeared to have committed suicide, but when the guts were removed and plugged into a new housing, they were magically resurrected--the drives didn't die, the contacts did. Maybe that's what B&H does to refurbish.

[RonH]

Refurb drives almost exclusively come from the manufacturer, usually from a failed QC inspection or power up. They're probably okay, but considering the low cost of brand new 1st quality, why chance it? The data pros say you shouldn't even buy white box OEM drives but only Retail versions with the packaging and full retail warranty. OEM means somebody like HP or Dell (or eMachines) got the drive manufacturer to do a certain configuration, then ended up with too many units, so they dump them cheap to wholesalers. Some techs say the majority of their problematic drive issues come from people buying OEM drives to save a few bucks and then having problems with it. If you're doing regular and comprehensive backups, you might be okay using a refurb drive, and if one fails, you've only lost your most recent work. Of course, recent work could be yesterday's footage you shot all day, dumped into the drive last night, then reformatted the Flash cards and reused today.