We grabbed the iPod nano and did a few tests to see the video quality in everyday situations.

For instance, we took it to get burritos, and spun around in a circle with it. You know, what you do in your everyday life. 

If definitely won’t replace your dedicated DV cam, but it’s a fun feature to have when you’re out walking, or when your cat decides to climb the curtains. 

We also shot video with the Flip mino and iPhone 3GS along side the iPod nano to gauge the differences between the three devices. You can judge the quality for yourself in the three videos at the bottom of this page. 

We did notice that the iPod nano can be difficult to hold without your finger, or fingers, covering the lens. You can flip the device over, thanks to the accelerometer, and that solved some of the problems. But folks with large hands will still have difficulty handling the small device without covering the lens. 

Below are the tests we conducted. 

Note: If you’re interested in seeing the uncompressed videos, you can download a .zip file (205MB) of all the videos here.

NEXT:Check out the special effects settings on the iPod nano.

Like iChat, the iPod nano ships with "special effect" settings you can use to spice up your video. These are wacky, fun ways to to take what would otherwise be a boring video, and make them spectacular.

These are nice additions, but we expect to see a ton of the Cyborg videos in the coming months on YouTube. Or maybe good taste and we won’t see any Cyborg videos. Who knows. 

To enable the "special effects" you hold down the center button and four effects will pop up on the iPod nanos screen. You can use the click wheel or the fast-forward button to navigate through the effects. Once you find an effect you like, hit the center button again and the effect will switch to full screen. 

Check out the videos below for the effects in action.

Note: If you’re interested in seeing the uncompressed videos, you can download a .zip file (205MB) of all the videos here.