In my short study about video recording apps for iPhone 3G/2G, Cycorder’s using motion JPEG hardware compression (the same compression you get in most point-and-shoot digital still cameras that also happen to do video) at 384×288 (4×3) screen resolution. This means that the quality, performance, and file size (relatively large) you get is going to be similar to what you’ve come to expect from smallish digital cameras.

On the other hand, Qik VideoCamera is doing software encoding of a higher compressing algorithm, which makes it to yield smaller files that have lots of visual artifacts.

But to be honest, I only have iPhone 3GS with me now, so never actually tried Cycorder myself. Why don’t you just give it a try and let us know which one you think is better?

Best,
Claris

I’m not a video guy; does this make much of a difference in the quality of the final product or is it just a different way of getting the same end result?

Using QIK with good results but just jailbroke so interested in whether Cycorder is better…