I received this wonderful little device as a prize for winning a Texas Hold ‘Em tournament over the summer. Once my children got beyond the age of "cute" I never really had much use for a video camera, but the Flip has changed that. I'm not yet a video maniac, but I'm starting to rack up a nice sized library of stuff ready for Youtube.
It's All About Size.
The FLIP is incredibly compact - measuring 4" by 2" by ¾". That's smaller than a Blackberry, iPhone or standard iPod. It fits comfortably inside a jacket pocket or a purse, protected by a black cloth holder with a tie-top.
And Ease Of Use.
Point and shoot. Well, actually it's press the power button, point at your target, make sure whatever you want to shoot is on the screen, and then press the big red button. There are + and - buttons to work the rudimentary zoom, and then press the big red button again to stop recording. Go through these actions a second and third time and you have two more video snippet files.
The FLIP fits comfortably in the palm of your hand, and its easy to use all the controls with a single hand. Although it is theoretically possible to put your fingers over the camera lens it is actually very hard to do.
I really cannot imagine a simpler device to use.
Transferring the Video to Your Computer
Flick a small lever on the top left side of the FLIP and a USB plug pops out. Plug into a port on your computer and you're ready to transfer, edit and upload your files. The FLIP comes with some software called, strangely enough, FlipShare, which allows you to transfer, label and perform some simple editing on the video files. The files are stored, by default, as MP4 format - and as they are 720p High Def you should figure on about 1-1 ½ MB per second. So with a 4GB solid-state storage drive that translates into a little less than an hour of video. The high-def quality is really good, so you can play the videos full-screen, or even use a commercial projector to show them on a large screen and the definition is still excellent. That actually becomes a two-edgedsword as the only video definition is 1280 by 720 and you don't have an option to downgrade when shooting.
One additional benefit of transferring your files through the USB port is that you also charge the built-in battery at the same time. Neat.
Bell and Whistles
Well, there really aren't any - and that is the point. The zoom is barely a 2x digital zoom, so it's not much good for outdoors/long-distance video. Just for fun I tried to use it at a football game from way up in the stands and you pretty much get the impression of twenty-two stick figures running around on a green carpet. You also have to be aware of camera shake as there is no stabilization control on the video. That means that if you are walking around with the camera you will get some jerkiness in the frame, and there's little you can do about it. There is a small, standard, screw-mount for tripod use which kind of defeats the whole portability thing.
The other thing you need to watch for is the quality of lighting - using the FLIP outdoors during daylight usually results in decent lighting, but indoors is a different story. It is very susceptible to being flooded by back-light from a window, or being washed out from overhead lighting. Part of my job involves running and teaching sales seminars, so I sometimes use the FLIP to record someone giving a presentation. I've learnt to avoid having anything like a whiteboard in the frame as it completely throws off the lighting. That said, in a good well-lit room - it works wonders. I do have to give the built-in microphone a thumbs-up; both for recording and playback it performs a stellar job.
As an example of ad-hoc video, on Christmas Day cousin JD and his family came to visit us for lunch. I used the FLIP to get some footage of his two young girls opening up some presents and playing with a stuffed toy. Shortly before they left I transferred the video to my laptop and burnt a quick CD to give to him from Uncle John - hah! Note I had to burn a CD as the files were too large to email and I didn't want to Youtube them.
Final Word
If you are in the market for a basic, easy-to-use video camera that produces high quality HD video - then the FLIP is for you. Although it comes with some basic software, if you are a media guru you can do all kinds of things with your footage using commercially available editing packages. It posts easily onto all the file and video sharing sites - and best of all - it is truly point and shoot.
So excuse me, as it's snowing outside, and I have to get some footage of my puppy playing in the snow drifts.
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