Flip Video

[St_Croix_Banks]

Does anyone own one of these FlipVideo camcorders? I was thinking of getting one for my wife for Mothers Day. Not sure if the video quality if very good but they are cheap and easy to use (ease of use is key for her on video stuff). I just wondered if the HD version is that much better than the Ultra. The big box store has the Ultra 40$ off for only $109.

[DTro]

I have been using the FlipVideo for about a year, the majority of my videos on YouTube have been shot with it. Very impressed.

The flip out USB design is genius, no searching for a darn adapter, standard AA batteries, and about an hour of video on the built in flash memory.

The only drawback is the audio quality suffers a bit, but it takes pretty darn good video.

If you search dtrofishon on YouTube, you can see my videos.

[St_Croix_Banks]

Nice vids Dtro. Is that the Ultra or the HD VideoFlip. How is the battery life on one set of AA's?

[DTro]

It is the standard Flip, I know muc33 has the HD version and likes it.

I use Energizer lithium AA's and maybe used 3 sets in a year, no more than that.

Oh, by the way, the YouTube videos are quite compressed during upload, they look much better on the PC before compression.

[St_Croix_Banks]

Great feedback. Thx.

[Shack]

Quote:

Oh, by the way, the YouTube videos are quite compressed during upload, they look much better on the PC before compression.

Yep, the Tube robs video of its quality. They are getting better at this though and HD is now on the ticket, but I imagine the upload times are mega long even on 1.9mbps upload rate.

Dtro, does that flip phone have a built in light on it? Or a hot-shoe for a light?

[DTro]

Nope, no light or hot shoe, just make do with back lighting I have rigged in the boat.

[MNHuntress]

dtro great vids! How did you get the screen shots of your catch (day, date, and time, etc) included on the video? Was that with the editing software that came with it or what? Also how are they in low light? I was thinking of buying the Sanyo version of the flip because it can shoot underwater and I thought that would be cool for shooting and plus hunting/fishing in the rain.

[Northlander]

So what do you guys think is the best one for the money?

[MNHuntress]

Northlander, I've been researching these things for a bit now, comparing the Flip HD, the Sanyo VPC-CG10 (release May 1st), and the Kodak ZX1. I am leaning towards the Sanyo (because of water capabilites) but waiting for some more reviews to come out.

Now BB won't sell Sanyo in stores because they got bad reviews from their customers (this comes from a friend that is a product analyst for cameras). But I can't really find one bad review on it and the BB web site it got great reviews too.

So like I said waiting for more reviews.

Here is a pre-release review: I bought the red version at Radio-Shack two days ago and I'm so happy with it. The picture quality is incredible for a $200 camera. It just can't be beat. It's leaps and bounds ahead of the flip HD camera which cost the same and does not have optical zoom, image stabilizer, swappable batteries which important if you like to keep shooting for more then an hour or so ( and the batteries are inexpensive too), removable flash cards (again, important if you like to record more the the approx. 4 hours of HD content on one 16Gb flash card. The screen is large, bright and clear and swivels which helps capturing difficult close ups with ease. There are plenty of programed settings such as lamp light, sports scene, full auto, etc. and it also allows you to completely set the aperture, shutter speed, ISO,

The con's are, Low light performance is not the greatest (meaning indoor poorly lit environments). It has no HDMI output in case you'd like to play the video on your HD set with that connection, however there is a component video cable accessory that will do 720P for sale. There are some motion artifact at times if the scene changes are rapid and complicated to compress. no of these ar major problems though.

I LOVE this camera, it fits in a pocket so it's easy to take along almost anywhere and starts up fast from stand by mode so you'll be able to catch great moments that you might miss otherwise. I HIGHLY recommend this bad puppy.