I’ve been given a Flip minoHD camcorder by the very kind folks at Cisco and so I’ve been road testing it for the last four days. Verdict? I love it!
I’ve included some test videos below that you can look at if you are bored, but the upshot is this:
- If you are looking for a camcorder that you can whip out and instantly start filming your friends and family with, this is it.
- This is the sort of camcorder you take to barbeques, to picnics, to weddings and birthdays, where you want to catch the spontaneous moments.
- This is the sort of camcorder you want when the video camera on your mobile phone isn’t worth the menu-and-quality hassle.
Ok – a table of FORs and AGAINSTs…
| FOR | AGAINST |
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As you can see, the ‘FOR’s outweigh the ‘AGAINST’s — and that’s just after four days. I’m sure if I played around with it for longer as part of the review process I could find even more things to love about it.
But each time I thought about one of the ‘AGAINST’s I kept coming back to the thought: “It’s a sub-$300 camera, Hopkins, get a grip!”
But even as it is, I LOVE IT and am definitely not sending this back to them at the end of the review period! I will become my default ‘car-cam’ recorder for my BetterComms vidcasts, because the sound quality is pretty darn good at 60km/hr around town — it’s only when I hit the freeway and start clocking 100km/hr that the background noise starts intruding. At 60km/hr I can record and not have to worry about adding another hour to my editing time by having to import and align a separate audio recording from my lapel mic.
Here’s my final summation of my views, quite naturally in video format:
Other videos:
A semi-review shot outside – it shows that if you get too far away from the camera the mic can’t really perform at its best
The 30 minute video I mentioned is right below – a collection of tests and trials, indoors and outside, just looking at some of the features. The movie is put together with the Flip’s editing software. You’ll notice that the zoom isn’t very strong, nor is the wide-angle particularly wide, nor is the Flip editing software a replica of high-end Adobe software. But what do you want for under $300 when you are getting HD quality and ‘instant on’???
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Just after the courier dropped it off, I opened the Flip box and took a peek at what’s inside.
Useful links
- If you are interested, Cnet have a really good review of the camera
- So, too, does Macintouch
- Quick video of hi-def landscape taken with the Flip
- How to use FlipShare (the editing software) to make a movie (YouTube)
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