I’ve stopped holding out for the perfect video camera and purchased a Flip Mino HD camcorder. At some point I decided it was better to have low fi videos of my life than to have none. Full res 1080p videos that don’t exist aren’t very fun… So here’s a couple quick thoughts on the Flip Mino HD:
Shooting Video with the Flip:
The mino is very easy to use. All you have to do is push the giant red button and you’re shooting video. There are no settings and that is an awesome feature. You can toss it in your pocket and go because it’s super light small. It’s so easy to use that I’ve started using it to send that you videos instead of thank you notes… It’s perfect for little off the cuff youtube style videos.
Quality:
The quality is crap. Get over it and have fun with it instead. For those who want to know the lack of image stabilizer really hurts the the quality of the video on playback. If you need to shoot some quick video and put it online quickly this is the best solution for you. If you need super high quality video that will be viewed on large screens get something else.
FlipShare Software:
The software installs right off the device itself. No install disk bullshit, no drivers, none of that crap. It’s a huge plus to be able to get going quickly.
Pros:
- No tape
- No capturing
- Easy Uploading
- Small
- Easy
- It’s fun to have lots of video
Cons:
- No image stabilizer
- No HDMI
- The screen is low resolution
- The buttons don’t work very well
Conclusion:
It’s amazingly rare to find a piece of technology (excluding Apple products) that has good hardware-software integration or whatever that’s called. 99% of the time the device kicks ass and the software is complete shit. In this instance both the device and the software do exactly what they should and nothing more. What’s even more rare is something simple and fun to use with no feature bloat, yet.