Why did I wait so long?November 30, 2008 This is an awesome product...small and incredibly light and sleek; I take it everywhere. No wires; USB flips out and you plug it into your port like a flash drive to charge & download. Totally intuitive interface; so easy to use! The unit is beautifully designed. Amazing price for such a satisfying and sophisticated product. The quality of the video is fine for full screen laptop display and it does an excellent job even in low light situations; also audio is excellent. Now I want the HD version! One caveat; to transfer videos to your iPhone you will have to install some proprietary software to convert the Flip's AVI files to MP4.
Easy to use!November 30, 2008 This was a gift for my brother and sister-in-law. They use it all the time and sent video to me easily.
yes, i know, i should have waited another weekNovember 30, 2008 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
the flip mino is amazing. everything positive they say about it is true. it's idiot proof (this particular idiot is proof of that), convenient (so convenient you might even forget you had it with you). it's discreet and candid enough to make the first few seconds of shooting that priceless piece of footage a genuine experience before the "omg are you filming this?" effect kicks in. yes, it's true i should have waited another few days for the hd version, but i had no idea there was one coming (i certainly would have waited as the price difference is a realistic and reasonable one). the only beef i have is with the otherwise very excellent software: it would be great to have a really accurate cutting and splicing tool and be able to accurately edit on a sound track (i.e. use a live recorded high quality concert source to splice onto the same concert's live recorded flip footage and remove the flip soundtrack. either this or uprate the sound quality of a flip hd player to do 16 bit stereo .... dream on! altogether a great innovative product.
perfect little gizmoNovember 29, 2008 Small enough to fit in my existing camera bag. Works suprisingly well in low-light. Could not be easier to use. Works great on Linux (Ubuntu 8.10). Very little pixilation even on highly dynamic backgrounds, like moving water and waves.
Excellent Small CamcorderNovember 29, 2008 If anyone is out there look for a small form camcorder then this is an excellent device to get. I will be clear though that this little camera has a specific audience and place and may not be the right choice for everyone. The video quality is very good for VGA and audio is surprisingly crisp, but this is not the type of camera you are going to bring out to your child's sporting event to film them. The Mino just simply does not have the zooming capabilities to do something like that.
What it is useful for is the close quarters filming that often occurs with family members. Indoor events or something at a BBQ for example. The almost instant startup time makes it a must have for capturing those spontaneous moments in your life where people make fools of themselves or where you need to get something quickly.
The plug and play functionality is nice, but if you are a Mac user as I am you will find the performance of the built in software to be sub-par compared to that of iPhoto or iMovie. The good news though is that on the Mac the Flip shows up as any other camera does. iPhoto automatically launches and will import your videos for you. From there you can one click launch them into iMovie for editing (and upload to youtube) or upload them to a Me account right from either iPhoto or iMovie.
