Flip Video

I had seen the Flip Video camera on Oprah and had been wanting one for a while, primarily because the videos I’ve taken on our old digital camera were of poor quality, and got even worse when I would try to upload them to YouTube.  I considered getting one for my birthday this past year, but I had read some stuff saying it wasn’t very good, so I forgot about it.

I revisited the idea after we got our DSLR camera and lost the video capability that our old digital camera had.  I found some more reviews, and better yet, some examples of Flip Video movies, and decided to check the Boxing Day sales for a good deal.  Boxing Day, by the way, is that weird Canadian day-after Christmas holiday which is a lot like our Black Friday.  As they say, “When in Canada…”

I picked up a cute little black Flip and took some videos on the way home.  I should have saved them — especially the one of me making weird faces in the car — but I didn’t.  This little camera is so easy to use that the instructions are about one page of text.  It’s ready to go out of the box (as soon as you install the AA batteries — and they actually include batteries in the box!) and all you do it turn it on and push the big red button to start/stop the video.  You really can’t mess it up.

It takes up to one hour of video, and when you want to view them, you can (1) view them on the Flip itself, (2) use the provided cord to hook it up to your TV for viewing, or (3) press the button to “flip” the USB connector out of the side and plug it into your computer.

The software is on the camera itself, so it self-installs and then gives you iTunes-like software to view, edit, manage and upload your videos.  I uploaded a few to my YouTube account and they are so much better than the ones I had done with my digital camera.  Plus, it does great even in low lighting.

The recent video of the boys that i posted (Peek-a-Boo) was recorded with the Flip.  For about $150, you treally can’t go wrong with this camera if you need a small, portable, easy-to-use and web-friendly camera (it has options to upload directly to several video sharing web sites right from the software).

I give it two thumbs up!