Handy little bastard

Posted on June 12, 2008 by Mike

A couple of weeks after mentioning The Flip I finally got my grubby little hands on one. I went to the European launch this evening and came out with one for free (and a lot of beer mats). Nice little event. No hard sell, great venue (The Soho Hotel) and free food and drink. I would have been impressed if they hadn’t thrown free cameras at everyone…

I did a short(ish) unboxing video:

And had a conversation about the thing on Seesmic and Twitter. I also threw some FLIP video up on YouTube. You can see it here, but the built in software (and by built in I actually mean built into the device which is handy) seems to have over compressed the video. The sound especially is weird. I just reviewed the raw file in fullscreen and its actually very impressive considering the price of the camera.

I’ll take it along to tomorrow’s Tuttle if anyone wants to have a play with it.

I’ll be writing more about it and have some very particular ideas in mind in how to use it, but for now I need a coffee and am weirded out by using a white Macbook (mine is in for repair at the Apple store).

Once I get all my kit back I’ll really put the thing through its paces, but for now I’m quietly impressed.

Handy little bastard indeed.

Comments

tinnion on June 16th, 2008

Hi Sizemore.

I bought a Flip last week. It’s a great little device.

I was tempted to see if my Nan could use it because it is so easy to use, but she is over 90 years old so even though the buttons are a reasonable size it might still be tricky to use but my Mum who’s about 70 (sorry mum) would be fine with it, I am sure.

[For those that are interested in learning more ]
I too have recorded something and put it online (on vimeo). You can get to see my attempts by navigating to http://tinnion.tumblr.com/ If you continue to navigate to the vimeo site you can download the m4v file I uploaded and you’ll see the quality is very good for a £99 camera.

Note: The only thing I don’t like is the indicator by the lens that glows red while it records. I don’t know why they do this but it’s a pain because you get a laser sight like dot on things you record close up.

Lastly, I can see a device like this being great on nights out, be it in a club or at a party. It’s the sort of thing you can pass amongst your friends and then enjoy or cringe at the recordings the day after
Cheers

Geoff
Ken on June 16th, 2008

I looked at getting one of these but the difference between the UK and US prices is enough to make me wait until I visit the States later this year to pick one up. Also, the Flip Mino is out in the US now, and I’m slightly miffed that we don’t get to buy any of those.
Rupert on June 17th, 2008

Right before seeing this, I saw a video Phil Campbell shot at night with his Flip - I was really impressed with the image quality.