What are Flip video camcorders useful for?

It’s easy to see why a mini camcorder the size of a mobile phone has grabbed a 10% slice of the market in the last couple of years, and has transformed the expectations of the mini camcorder buyer in the process.

So what’s the fuss all about?

The Flip’s launch in 2007 instantly defined a new market for a handheld camcorder with built-in software to upload and share videos online.  This revolutionized the way people shoot and share videos with friends and captured the imagination of a broad spectrum of buyers, including the rich and famous from Oprah Winfrey to Lily Allen, U2 – and Paris Hilton.

So you can capture life’s little ‘fun’ moments spontaneously, then immediately upload your videos to social media sites like youtube, myspace, and grouper or crackle networks. Or perhaps download to your computer for email, or watch them on TV.  In fact the Flip can be treated as a removable drive of a computer, to be accessed like any other. So although the standard Flip Ultra’s flash memory only allows 1-hour recording time, you then download to your computer and start again. As you might expect, the latest 2nd generation Flip Ultra offers a greater recording time of 120 minutes.

The Flip Video comes with a TV connector cable, wrist strap, soft carrying case, batteries, and an instruction booklet, and if you fancy some extras there is the underwater case, an ‘action mount’ to attach it to handlebars or helmets, and a tripod.

The flipsides?

Well, it’s not the best quality mini camcorder out there, though its screen resolution when played on a large screen TV is still pretty impressive. Picture quality is fine for the price, sound is OK, and zoom is just adequate. Editing is quite basic, and the built-in ‘flip-out’ USB connector could conceivably snap off when connected to your computer, especially if other USB devices are in the way. You can get round this with the USB cable accessory.

You might find some problems when exporting files to your iphone or ipod, but shareware Flip Video Converter for Mac can help you get around this.  Also, there are no expansion slots for increasing the built-in memory.

It depends what your expectations are, but if video quality doesn’t matter too much (though it may pleasantly surprise you) and you think ‘cheap and cheerful’ (less than $100 for the cheapest) rather than ‘let’s shoot Ben Hur’ then you shouldn’t have any complaints. If you do, it won’t take long to upload them to YouTube.