Flip Mino Arrived Today

[Magnus]

A small package containing a Flip Mino arrived today. It's basically a very tiny, simple camcorder which has a fixed lens, 2GB built-in flash memory, and just a few, iPod-esque controls. The whole selling point is that it's quick and easy to record something. I've played around with it for a few minutes and it seems extremely easy to use and much smaller than I had even imagined. I'll try it out in the coming days so look out for some video samples soon and a longer review in a future issue of Shuffle, probably October.

[iDubai]

Maybe 30 sec review on Youtube would be very cool.
Try this, Walk around from dark to bright space, like in corridors.
Check the speed of focus on far/near objects. Color quality etc.

I like how it looks, but the design is not very ergonomically hand friendly. So I am assuming there will be a lot of hand shacking due to the positioning of the around the device like a mobile phone. But I might be wrong.

How much is it for? I might get some for my motorsport action, tape it on the exterior of my car

[Magnus]

It's small and light enough that I think holding is not a problem, it sits nicely between the fingers and you control it all with the thumb. It also has tripod mount at the bottom. It records at 30fps, 640x480, 60 minutes max. Built-in USB drive for transferring to the Mac (mounts as a drive) and charging. Currently $149 on Amazon.com.

It's clear that video-quality is not of the essence here, it's speed and ease of operation. One idea I had for the Flip was GITEX, doing quick video segments of people, products, etc. then uploading to YouTube. It records audio as well, I forgot to mention.

I'll post some videos later.

[Magnus]

Here it is:

[Magnus]

Here are two simple example videos, both taken earlier today. They are straight from the camera's memory card, not touched in any way. You may want to download them before playing them. They use the 3ivx codec, that's the native format of video on the Flip.

It doesn't do close ups very well. I'd say minimum focus distance is around 30cm or so.

http://nystedt-video.s3.amazonaws.com/mino/VID00002.AVI [6.2Mb]

It does handle light okay I think. Obviously more even light is better and bright sun and shade is really tough for any camera, but it does okay.

http://nystedt-video.s3.amazonaws.com/mino/VID00001.AVI [29.6Mb]

[drsandy]

Hmmm, definitely could do better when it comes to closeup. However, the lack of autofocus is the real culprit here and i don't really think that this aspect could be crammed in there.

2nd video was definitely better. On a side note, that was a very nice apartment block; very hattan-esque! Which development is that?

Regards.

[Magnus]

Hmmm, definitely could do better when it comes to closeup. However, the lack of autofocus is the real culprit here and i don't really think that this aspect could be crammed in there.

2nd video was definitely better. On a side note, that was a very nice apartment block; very hattan-esque! Which development is that?

Regards.

The building is Al-Warqaa Courtyard.

[ultrablue662]

Congrats, Ive had this (or maybe the older one) on my wish list on Amazon for a while now. It is in my opinion a great all in one device. sadly, I would never carry it around (Much like my iPod nano, that I used 3 times) because I have a phone that has a camera.

But it is a tempting little device, and the videos are great given the thing's power. Nice buy!

[Magnus]

For me I think it'll be another addition to my computer bag, which I carry almost everywhere. It's small and light so not much of a bother and it doesn't need another charger. Just today I managed to capture something with the Flip because it turns on and is ready for recording so fast, something I would probably have missed with a mobile phone or other video-recording device.

[ultrablue662]

Then you dont use a sony ericsson! one button video capture. I guess you have a MAN PURSE! I dont. LOL.