The Amazin Flip Video Camera
May 5th, 2008 by Jared MorrisA couple of months ago the radio station purchased a Flip Video Camera (http://www.theflip.com/products.shtml)– I thought the concept was pretty cool — a handheld digital video camera that plugs right into the USB port on your computer, on-click video, good audio quality, easy storage, no tapes or mini-DVDs, it records up to an hour and only requires two double A batteries.. Now, I’ve read some pretty bad reviews of the Flip, Apparently around Christmas a bad shipment of Flips went out to Bestbuy.com and to Walmart — in fact, the first one that the station purchased was defective…
Yesterday, I decided that the benefits outweigh the bad reviews.. every review on BestBuy.com was either 5 stars or 1 star… an odd combination.. and I threw caution to the wind and bought my own. They cost around $120 dollars and they are indeed easy to use, compact and just amazing (I say this now, but, we’ll see if it lasts down the line.) I often need a video camera to tape live performances, radio clips and just things of general interest… One of my hobbies outside of work is editing video.. I worked for 8 months on a video project converting old VHS and 8mm cam tapes to digital files and finally to iPod ready videos (which was actually a few step process.. 1. copy the vids to DVD 2. rip the DVD into computer (need DVD ripping software) 3. edit the digital videos to more compact cleaner versions (needs video editing software and Audio mixing/Mastering software). 4. Finally convert videos to iPod ready M4P format videos… (needs another special program to convert) — A difficult and time consuming process, especially when you’re using a PC with clunky software.. The Flip Video allows you to edit the videos you shoot and saves them right to iPod ready videos.. It’s quite simple.. Now the video I’ll post below was actually filmed live in the studio with The Flip, but the audio was superimposed over the clip from a direct line out of our radio console.. So the audio here will be slightly better than what you’d acheive with The Flips built in mic, but, I did it this way to show you the great quality video and audio you can possibly acheive with a few very simple steps. i only used the camera and Windows Movie Maker combined with Adobe Audition to record the actual audio line out. Then a quick upload to youtube and you’re ready to go. The actual quality of the saved videos are much better than the youtube version, but if you are a frequent youtube user, than you’ll notice the familiar youtube wash over the video.
Check it, this is Ron Ferrell of Ferrell Cooling and Heating from today’s WGMD broadcast.
May 5th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
The video and audio quality is very impressive, Jared. Wow!
I also appreciate your describing your procedure for converting old analog tapes to edited digital files. I will be doing the same thing one of these days.
May 5th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Great review. I was considering one of these a while back but couldn’t find anything on Linux support. Now I see that the “Ultra” version will at least work with Linux (even though I have an Apple laptop don’t like things that need specific versions of an OS to work, since at some point you are almost guaranteed they will stop working).
I may just head over to Staples and see if they have one (Best Buy is too far for me).