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| Brand: Flip Video
Category: Photography
List Price: $149.99
Buy New: $119.00
You Save: $30.99 (21%)
New (22) Used (2) from $110.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  1081 reviews
Sales Rank: 6
Color: Black
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: Yes
Floppy Disk Drive: None
Display Size: 1.5
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 1.3 x 2.2 x 4.2
nv:Size: 1/4-inch
Movie Resolution: 640 x 480
Memory Included: 2GB Internal
Movie File Format: AVI (MPEG-4)
Digital Zoom: 2X
Focus Mode: Fixed
LCD Monitor: 1.5-inch
LCD Coverage: 100%
Maximum Aperture: f 2.4
Movie Mode: 30 fps
Movie Image Resolution: 640 x 480
Movie Audio: Yes
Computer Interface: USB 2.0 high-speed
Video Out: NTSC Standard
Battery Form Factor: AA
Batteries Included: No
Battery Charger Included: No
Height: 4.17 inches
Width: 2.25 inches
MPN: F260B
Model: F260B
UPC: 092684000438
EAN: 0092684000438
ASIN: B000V1PXMI
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 12/07 Critical Firmware Update Is Required For Your Flip Video Camcorder December 27, 2007
10 out of 18 found this review helpful
You may want to hold off on considering this a full working product, particularly if you use a mac.
;-(
AMAZING THAT THEY WOULD SELL WITH DEFECTIVE FIRMWARE!!!
From the web site:
Required Flip Video Camcorder Update - December 2007
A Critical Firmware Update Is Required For Your Flip Video Camcorder
This update resolves issues related to copying videos off the camcorder and improves overall camera and software performance. We strongly recommend that you perform this critical update immediately. Videos on the camcorder will not be lost and the camcorder can be safely used to capture more video at any time.
Note: This update is for Flip Video-branded camcorders only. If your camcorder does not have the Flip Video logo on it, do not run this update.
To update your camcorder firmware from a Windows* computer:
To update your camcorder you will need to download and run the "Flip Video Firmware Update Program." Please click the link below:
*Windows XP (Service Pack 2) or Windows Vista required.
To update your camcorder firmware from a Mac:
At this time, the "Flip Video Firmware Update Program" is only available for Windows operating systems. A Mac OSX version is expected in early January 2008. In the meantime, you can update your camcorder using a Windows operating system. Once updated, your Flip Video Camcorder will work properly on both a PC and a Mac.
 Snapshots December 27, 2007
13 out of 15 found this review helpful
The downside of the Flip Ultra camcorder is it's video only. The UP SIDE is that in the edit mode, you can select the exact frame you want to save as a snapshot! That's even cooler than a still digital camera where you might miss the shot!
 Could be good... December 27, 2007
8 out of 11 found this review helpful
The camera is a neat idea. I bought it to take videos of my family on Christmas.
Major problems as people have already noted are: errors during transfer of videos to a computer (which requires a firmware/software update which I haven't been able to download yet) and difficulty with youtube uploading.
Other suggestions for future models would be to be able to pause, fast-forward, and rewind the videos while watching them on the camera itself. Also a rechargeable battery that charges through the USB port would be nice. A USB cable would be nice also as the camera blocks other USB ports when plugged into the computer.
The nice things: it is really easy/fun to use and takes good videos which you can watch directly on the camera or TV. The drag has been trying to do anything else. Customer support seems very accesssible by email/phone, 24/7 and at least they provided the firmware update (though I can't get it to download yet).
Like everyone has commented, a good idea but a sad disappointment to those who got it for Christmas. I haven't returned mine yet.
Rosie Totally Digs The Flip December 27, 2007
0 out of 15 found this review helpful
Rosie O'Donnell has nothing but high praises for the Flip Video. She has shared with all of her bloggers what she can do using the Flip Video camera. Just recently she used the Flip Video, in it's waterproof case under water and the quality of the video is just awesome.
She even plans on doing an online help desk for some of the bloggers having difficulty uploading the video.
Rosie currently has a bunch of Flip Video of "Shady" a squirrel that visits her home daily It's so great to see her creativity to challenge the squirrels to get their walnuts etc. She captures scenes that can't be seen to so many of us. She even took a video of an inguana in Florida walking along the ramp.
The best of them all is of the dolphins with the most recent shot of the dolphin under water in Florida.
Many of her bloggers trusted her word and bought the Flip Video for Christmas presents and the feedback to her is awesome.
I don't have one as I have to save up for one, but I know I will enjoy it once I get it! :)
Good Simple Youtube Camera for price December 27, 2007
23 out of 24 found this review helpful
I received the Flip Video Ultra (60-Minutes, White) Camcorder for Christmas this year. Within 5 minutes I had the batteries installed and was filming my family opening their presents. The ease of use of this camera is excellent. The quality of the video is approximately equivalent to VHS, and the low light recording and sound are excellent. There is no image stabilization, so zooming/panning should be kept to a minimum for best results. The camera also only has a Digital zoom. I do like the fact that this Camera uses AA batteries so it won't be a paper weight in a couple of years like the Sony NSC-GC1 when its built in battery dies. I wish this camera supported external SD cards like its competitors but unfortunately it doesn't.
One problem I found when operating the camera, was when connected directly to a TV I don't think there is a way to rewind clips. When I held the back/forward buttons on the camera the camera just went to the next clip.
I found the .avi files to be inefficient, as one 30-minute clip I shot was 800Mb in size but once re-encoded to MPEG4 H.264 it was much smaller. Also, for some reason the when I tried to play my clip using my free VLC player Version 0.8.6c the there was no sound. I was able to play the clips fine in Quicktime though...
The software included in the flash memory of the camera seems a bit slow but works for its intended purpose. Unfortunately, for those who want to edit their video, the included editing tools are only good for resizing or merging clips.
I own a Core 2 Duo iMac and wanted to edit my footage using iMovie '08 unfortunately, the current version of the software doesn't support importing .avi files. I searched for a solution and found that the footage can be re-encoded to MPEG4 or changed to a .mov Quicktime wrapper and it will import fine into the new iMovie. What a pain though! Some softwares that are useful for Mac to help re-encode the video are: iSquint (free), Visual Hub (more advanced pay version of iSquint), and Quicktime Pro.
Once I had my footage imported into my computer, I uploaded a few of them into Youtube to share our Christmas with some of our extended family. Unfortunately, I wasn't satisfied with the quality of the footage in Youtube. I tried to research how to encode the footage with different formats/bitrates for maximum quality in Youtube but unfortunately, no matter what I tried (MPEG4 H.264, .flv, etc) the quality was the same. Apparently, Youtube resizes/re-encodes the footage no matter what format it is in so I think the only way to get better quality on Youtube would be to start out with better quality clips.
At this point, I started researching alternative cameras in this price range and found the following results:
Sony NSCGC1 Net-Sharing 5MP CMOS MPEG4 Camcorder ($149.00) - This camera has the advantage of image stabilization, a better LCD, more controls, and it accepts proprietary Sony Memory Stick cards but reviews on the net state that it has lower image quality due to the standard MPEG it records and lower low light quality than the Flip Ultra. Who wants that? There is no memory included so you must spend extra out of the box to get this working.
Aiptek A-HD 720P 5MP CMOS High Definition Camcorder and Aiptek GO-HD High Definition 720p Camcorder with 3x Optical Zoom ($149.99 and $213.00) - These cameras seem much better on paper than the Flip Ultra, as they record HD 720P quality footage to .mov Quicktime files. They accept SD cards, and the GO-HD has an 3x optical zoom. Unfortunately, like the Flip Ultra they don't have image stabilization and camera shake should be even more noticeable on the HD footage they record (the footage isn't true HD because it is compressed in the camera anyway...) The biggest problem with the Aiptek cameras however, is the sound quality is very bad on these cameras. I was unable to do a direct comparison, but the clips on Youtube shot with Aiptek cameras has stunning video and terrible audio. Also, the A-HD has complaints about battery life as well. It uses removable lithium ion batteries. These camera take 8MP stills and might be a good option for those who don't need good audio quality or can record their audio separately. Again, memory is not included so that adds to the cost.
Samsung SC-X300 Flash Memory Divx Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom ($297.99) - This camera shoots in SD but costs much more than the competition. Although it does have a 10x optical zoom, it records to DIvX so it has the same format downsides for Mac users as the Flip Ultra. Unfortunatly, the Sanyo Xacti series seems to be better reviewed than this camcorder.
Sanyo Xacti Series Sanyo VPC-CG65 6MP MPEG-4 Flash Memory Digital Camcorder (Black), Sanyo Xacti HD700 7MP MPEG-4 High Definition 720p Camcorder with 5x Optical Zoom (Brown), Sanyo Xacti HD1000 4MP MPEG4 High Definition 1080i Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom ($366, $539, $679) These camera are in a different class than the Flip Ultra and are full featured camcorders. For people wanting a better Flash based camera who don't want to spend the money on higher end HD Canon, Panasonic, or JVC cameras these might be an option.
MiniDV camcorders - Certainly many excellent MiniDV camcorders are available for not much more than the Flip Ultra however, they are much more difficult to use, larger, and linear tape certainly isn't as nice or durable as SD cards.
As you can see, there are positives and negatives to all of the low-end camcorders that record to flash at this time. I ended up returning my Flip Video Ultra as I am a technical user who wants to edit my video and would like better quality/control in my camcorder. That said, this camera is very well balanced for the price point and its direct competitors all have negatives that seem worse IMO. I would recommend getting this for someone who is a non-technical user or for a child who just wants to shoot video and share it on the web, dvd, or via direct connection to a TV without editing. If Pure Digital can add image stabilization, optical zoom, MPEG4 H.264 recording for Mac users, and 720P recording while keeping the simplicity, quality, and price of the current model in their next iteration, this camera line would be a force to be reckoned with.
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