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Tech Yourself Fool: The Flip vs The Kodak Zi6
The new Tech Yourself Fool episode is out and its up on Hell Yeah Bitch! .com before it goes on ToastedRav.com because I love you.
Tech Yourself Fool: The Flip vs The Kodak Zi6 from Mike Flynn on Vimeo.
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Review: Loving My New Flip Camera
Two weeks ago I ordered The Flip video camera off of Amazon when it was on sale for $141 (they’re up to $149 now.). Last week it finally arrived (damn you Amazon “Super Saver” shipping!). This week I’m reviewing it…you know, because I don’t think anyone else has.
So what are my thoughts? I love it! If you look at my Vimeo page you could have probably figured that out though since I’ve doubled the amount of video I’ve shot and posted in the last week. For specifics on why I love it, lets toss out one of my patented unordered lists:
- Its fast. We’re talking roughly 3 seconds from off to recording. Nothing beats that, and because of that I find myself recording more “Why isn’t someone taping this!” moments.
- Super easy. No cables. Just record, plug it in, and get the video.
- Its small. It has been officially added to the crap that I carry with me everyday in my laptop bag.
- It churns out nice video. Sure, there are the videophiles out there that will tell you its grainy and the sound isn’t great, but frankly if you look at where the video is coming from and toss in the trade-off of being able to take this thing anywhere, the video is fantastic. Below is a some video I just shot in my “outdoor office”:
Test of The Flip Camera outdoor video quality from Mike Flynn on Vimeo.
…but, you know me…I hate everything and think everyone is stupid. So what don’t I like about The Flip?
- No lens cap mechanism. No, I’m not asking for a lens cap that I’m bound too lose the first time I take it out of my pocket, but it would be nice to have something protecting that lens other than the little bag it comes with.
- It has a TV out port, which I’ll never use (who doesn’t just put this video on their computer?), so I would love for it to be replaced with a mic port. If you could use this thing with a better mic, this would be the ultimate “guerilla reporter” tool.
- As much as I love the little flip out usb dongle, its hard to connect to the side of my MacBook Pro…it works, but I feel like I’m putting undue stress on the usb arm.
- The last thing: Mac support. Don’t get me wrong, it works fine with my mac, but you have to open it up and pull the AVI videos off of the thing “Memory Stick” style, which is something I can do just fine, but my Mother (who would love this camera) might not pick up as fast. There is an OS X version of the software on the camera, but it sucks and his limited functionality as compared to its Windows version. Plus, to get the videos off the Flip to work in iMovie 08 (they work fine in iMovie 06) you need to get software like Visual Hub and convert them to H.264.
Ok, after taking a look back, but “bad” list was longer than my “good” list, but don’t let that confuse you. This camera has been worth every penny of $141 and would be worth it at the full price of $179.
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