The Flip gets a makeover
Posted by Hanson Hosein
Last week, I confirmed with Pure Digital that it was going to release a new camera this week (and they promised to send me one).
The details are now out: the Flip Video Mino.
I love the new size. But I’m disappointed by the loss of the AA battery power supply (it’s now a rechargeable battery). It makes it less of a utilitarian, all-purpose camera. More importantly, it remains to be seen whether Flip has improved the microphone on this new version. To many of us at the MCDM, that has been the greatest shortcoming of the Flip. I’ve heard better audio (with similar picture quality) from point & shoot still cameras.
But to Pure Digital, that all may be beside the point. This camera is more expensive than the thicker, Flip Ultra, and clearly geared to a younger, fashion-conscious demographic. This is not your grandmother’s Flip. That could be a good thing.
UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Flip has improved the audio on the Mino. That could make all the difference for me, as this device still has some very real advantages over a cellphone camera.
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3 Comments, Comment or Ping
Adriana
Oh, I think it’s great they got rid of the AA batteries! It’s way more environmental friendly to have batteries that are rechargeable! Yes, I don’t like having ONE more charger and having to charge one more thing… but better than having a chock full drawer of batteries, not knowing how to dispose them!
Interesting that they increased the price point, I would think that could be in conflict with their ‘values’ of having a camera for all and for non-profits.
Jun 4th, 2008
southcb
I admire their firmness on resisting feature creep, but what about price-point creep? In a down market, and offering less rather than more (having to charge the thing), I am surprised to see the price jump. The $149 price point was oh-so-affordable.
Also, I strongly believe that they should have an optical zoom. I started leaving my Flip behind because when it comes to capturing children, you’ve got to have some distance. As soon as you walk closer to get a better shot, they see the camera and start acting like dorks. Ruins the whole point of carrying the thing around with me.
While capturing children may not be where the market is right now, give Gen Y another three years and the leading edge will be starting families. And no one wants to lose out on that train ride.
Jun 5th, 2008
hrhmedia
Despite the ongoing compromises of the Flip (audio, lack of zoom, price compared to a point & shoot), it still has two attributes that continue to make it attractive to our objectives:
(1) Built in USB interface. P&S cameras require you to carry around the USB cord, go through a few extra steps to upload the video.
(2) It just shoots video. No menu settings, etc. It’s an easy way to have someone who has never created content before, to start shooting. I keep thinking of how a non-profit could send the cameras to folks in the field, have them film something, and just ship them back to head office for download, edit and upload.
The price increase in unfortunate. Hopefully, retailers such as Amazon will immediately discount it. And the Quicktime codec incompatibility will continue to cause headaches for Mac users while editing. However, Pure Digital assured me today that with its huge marketshare, Apple now has to take the Flip into account when changing Quicktime and will address this issue in an upcoming update. Until then, I recommend newbies stick to Windows to avoid codec headaches.
Jun 6th, 2008
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