By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net
QUEZON City, Philippines — There are few devices that make life easier to bear. Some are heavily marketed but are totally useless. Others have become technology icons with a cult following. Then there’s the Flip.
At first glance the Flip, a video recording device, does not call too much attention to itself. It is the size of the most basic digital camera and weighs just as much. Its lens is at the front and the LCD is no bigger than 1.4 inches, diagonally. The control buttons are bland. Only the large red “Record” button is most prominent. The power button is on one side and a sliding switch flips out a spring-loaded USB dongle. This is as basic as any device could get.
But then, it is that basic design that makes the Flip a worthwhile device. This is one gadget that is purpose-built for the video-shooting buff and one that deserves a lot of praise from video bloggers and digital home video enthusiasts.
The USB dongle to its side can be plugged in to a PC and the device can be recognized as a USB storage device. There is no need for device drivers. Without fancy on-the-fly video setup, the Flip is just what its name truly makes it: with the flip of a finger, the device is on and the user can start taking videos.
Created by startup electronics firm Pure Digital in 2006, the Flip has already earned a fan base, which other manufacturers of cheap digital cameras – and even the more established brands – would wish they had.
It is so popular that it became a best selling electronic device in Amazon.com It is so easy to use that literally, a third grade student can take it out and start shooting videos.
The Flip’s appeal is largely on its ease-of-use: the only buttons available in this unit are the PLAY button on the left side, a DELETE button on the right, and the four-way D-pad that controls the audio, change of saved videos, and the red RECORD button. Only the single lens and the small speakers can be seen on the front of the unit. The lens does not have optical zoom but it has a 4x optical zoom.
The device’s basic model comes with a 1 gigabyte flash memory that can save up to an hour of videos at 640×480 pixel resolution and at 30 frames per second, which is good enough for taking home videos.
The videos are recorded as MPEG-4 files, which do not take too much space. It can be easily edited or converted into other video format like DIVX, WMV and AVI. The Flip-recorded videos are not too grainy, even if they are recorded in low resolutions. Blowing the recorded videos to full screen will not show too much pixilation. This is largely because the 30-frame per second recording speed compensates for the pixilation (take note that some LCD TVs can only go as high as 24-frames per second to run videos).
Incidentally, the sound recording is quite decent, provided the subject is no farther than four feet away. It does record periphery sound. But the user must hold the device near the subject to provide good audio pick up.
Video clips can be transferred straight to a PC through a USB dongle that flips out of the device. The PC will recognize the device as a large capacity flash memory disc upon installation. No need for a software driver to make it run. Videos can be played right off the Flip or copied to a hard disk or even burned to a blank CD or DVD.
Because the Flip uses a small LCD screen and has no moving parts, battery consumption will not become an issue, even with just two AA batteries. However, it is recommended that no less than 2500 mAh batteries be used to ensure that the Flip would not run out of juice even after 40 minutes of recording.
Despite its basic design the Flip also has its own accessories, such as underwater casings, tripod, and an attachment for a bicycle helmet. These are good accessories that will definitely widen the usability and the camera shots you can do using the Flip.
The Flip is a nice device. Unfortunately, the device I tested was never bought from the Philippines but was brought by my Canadian professor Kim Kierans who has been using it to capture so-called “Kodak moments.”
According to her, the device cost around 100 US dollars (4,500 pesos), making it a cheap alternative to the more expensive and overly high-tech video recording devices out there.
July 25th, 2008 at 10:25 am
I saw this on Oprah and I checked it on the web.
They have a new model that is rechargeable.
What I love about it is the simplicity of the device and the wisdom of a built-in software that helps you transfer the files to a PC or mac. It also has other stuff there.
I do have some features wish-list.
One would be to have a mic jack. Currently, it has a onboard mic that captures the sound. But if you want to do interviews and have the interviewees voice stand out, you need an external microphone.
Maybe an optical zoom as well. It doesn’t have to be a powerful optical zoom but something that is just right.
How about some headphones so you can listen if the sound is being captured properly or not.
I hope this can be available here in the Philippines. I’m sure to get this once it hits the stores.
Until, then.