Wee Video is an unofficial blog and community forum for owners and fans of pocket- and palm-sized video cameras such as the Flip Video, Aiptek HD, Sanyo Exacti, RCA Small Wonder and others.
In choppy videos and text posted this week on his popular blog, Weighty Matters, obesity expert Yoni Freedhoff began his culinary espionage at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and The Ottawa Hospital’s Civic campus.
“It was not a quality play,” concedes Simon Fleming-Wood, the vice president of marketing for Pure Digital Technologies, which makes the Flip. “It was a convenience play.” Convenience, of course, can be one of the most awesome forces in American culture. And Pure Digital, previously a nonentity in the camcorder market, has sold about one million Flips in the past year.
Uber-geek and gadget freak (and we mean those, naturally, in the best possible way) Chris Pirillo talks about the Flip Video. Among the things he likes is that he can give it to his dad and “it just works”.
The delightful shopping blog Mighty Goods recommends a Flip Video Ultra as part of its gift guide for Mother’s Day. We agree! The simple interface and easy offloading of videos to a laptop or desktop computer, combined with easy video-out to show off on a television make this wee cam perfect for mom. (They’d be especially good for new moms, who have enough to juggle with babes in arms. One-button capture is ideal for catching those precious moments.)
A company called Advanced Video Technologies has filed suit against Pure Digital Inc., makers of the popular Flip Video camcorder, alleging patent infringement. According to Reuters:
The suit alleges that AVT holds the patent to the “Full Duplex Single Chip Video Codec,” or software that allows the Flip Video cameras to compress video files into a far smaller form while keeping the images looking sharp. It is the essence of the camera, which has captured 13 percent of the camcorder market, according to a New York Times report.
New York Times technology columnist David Pogue has a great introduction to the Flip Video today, including news that the tiny cam has snared an impressive chunk of the consumer camcorder market in its short life:
...in the year since its invention, it has taken 13 percent of the camcorder market, according to its maker, Pure Digital. The latest model, called the Flip Ultra, had its debut six months ago with slightly improved video quality, greater capacity, a tripod mount and better looks (available in white, black, orange, pink and green). It’s been the best-selling camcorder on Amazon.com since the day of its debut.
Pogue also demonstrates the Flip’s advantages over traditional camcorders in this amusing video.
This is a pretty cool demonstration of the power personal video cameras such as the Flip Video put in the palm of your hand. Videographer and instructor Kirk Mastin shot the same video using a $3,200 Canon XH-A1 and a $150 Flip Video, then posted the resulting videos.
While you might not want to create your next Hollywood blockbuster feature using just a Flip, you’ll probably be surprised at the outcome of Kirk’s experiment. He was.
Yesterday I set out to film the exact same mini-film using a Canon XH-A1 and a Flip Video camera. I actually taped the Flip Video to the side of the Canon XH A1 to ensure that each shot was exactly the same.
Both sets of identical footage were editied exactly the same way: down to the frame! I wanted no bias in this test.
Both cameras were set to auto everything (Flip Video is always this way) and only minimal color correction was applied in Final Cut Pro to make them both roughly the same tone. I even cropped out about 30% of the Flip Video footage to make it have a 16:9 aspect ratio like the Canon XH A1.
16 hours later I have answered in part my eternal equipment question.
I just bought myself a late Christmas gift, a tiny Flip Video camera. I actually got the “Ultra” model; it’s about the size of a pack of cigarettes, shoots 640x480 video and holds up to an hour of video on its internal 2 gigabyte memory. It also has a USB connector that flips (hence the name?) up on the side like a switchblade to make connection to a desktop or laptop computer simple. I can’t wait to play with it!