Travel Photography - My new, cheap, HD video toy.

Just for fun, I picked up a FLIP Ultra HD video camera. It's roughly the size and weight of a pack of cigarettes and shoots 720p HD video stored in internal memory as mp4 (probably AVCHD, but I haven't analyzed it yet). It can store up to 2 hours of video and runs on either a provided rechargeable battery or 2 standard AA batteries. It has a small LCD panel on the back. It has a fixed focus lens and can handle down to about 3 feet in bright light. It's low-light performance is surprisingly good. For a minature, sub-$200 camcorder its video quality is, frankly, astonishing. Color saturation is excellent, the image is sharp and, considering the amount of compression that must be necessary, there are surprisingly few artifacts. The video isn't quite as good as I get with my Canon HV20 (a 1080i HDV machine), but the FLIP is about 1/8th the size and weight. Its video will integrate easily with that shot by the HV20, though it will take some color timing in post to get the video to match. The FLIP comes with a little chamois pouch and is easily small enough to put in a shirt pocket and forget.

I wanted it primarily to keep in my computer bag for those times when I've said, "If only I had a camcorder now!" However, I'll also use it to augment the travel videos I shoot with the Canon for those occasions when I don't want to drag my whole video kit around.

When I get a chance, I'll put up some sample video. This is the camera:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41s-ZcgRNmL._SL500_AA280_.jpg

I've been a big fan of the Flip cameras. I've got a pair of SD ones that I use for work to record examples of people working for training materials.

I (personally) prefer the Creative VadoHD because picture quality is a bit better and it comes with an HDMI cable.

These little cameras are all very impressive, and being able to cram all this in a <$200 product is awesome.

I've tried Flip, but settled on Sanyo Xacti.
Shoots 720p videos as Flip, but takes very decent 10M pixel pictures as well.
And I like how I grip it more than Flip, but it's a purely personal preference.

i bought a flip mino hd a few weeks ago, and love it. So convenient, and great in low light!

Yup, i've been wanting to pick up this camera ever since it launch. Originally i was in between the Ultra HD and the Vado HD, which in theory up to date are the best pocketable HD cams available. Upon reading and thinking,i've stopped my choice. It all depends of what you seek. For me the joy of HD filming is about details. I really would love these little cams to support the "depth of field" effect that cameras such as the Nikon D90 or Canon T1i generate. My camcorder has been out of date for quite some years, maybe... my way is to go for a dedicated HD camcorder with IS and all those things.


But yep, they are great little devices. Vado is currently on sale at $140 at newegg. (i've never used that site but well), just in case your insterested.

how long does the battery last? not 2hrs i assume?

I (personally) prefer the Creative VadoHD because picture quality is a bit better and it comes with an HDMI cable.

These little cameras are all very impressive, and being able to cram all this in a <$200 product is awesome.

I, too, have the Vado camera, but cannot for the life of me figure out how to edit videos together into a movie. Im not very tech-savvy, but the camera program that installs on your computer is not very user-friendly. Any suggestions on where I can go for a quick tutorial on how I can edit my individuals into one longer movie while taking out certain parts and perhaps boosting the lighting/brightness if possible? Thanks!