Flip UltraHD Video Camera - Black, 8 GB, 2 Hours (2nd Generation) OLD MODEL by Flip Video
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Digital camera reviews of Flip UltraHD Video Camera - Black, 8 GB, 2 Hours (2nd Generation) OLD MODEL
Digital camera Review: All That it is Made Out To Be
Summary: 4 Stars
The Flip cam is great. Small, lightweight, durable, longlasting, easy-to-use. The only improvements to ask for at this point are better zoom capabilities and improved low light shooting. I would definately recommend for the family on the go.Digital camera Review: All the good is good, just a few of my peeves
Summary: 4 Stars
This camera lived up to all the hype and good reviews so far, everybody who sees my wife filming with this wants to buy one, but I do have a few minor criticisms I'ld like to point out to people, not to keep you from buying it, but just so you know.
No A/V out cable. Mini-HDMI only and not included. If you've bought a tv in the last few years it probably has HDMI, but my older HD set doesn't. And I still have friends and family who don't have HD tv's so I can't hook it up there. I suppose the camcorder can't downgrade 720p to 480i to output to an older tv, just letting people know.
Battery charging. The instructions say 6 hours to recharge. That's what it took today. There is a red light that goes off when it's charged but no other indicator. No plug, USB only, computer must be on. Running on 2 standard AA's almost makes up for this.
Recorded date? In Windows Explorer I can't list a recorded date for the videos as I can "Taken date' with photos. There's probably a way to get this only I haven't found it yet. The very good Flipshare software naturally has the dates I'm just used to working in Explorer.
This list of only 3 negatives is why I rate this so high, just wanted people to know nothing is perfect.
Edit 7/25: Just discovered this works remarkably well with my PS3. I previously had saved files from my PC to a DVD as is and the PS3 would run them but very choppy. Plug this Flip into the front USB port (lens side up) and after a few minutes (I had 35 video clips) you can scroll all videos and control playback with the Dualshock. No chop, just great looking video.
Digital camera Review: Almost Great Product
Summary: 2 Stars
Ok I bought this Flip Ultra HD video cam to start vloging among other things to say the least.
I was so excited when it arrived. I unboxed, overlooked the users manual, and gave it its first charging.
As soon as I plugged it in to the computer is when I started having problems.
1. The included software would not install. I even tried to download from the website, but still no luck.
2. After charging for 6 hours on a USB 2.0 port it still showed empty battery with a flashing lighting bolt.
Well, before I started to give up I called customer support and let me just say that is where the real hassle comes in.
After taking my on a wild goose chase of all the things that could be wrong with the product and or my computer and having no luck (it really seemed like the support has no clue about anything) the flip support asked if they could remote access my computer so see if the initial software install was corrupted and affected my computer. I refused and just said screw the software anyway. I am happy with Sony Vegas.
Then I moved on to the fact that the battery was not recharging. He ran me through various steps that did not change the fact that the battery would not charge.
I really do like the camera itself besides the horrible support and probably I just got a bum battery because I have heard of others with no problems, but it was just really frustrating. I kept the camera and found others like me with the same problem online who had their own fix for the battery not recharging which worked for me.
I would still recommend the camera to anyone who wants a portable HD video cam, but I would definitely tell you to research other reviews before doing so. Just to save you the hassle that I went through.
Digital camera Review: Almost Perfect
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this camera for my husband's birthday. The camera itself is great! It's easy to use and very handy. My only complaints are that if the battery gets low the camera won't turn on at all unless you remove the battery and then put it right back. This sometimes happens with 2/3 battery left. Also, there is no cable included to hook the unit to a TV.Digital camera Review: Almost perfect
Summary: 4 Stars
I got the UltraHD whilst I was overseas in LA on holidays. In short, it is almost perfect. It's dead simple to use - basically hit the button on the site to turn it on, then press the big red button to start recording, and hit it again to stop recording. There's no real other options on the camera other than time and date, but what it does (shoot video), it does extremely well.
I can't believe I can get HD 720p video out of this, with colour and detail this good, for the price.
The only extra feature I'd really want is an image stabiliser. Videos will come out shaky if you don't have an extremely steady hand. Digital zoom is useless, but I've found that I haven't really had a need for zoom on a video camera. The storage capacity is more than enough - the most I've filled it up is 3/4, then pulled it all off using the excellent software (fast, simple, uninstrusive, and does almost everything you'd want) that comes with it.
All up, I am very impressed with this piece of hardware. Annoyances are as follows (they're minor):
- It'd be cool if the FlipShare software would upload video to YouTube etc as HD instead of recompressing it and resizing it to SD before uploading it. You can get around it by exporting the video then directly uploading the file to YouTube, but it'd be nice to just be able to do it from within the software.
- The USB connection is a bit of a dumb idea. They should have had it attached to a short cable with recoil. Unless you're using a laptop with USB ports almost flush against the desk, the camera is going to sort of be hanging off by the USB port - something that doesn't feel very stable and gives the impression it could snap off if you did it a lot. Your best bet is to get a USB extension cable for about $2 from any old computer shop and plug it into that instead.
- Charging. A lot of people have complained about the battery overheating problem. I had this same problem too, but only if I charge via the wall adapter. Going through USB works fine, but it takes a lot longer. I *think* this problem has to do with most USB wall adapters outputting 1A, which is double the power that a standard USB port outputs, resulting in the overheating. My advice = just hook it up to your computer and charge it through that.