Flip Video MinoHD Camcorder

This is a killer device. It's tiny - really easy to take anywhere. It holds 60 minutes of video. It has a flip usb that easily plugs into any laptop which serves not only to transfer files, but to charge the device as well. The video quality is pretty damn good, and the Flip software makes it easy to push your videos to YouTube, or even to send an email card to your friends. A 10 minute video will be about 900mb! It's amazingly steady when you film - none of that bouncing "Blair Witch" effect that you often see with handheld cameras. If you're going to be using this camcorder for interviews and such, there's a neat little tripod you can get for like $12. The only downside to this little gadget is that you will find yourself filming everything, which gets annoying for people, I think.

I bought this to record family events but also to record ballroom dancing lessons and events without lugging around a big camcorder. It worked beautifully at Thanksgiving and guests got a big kick out of playing back the events of the day and watching themselves projected via my computer to my front projector tv. Even with a 10ft diagonal picture the hd image was quite good. Recording dancing was more problematic since framing with the 16:9 aspect ratio (there is no other option) and non wide angle lens wasn't good. The distance to frame a 6 foot vertical object (dancer) entirely with the camera is about 17 feet. Because we liked the camera so much, i looked for a solution and have found a sunpak wide angle lens (.45x, cam2100, available from amazon for about $35) that fits beautifully on the camera and mounts magnetically therefore retaining the small size advantage of the mino HD. With this lens, one can frame an entire person at about 12 feet which compares quite well to much ... Read more

Opened up an early Xmas gift 2 days ago and have already created a 10 minute movie and a few more clips around the house. The ease of use is astounding and the picture quality is excellent for a device (sensor) so small and with no image stabilization. I got the two free accessories offer from Amazon (tripod and case). The tripod really helps keep the picture steady and I would recommend using it whenever possible. When it is not possible to use the tripod, do what you can to steady yourself and your hand (e.g walking and shooting video is not a good idea) as the shaking only gets amplified on large screen TV. Also, when you need to pan, do so slowly without jerks. Also note that with a 1.5m minimum focus point, you have to be at least 5 away from your subject to have them in focus. This focal point is greater than both the mino, ultra and original flip series camcorders. The minoHD is extremely easy to use. It had about 50% battery charge out of the box. Time lag between powering o... Read more

Works great. The Software included is very easy to use. Also works well with iMovie 08. I was able to easily upload movie in mpeg4 format directly to a mobileme web gallery as well as to google video. I did not even bother converting it to quicktime as I will probably be archiving most of my videos on Google anyway (as it allows to to control access better than youtube does). We are having a baby in the next couple of weeks so this will be perfect to easily capture quality video to share with the Grandparents that live Canada.

I owned an RCA EZ201 Small Wonder 60 Minute Point-and-Shoot Camcorder before coming into possession of a Flip Video MinoHD Camcorder. There is no comparison in image quality, and the price difference reflects this. The Small Wonder does, however, have two features that I consider useful that the MinoHD lacks. One is the ability to use replaceable batteries (the MinoHD has a built-in rechargeable Lithium battery). The other is a flip-out display screen that enables the user to get in front of the camera while seeing exactly what is being recorded. The MinoHD comes in an attractive, elegant black box, with none of the difficult-to-open plastic that we've come to expect electronic gadgets to be packed in. A high-gloss image of the MinoHD adorns three sides of the box, and the overall quality of the box broadcasts that it contains a high-quality item (reminiscent of the packaging for fine perfumes, watches, and fountain pens). This, plus the item's quality, makes it an ideal gift item f... Read more

I love this camcorder - so much, in fact, that I gave away my 3 yr old MiniDV camcorder. The flip mino takes more than adequate video quality for filming the kids or family activities - it's not professional movie quality, but at this price point, that's an unrealistic expectation. What really sets it apart and makes it the only camcorder I use, is it's small size and ease of downloading videos onto the computer for saving or emailing. The software is embedded on the camcorder itself and installs the first time you plug it in, after that you just plug in and choose what you want to do - save it, which only takes a few minutes. Emailing takes longer to upload to flip's servers, but is wonderful because you can email out much larger and longer videos than you could thru traditional email (unless you want to spend hours transcoding to smaller resolution before sending). This camcorder is easily small enough to toss into your purse so you always have it handy, which is actually where ... Read more