My Review of the Flip Ultra.
I received the Flip Ultra a few days ago, I have to say its a great piece of technology. It is by no means a replacement for the professional user, but it is perfect for one looking to get their feet wet with basic video productions common for online outputs. Some basic thing I plan to do with the flip ultra is to make basic short films and upload them to online sites.
The packaging of the flip ultra was great, It reminded me of apples method of packaging. Its design is minimalistic and effective. There is an on button, a recording button, play button and delete button as well as 4 directional buttons. The recording quality is right where I need it. It runs on AA batteries which is great if you are inn a pinch on batteries, this is an improvement over the lithium ion batteries in the mino and minoHD. Editing is easy and recording time of 60 minutes is plenty to make short movies. This USB design is very good for laptops, not so much for desktops where the camera overhangs outside of the case. I have heard that the flip ultra conks out after about a year of use, I hope that this does not happen with mine. Until then I am very pleased with this device. 5 stars!
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Got one as a gift during the customers vote, have used one previously in school for recording presentations and speeches. very simple to use, its fool proof!
for extended sessions a tripod is crucial! any cheap 2 dollar tripod will do!
Great for the non geek, but if its for a techie look elsewhere, resolution and lack of optical zoom are its downfalls.
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I am a Geek. My wife is not. I wanted a SIMPLE camera for her to use that was easily portable so we bought the Ultra (F260B).
The good:The camera works great. Video Quality is better than expected and the ease of use factor is fabulous.
The Bad: The Help Desk people at Flip are not well trained or knowledgeable and the SW is a work in progress. It will NOT run on my PC at all and the support line at Flip indicated they are having major issues with it. The lady I spoke to had no clue except to ask me to do a firmware update that I already did (and had told her so, but I played along and did it again). Her next diagnosis was to ask me to read the Requirements page for the Ultra and to make certain I met them. I indicated I did, but that I was not running a Pentium 4 2.0 Ghz processor, but rather an AMD Athlon that was 2.2Ghz. She said that was the issue. I asked if she was saying that the Camera is incompatible with ALL non-Pentium Processors and she asked me to hold. She came back and said no, but that she had no idea and that the SW was pretty buggy.
Footnote: I have another video editing SW, but it is hard for my wife to use. I have ULEAD Video Editor 8.0. It works perfectly. Simply go to the DCIM folder and copy the video files to the HD and use ULEAD to edit and burn DVD's. So I will keep the camera for its ease of use in recording videos and hope that their SW catches up soon. So much for total ease of use.
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My husband's wanted a camcorder for YEARS...literally. I've never been really interested in them...but when I saw this one at a special price, I started investigating it to possibly give it to him for a Christmas gift this year.
It had pretty good reviews...sounded fun to use...& easy! The software sounded VERY easy...as did the shareware.
When he rec'd it, he was pretty surprised at its small size! I saw it as a benefit, as it's very simple to tuck away in a pocket or purse. I got it set up on my computer and made sure to download the latest software update. It took a while to do, but other reviewers had insisted this was the crucial step to avoiding problems in the first place.
Christmas Day, I took a very short trial video of my son. The camcorder was VERY EASY to use and figure out, even without reading the QuickStart Guide! The video was good, and the sound was good, also, especially considering that there was Christmas music playing, kids being noisy, etc. That night, I tried emailing the video to some relatives, and I could NOT get it to work!
I finally gave up after a number of tries, and uploaded the video to PhotoBucket, and sent it out that way.
3 days later, the video was rec'd by those I'd sent it to! I finally figured out that the Flip.com server was overloaded with everyone trying to send their newly-recorded videos!
Pros: +Small, compact shape, but not small enough to get lost easily. +Black surface is not slippery at all! +Very simple to use and initially figure out. +Software is very easy to use. I especially like the attractive ecards it allows you to place your video in! +Price is very reasonable for what you get! +Video quality is very good. +USB connection is great in theory. +I like not having a view screen that flips out, as I've always thought there could be the chance it could get broken during use, especially around rowdy kids!
Cons: -Zoom could be better. Of course, a digital zoom would be ideal. -Accessories for the Flip Ultra are of poor quality (USB cords are too tight & too expensive; Flip Ultra case is extremely tight and not worth $1). -Storage pouch that comes with it is not padded. -I'd love a slightly larger view screen, but it's adequate. -Due to all the cords plugged into my computer, it was difficult to plug the flip out USB into my computer. I finally made it work, but I think I'll get a USB cable to help with this situation. -The 60 minute limit on recording is kind of a bummer, even though I knew about it before I bought it. A SD card slot would be extremely useful! We would like to record our kids' sports games...and more than 60 minutes would be awesome! -It took longer than I expected to upload this very short (20 second) video to the website.
Recommendations: *If you want an inexpensive, good-quality camcorder, this is the one for you! *Buy a non-Flip USB cable to make video sharing easier. *Buy some kind of padded electronics case (non-Flip). *Make sure you download the latest software release from Flip.com before using the camcorder.
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