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  • #46
    Re: Flip Video

    Woo! I just won a free Flip Video camera through some promotion through Facebook. It arrived today. The hardest part about getting started was getting the thing out of the darned plastic coffin it came in. (Those things are a class action suit waiting to happen.) I took it to my family temple's bon dance tonight.

    The good news? It's dead simple to use. Almost confusingly simple. I wasted several minutes looking for a menu. Any menu. Where are the settings? How do I turn off the cheesy beeps? Nothing. You've got the various buttons on the thing, and that's it.

    It feels reasonably sturdy in the hand, and without moving parts, I knew I could be a little rough with it. The kids ran around taking dizzying video clips of their feet for a while.

    I was quite honestly surprised at how well it worked in the dark... or at least, outside at night. I know my "regular" digital camera would've balked without blurry long exposures or red-tinted images, but the Flip adjusted its frame rate and white balance and got to work. Here's a three minute taiko drum performance. I uploaded the original AVI.

    I got home, and plugged it in. The USB plug is built into the camera, popping out like a little arm. Convenient and cute, I suppose... but if your computer has oddly placed USB ports, it's going to be a problem. I had to lift one end of my Macbook up to fit it in.

    The bad news? It's not very Mac compatible. Oh, sure, it mounts right up as a USB drive, and in the DCIM folder, there's all the videos. But they're MPEG-4 AVIs, which Macs don't read natively. It came with a 3ivx decoder that's supposed to slot right into Quicktime, but it didn't work for me. The only solution offered is, "Force Quicktime to run in Rosetta mode," i.e. PowerPC, non-Intel, slow and yucky mode.

    The barebones movie editing software that lets you connect clips together and add a music track doesn't work on Macs, either.

    At the moment I'm making a movie by running the Flip Video software under XP on Parallels. It's a heck of a workaround, but I'm not sure what else I can do. Obviously if I just upload the AVIs off the camera straight to YouTube or other video hosting sites, they'll work just fine.

    So, as a quickie, easy video camera? Fantastic. As a tool to post the random clip to YouTube? Perfect. As a way to make some simple movies on a Windows PC? Great. It's just not a Mac-friendly option if you want to work in iMovie or Final Cut or Quicktime Pro on a current Intel-based machine.

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    • #47
      Re: Flip Video

      Originally posted by pzarquon View Post

      So, as a quickie, easy video camera? Fantastic. As a tool to post the random clip to YouTube? Perfect. As a way to make some simple movies on a Windows PC? Great. It's just not a Mac-friendly option if you want to work in iMovie or Final Cut or Quicktime Pro on a current Intel-based machine.
      Exactly.....I've been turning people on to Flip, since I bought mine, which I found out about throught this very thread (thanx Tutu Sue!)

      And,yes, as usual, the Mac users get screwed. When will consumer electronics manufacturers figure out that Apple is part of the world now, not some underground,subversive computer ?

      that being said, I lovemy Flip, and only wish the included software allowed you to edit the clips in the movie, so you can cut out the parts of the clips you don't like.

      Oh, well, maybe the next generation of Flip cams will.
      http://tikiyakiorchestra.com
      Need a place to stay in Hilo ?
      Cue Factory - Music for your Vision

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      • #48
        Re: Flip Video

        Well, though it's a clumsy workaround to run the Flip Video software on Windows XP inside Parallels on my Mac, I wanted to see how the "Movie Mix" feature worked. There's no clip editing at all -- just picking and choosing which clips to include -- and I opted against the cheesy themes and soundtrack effects. Even so, again, as a basic tool that comes with a $130 camera, it's not bad at all.

        Here's my "Movie Mix" from last night's bon dance. It's all 25 or so clips on the camera, connected together. I was surprised it did dissolve transitions at all (and it handles the briefly blended audio better than iMovie!). Not a bad record of the evening at all, impressively something I did the very first evening I had the Flip Video.

        I said earlier I'd consider something like this for my kids to use, and now I know that's a perfect idea. But I'm impressed at how easy it was for grown-ups, too.

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        • #49
          Re: Flip Video

          One thing I sort of noticed is that the filenames of the videos it takes has the date of when it was taken.

          I haven't tried taken videos around midnight to see if the date change happens around that time or not.

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          • #50
            Re: Flip Video

            More Flip Video fun, as I whipped the little thing out of my pocket during our Big Island trip this past weekend.Since it's such a basic, cheap gadget, I don't feel obligated to do anything particularly fancy with the video as far as editing or even clip composition goes (versus my "formal" videoblog entries). Just hit record and whatever happens, happens. It's oddly liberating.

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            • #51
              Re: Flip Video

              :sick: Pass the Dramamine please....

              Really need to find a way of dampening the motion.

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              • #52
                Re: Flip Video

                Yeah, well, like I said. The stuff I'm doing with the Flip Video is pretty random and off the cuff. Walking around while shooting is something I generally avoid. Same goes for long running takes, no edits, no titles... it's as barebones as it gets. I'm enjoying this cheap camera at least in part because it gives me an excuse to not give a damn.

                But, that's par for the course for online clips. I get dizzy with shaky camera work too, but them young kids these days, they eat it up! That's the 'YouTube Generation' for ya.

                If you need some stable, composed, edited stuff to settle your stomach, take a stroll on the Hawaii Superferry. But that video, by contrast, took a couple of hours to assemble. Versus, you know, zero minutes.

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                • #53
                  Re: Flip Video

                  Have you considered a SteadicamJR?

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                  • #54
                    Re: Flip Video

                    The best way to combat the editing issue, or lack thereof, is to just shoot shorter clips. You kinda have to use it with a short clip mentality, as opposed to a film maker mentality of "shoot everything and edit later".

                    Also, the one great thing is the softwares' still photo function of turning one frame into a still. That's very useful.

                    Funny also, is when you're using it in public, people pose when you point it at them, because they think it's a still photo camera. You always have to tell them it's video, so they don't stand there like statues.
                    http://tikiyakiorchestra.com
                    Need a place to stay in Hilo ?
                    Cue Factory - Music for your Vision

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                    • #55
                      Re: Flip Video

                      Originally posted by tikiyaki View Post
                      The best way to combat the editing issue, or lack thereof, is to just shoot shorter clips. You kinda have to use it with a short clip mentality, as opposed to a film maker mentality of "shoot everything and edit later".
                      Indeed. I just went with the 'long walk' clips in that last set just because I could. Not my style, again, but... fun experimentation.

                      (Here's another walkthrough clip with the Flip. It's the house we stayed at in Volcano.)

                      But the very first night I used the Flip Video, I decided ahead of time I'd just shoot short 30-40 second clips, tops, then use the "Movie Mix" software to simply stitch them together, in sequence, end to end, no muss, no fuss. In that case, I think the end result was pretty good for a push-button composition.
                      Funny also, is when you're using it in public, people pose when you point it at them, because they think it's a still photo camera. You always have to tell them it's video, so they don't stand there like statues.
                      Heh. Though the Flip Video looks more like a video camera than the camera I usually use to collect video clips, a Panasonic Lumix digital still camera. I just click over to 'movie mode,' but it definitely doesn't look like I'm taking video clips when I'm pointing it at you.

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                      • #56
                        Re: Flip Video

                        That's great. The software applies the crossfades, yea ?

                        So, I guess, just keeping the clips short, or the desired length, is the key.

                        I gave a FLIP to a good friend of mine who's wife is about to have a baby (any day now) as a baby gift, and him and his wife said it was the most useful gift they received.

                        For the price, it really IS a great baby gift for parents with a newborn. Instant documentation, no muss, no fuss, and they can hold the baby AND use the camera at the same time.

                        Also, it's probably great at weddings, where they usually put disposable cameras on the tables. Now they can out a flip on each table and get well wishes from all the guests, instead of hiring a camera man for that.

                        Wedding videographers are gonna be pissed, but oh well.
                        http://tikiyakiorchestra.com
                        Need a place to stay in Hilo ?
                        Cue Factory - Music for your Vision

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                        • #57
                          Re: Flip Video

                          Originally posted by pzarquon View Post
                          [...](Here's another walkthrough clip with the Flip. It's the house we stayed at in Volcano.)[...]
                          Love that place! How'd you find it? And, yah, the Flip does a nice job as does the Flip's operator!!!

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                          • #58
                            Re: Flip Video

                            Originally posted by tikiyaki View Post
                            Also, it's probably great at weddings, where they usually put disposable cameras on the tables. Now they can out a flip on each table and get well wishes from all the guests, instead of hiring a camera man for that.
                            Disposable cameras run in the $5 to $10 range, so getting one for each table is not going to dent the budget but keep in mind the Flip is still running at over $100. If you had a small party with 2 tables then having a couple of Flips shouldn't hurt the budget. But if you had 20 tables, that's $2000. And what would one do with 20 Flips after the party?

                            Oh wait, now I remember, the Pure Digital web site had products for one time use camcorders and digital cameras. No idea on the cost of these items.

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                            • #59
                              Re: Flip Video

                              While walking home carrying my dinner with my right hand I managed to take and operate my Flip camcorder with my left hand. I could not do that with my Aiptek cameras.

                              I never tried it but the Aiptek iCam has a stablizer.

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                              • #60
                                Re: Flip Video

                                Originally posted by tutusue View Post
                                Love that place! How'd you find it?
                                Just browsing the web... we'd been eyeing vacation rentals for a while, when our family grew past the "Up to 4 People" limit of most hotel rooms. I sent Jen a list of family-friendly prospects, and of course she picked the one with the hot tub!

                                But you want to talk about finding that house? Get this. A prior owner of "Hale Kalani" just came across my video walkthrough on YouTube today. He posted a comment, explaining the improvements he'd made to the place (including the large front and back lanais, and now I know that large side room used to be a garage!). Small world indeed!

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