The FLIP Camera: A Review

Originally published in 2008

The flip camera is the new darling of the video world, and it’s easy to see why.

Digital video camera technology has now brought us the remarkable FLIP camera, a tiny handy little video camera that makes shooting video so simple my grandmother could do it!

These remarkable cameras have quickly caught on and now make up an incredible 13% of all new cameras sold.  People are going crazy over the Flip!

A Flip camera is, in some respects, the equivalent to a point and shoot still camera.  You don’t have to know beans about video cameras in order to operate a Flip cam.

Plus, it’s small enough to fit into your pocket.

When you want to transfer your video to your computer, a little USB connector pops out, and you attach the camera directly to your computer, no cables required. 

Not needing a cable to connect to a computer is the huge new advantage to the Flip cam.

The video is internet ready right out of the camera, no conversion necessary. So how much easier could it get?

Flip is a brand name, and other companies are producing similar cameras under a variety of names.  My guess is that Flip will continue to dominate the market and the word FLIP will become synonymous with this format of camera, tiny, convenient and gets an amazingly good picture.

As cool as they are, Flip cameras do have some drawbacks, but I would consider them very minor.

One is that you have limited recording capacity, most cameras can hold about an hour of video.  Once your camera is full, you have to dump it to your computer before you can shoot anymore.  My advice is to be a little conservative in what you choose to actually record, and one hour should be plenty under most circumstances.

Another perceived drawback is that they eat double AA batteries like a pig eats slop.  Give me more!!!  Well, that can be a pain and certainly batteries can become expensive.  HOWEVER, the mere fact that they run on double AA batteries can actually be considered a PLUS, since AAs are common and easy to find.  Most video cameras require specialty batteries which might be hard to find.

Another perceived drawback is that the Flip camera has limited zooming capacity compared to a standard digital camera.  A Flip will only give you a 2X zoom, whereas a 10X is common with standard home level video camcorders.

Perhaps this is a case of you can’t have everything.  Putting a zoom lens onto this tiny thing would take away from its tininess.

Perhaps someday they will be able to pack a better zoom onto these tiny cameras, but in the meantime this is such a minor drawback, I wouldn’t worry about it if the other features of the Flip appeal to you.

I hope this information helps you make great videos!

Lorraine Grula