Flippin' Out!


Easy HD: The Flip Mino HD.

I've gotten myself a slick new tech-toy... and incredibly enough, it's NOT a phone. But damn if it doesn't look like one. It's the Flip Mino HD, an ultra-compact and light HD camcorder. Surprisingly it's apparently a pretty high-profile gadget, being the fave toy of some celebs like Ellen Degeneres and Oprah Winfrey. Anyway, what does it do? Well, as it's name implies, it takes HD video- that's footage with 720p resolution (1280 x 720 pixels). That's about three or four times bigger than the regular VGA videos taken by your usual non-HD digital camera or mobile phone. And a whole lot clearer and crisper. The controls as well are about as simple as you can get- click to record, click to stop. You get 4GB of storage for about an hour of HD footage. You can connect to a laptop or PC via USB and just drag-and-drop your vids which are MP4 and ready for iMovie or your usual editing software.

Basically after getting my N97 and trying out it's video, as well as looking through samples of the iPhone 3GS's recording capabilities, I've finally given up on mobile video from cellphones. So now, I got myself an HD cam that LOOKS like a cellphone. HAHAHA!

As far as I know, the Flip Mino HD isn't formally available locally, but there seems to be a growing number of people with the device, apparently being brought home by some enterprising folk (like the nice guy I got it from) or by relatives. It's also available on Amazon or eBay and at Flip Video's official site. I really count myself lucky I got this device, for a price far below the price of a standard digital camera. It's still a toy though, not really one for making serious movies, but for stuff like short films, parties, trips and anything you want to remember in extra-clear quality, this just can't be beat.

It's FLIPPIN' COOL!!!! WAHAHAHA!!!