I have a quick tip for you today. It has to do with Amazon. You can buy the new Flip Slide HD Camcorder straight from Amazon. But you will be paying the full price. It's still a great price for such a nifty piece of hardware, but you can do better. When you are on the product page, scroll down. You will notice other retailers that Amazon shows selling the same product, and their prices for the Flip Slide.
If you search through these, you will almost always find a better price than what Amazon is offering. This is because they are usually warehouse stores, or other specialty stores that give big discounts to stay competitive. You will often find the same product much cheaper; even selling new!
So make sure to take advantage of this whenever you shop on Amazon.
Check warehouse prices for the Flip Slide HD Camcorder
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Flip Slide HD Camcorder Review
The Flip Slide HD Camcorder is the new product from Flip Video. It's an advanced version of their previous Mino HD camcorder, and it has improved on the predecessor in many ways.
My experiences with Flip products have been good ones. I purchased the original Flip and had a blast with it. I also have experience with the Flip Mino and the Flip HD Ultra. Each iteration increasing became better. Then came the popular and much talked about iPhone 3GS. It took video; it wasn't high definintion video but it did a decent job. Thanks to an bunch of applications and the ability to upload on the go the iPhone (and other similar smart phones); it posed a serious challenge to the Flip. I couldn't help wonder what Flip would do to stay competitive. Well now we do and it looks like Flip has gone in the direction of trying to make the Flip HD more useful on the go.
How you say? Well first it can shoot up to 4 hours of HD video. Second it can hold up to 12 hours of video, snapshots, movies and Flip Channels. Third, it has a widescreen screen that slides up to make viewing easier.
Let's look at the specs for a second.
From Flip Video's website:
• Simple to shoot: records up to 4 hours in stunning HD
• Watch instantly with the slide-up full widescreen
• Holds up to 12 hours of videos, snapshots, movies, and Flip Channels?
• Create private Flip Channels to share your videos with groups of family and friends??
• SlideHD is the world's best shoot and show camcorder
• Shoot up to four hours of incredible HD video on the portable SlideHD
Internal Memory:16GB (4 hours)
Screen Size:3.0? Transflective Touch Screen
Screen Resolution:400 x 240 pixels
Video Resolution:1280 x 720
Frame Rate:30 frames per second (constant frame rate progressive scan)
Video Bitrate:8.8Mbps (average – auto adaptive algorithm)
Video Format:H.264 video compression, AAC audio compression, saves as MP4 file
Lens Type:Fixed Focus (1.5m to infinity)
Aperture:f/2.4 (fast lens for great results in low-light environments)
Zoom:Smooth multi-step 2x digital
Interface:8 Touch-Sensitive Buttons (Power, Play, Delete, Record and 4 way navigation), Touch slide strip (to quickly scroll through videos)
Dimensions:4.13? x 2.17? x 0.98? (H x W x D)
PC Connection:Built-in flip-out USB arm (up to 2.0 USB speed)
TV Out:HDMI™ Mini Connector. Standard HDMI™ cables sold separately
Battery Life:Rechargeable lithium ion battery, charges on both USB and Flip Video power adapter.
Tripod Mount:Yes
Operating Systems:Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 Mac OSX Min. Requirements:(PC) 3.0 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or faster processor, Windows XP SP2 with 512 MB of
RAM, Vista or Windows 7 with 1 GB of RAM, and USB 2.0 port (Mac) 1.66 GHz Intel Core Duo or faster processor, 1 GB of RAM, OS X, Leopard 10.5 or Snow Leopard 10.6, and
USB 2.0 port
Software:Pre-loaded FlipShare™ software for instant viewing, editing, one-click emailing, and online sharing: Browse, playback, organize and archive your videos
Create movies with video clips, music and titles Edit clips and create still-image snapshots from video Instantly upload to Facebook™, MySpace™, YouTube™ and other
video sharing sites Share your videos privately using attachment-free emails or greetings cards (free and unlimited video sharing) Create private Flip Channels to share your videos with groups of family and friends
-Inside the package-
* Flip Video SlideHD Camcorder with built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery
* Soft protective case
* Wrist strap
- My Impressions-
From the opening of the box, it looks familar. It has a screen, the logo and a mircophone. That's what I like about it. It's simple, small, and doesn't lead you to countless hours reading the manual just trying to figure out how to work the thing.
There is a power button at the top, and a lanyard at the bottom. On the other side is a button for the usb charging, and when you pull on it; out comes the USB connector. Again, it's very simple, a brillant philosophy. At the bottom is a headphone jack (which is great for not only listening, but recording and creating content), a tripod mount, and a HDMI port if you want to view something on a larger screen.
The interesting features to note are the new sliding screen, which makes viewing video very comfortable and accessible. It's a touchscreen as well, so that's very easy to use. You can shoot 4 hours of footage in HD, and store up to 12 hours of videos and photos. The storage capacity is very reasonable for such a sleek package.
In all, the Flip Slide HD is a simple device like the previous versions, which is a good thing if you have bought Flip Video products before. But while the back may initially look familiar to anyone who has used a Flip video camera in the past thanks to the obvious Flip controls, these controls are virtual and the entire back is a screen. When used as a video camera the upper portion of the screen is the view to see what you are shooting and the lower portion is the controls.
Ultimately what matter is the quality of the video you can shoot. As this example will show, the Flip still has a huge leg up on a device like the iPhone. Add in the 4 hours of recording time and there is still a good argument to be made for having both.
I like the $279 Flip Slide HD Camcorder a great deal for a pocketable video camera. It also is great for viewing video, even though it toook me a while to get used to the fact that it is more than a camera/video camcorder; which is the point of the Slide functionality. Still, the previous UltraHD only shoots 2 hours of video and has an pricetag of $199 and the MinoHD also shoots 2 hours of HD video and it has an pricetag of $229. So one way to think about this device is that for $50 more than the MinoHD you double the time available for video. That is a good deal in itself, even if you never use the "Slide" feature to watch or share video. And if you do end up using it... well even better.
-What Needs Improvement-
The software already on the camcorder is, for the most part, unchanged from previous versions. The buttons on the product take more getting used to than on other models. The flip-up video screen and playback feels a bit like a gimmick to me, as it doesn't change your experience too much (but the basic functionality does not suffer as a result so it is okay). Other things that are sorely missed are being able to wirelessly upload video, and be able to stablize images. But that's techie jargon anyways; the average consumer won't miss those too much.
-What I Like-
Familiar Flip design, easy to use, on board software is easy to use, shoots good quality video, shoots up to 4 hours of HD video. That is twice as much as the previous models could handle.
It's always great that I can just take it on the go, as it's almost as small as a large cell phone, and probably less instrusive than you average wallet.
The camcorder/camera also comes with preloaded software that lets you edit, organize and share videos and photos on the computer and with the internet. This avoids the complication of having to edit your videos and photos on the computer with different programs after you upload. I liked the software that lets you edit and share videos as soon as you plug it into a computer. The software is on the phone, so there is no need for installs which are often a pain.
The Flip Slide HD is surprisingly customizable. An interesting feature is being able to design your own template. By going to the company website, you can browse through hundreds of different covers and graphics you can easily attach to it. You can find these on their main site if you wish to see the different options. The default colors are usually good enough though for the average consumer.
So in short:
Pros
- Sleek, small, easy to carry
- 3 Inch Flip screen for easy viewing, great for multiple people
- Touchscreen is easy to use, intuitive
- Easily doubles as a great camera as well
- Customizable covers to purchase separately that look awesome
Cons
- Excels at video and camera functions, but other options are limited
Click below to learn more information about the product, or even purchase.
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