Yesterday, I received in the mail the Flip Camera I ordered. We have a decent Sony video camera that we hardly ever use, so it’s not like I needed this thing. But it was basically half price on Woot! and, since it fits in my pocket, I couldn’t pass it up.
The benefit of the Flip, aside from its size and portability, is that it’s much easier to get the video off the camera and into the computer or onto YouTube. Took me all of five minutes (including upload time and trying to remember my damn YouTube password) to get this extremely boring test clip of Downtown Brooklyn during the evening commute up online. Even better, I pulled it straight from the camera without cluttering up my hard drive.
It could just be my aging eyes, but the quality on YouTube doesn’t look so hot. Oddly enough, when I hooked it up to my 32-inch TV it looked pretty decent for something this size. So I don’t know what the deal is.
The above video is unedited and just a test of my own Flip. I’ve used them before, notably at the Democratic and Republican conventions last year. I didn’t do much, but I did manage to shoot some video during the day and, after a night of drinking at some other party, not only upload the video, but edit it using iMovie. The drinking may explain why I sound like John Wayne looking to start a fight during the voiceover, which was recorded later. This Bird Porn video is ok, considering it was one of the first ones and that halfway through editing, I lost the whole frackin’ thing.
KEN WHEATON 