This is flippin' crazy!

The Setting: I won a Flip Video camera at a social learning conference. Woot! I've been eyeing the ads and debating whether to get one, so this is great.

Here is the official Flip Video site. The one I won is the Ultra. It includes 4 GB of memory and records up to 120 minutes. It's small (around 4"x2"x1"), very easy to use, and includes a 2-inch display so you can see what you're recording. It claims to allow easy upload of videos to YouTube, Facebook, and MySpace.

I've created a few very unexciting videos of my family room and other areas of the house, which I don't think you wanna see. It has an interesting feature where it brightens the view so the video was actually brighter than the room was.

Yesterday, I did some video of the halloween festivities at work. When I played the video on my laptop, the quality was actually very good on the larger screen. It didn't pick up voices if someone was speaking in a low voice or was too far away, but it did fine with people who were closer and talking at regular speaking levels.

The Flip is very convenient but obviously doesn't have the same features as a more robust video camera. For example, the zoom is only 2X but, hey, whadda ya want? For the cost and convenience, it's very nice. After recording video, just plug the flip out USB arm into your PC. Very easy. Great for someone who just wants to record at a party, while on vacation, whatever event, and upload video without a lot of work involved.

I haven't used the editing features yet so I don't how easy they are to use. As I use the camera and learn the features, I'll report back. Maybe I'll even add some music and cool features to my family room video and post it here. Or not.