Flip Video Mino Series Camcorder, 60 Minutes
 | Average Customer Rating: Recommend Mino is a camcorder that goes anywhere. Simply put it in your pocket! Then easily share your video on the web on MySpace, YouTube, and AOL. Weighing in at just over three ounces, the remarkably slim yet powerful Flip Video Mino raises the bar for high-quality, portable, and easy-to-use video. Smaller than most cell phones, Mino fits neatly into a jeans pocket to capture life's stories whenever and wherever they… Product details and pricing info |
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261 Customer Reviews Posted
- Video Qualtiy Sacrificed for Convenience
- Everything you've heard about how easy it is to use the FLIP MINO is true. Within seconds of getting it out of the box, I was using its very intuitive and spartan controls to take video clips of my kids jumping around. I could review the clips I had just taken on the LCD screen. The FLIP was instantly recognized by my Windows XP PC, and the software was easy to use as well. It created a folder and saved the clips I selected with the date as the title, which you can change. The FLIP is VERY user friendly. Five Stars for that.
The video quality is not what I hoped for. A selling point is that you can easily upload your clips to youtube, and have you noticed how grainy those clips are? To be fair, the FLIP is not that grainy, but projected on my 32 inch Sony tube TV, the quality was definitely not as good as my MINI DV JVC Camcorder that I bought in 2003. The quality is better than my Canon A630 digital camera, and better than cell-phone video. But that's a pretty low standard. 3 Stars for this.
The zoom function is very weak. Forget about tight shots of somebody's face if they're across the room or on stage at a school play, for example.
Bottom line: This is quite a handy little camera. Although not as good video as a $300 camcorder from 5 years ago, at least you can take this on vacation without all the bulk and hassle. Worth it for that. - 2008-07-23, 0 of 1 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Inadequate audio volume on Flip Mino
- I bought the Flip Mino so that students could borrow it to use in a course that I teach at a university. I was drawn to the Mino because of the price, ease of use, and recording duration (60 minutes). I was also impressed with the quality of the video image. However, when I tried to record a subject only 3 feet away talking in a normal tone of voice, the recorded volume was so low that I will not be able to use it for the purposes I intended. Even on maximum volume and with the speakers on my PC turned all the way up, I am barely able to hear what the subject is saying on the recording. I tried playing the recording on a different PC, but the volume was still inadequate. I then contacted Flip customer support and sent a sample recording and was told that "this video didn't seem extraordinary." I will try to get my money back.
- 2008-07-22, 4 of 9 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Issues with Mac OS
- Neither Flip Classic nor Flip Mino are compatible with mac OS 10.5.x (Leopard). The videos created have no sound when played on the mac. The manufacturer is aware of this and refuses to disclose it on their website.
There are various work arounds, one of which is to convert the videos using the shareware Visual Hub, which creates new video files with audio. A kludge but it works. Too bad the manufacturer won't be straight with its intended customers. - 2008-07-22, 1 of 3 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Very Easy, Very Portable, and Very Convenient
- PROS
- Quality is surprisingly very good. Audio too, but like with most camera's if the camera man talks it's much louder than everyone else.
- Power on and ready to record in <2 seconds.
- Convenience is awesome, you bring it more places and get more video because it is so easy and small
- Interface is so simple. Easy to explain to people of all ages thanks to the big red button which has ONLY 2 jobs... start recording and stop recording. All the other buttons are only for playback or zooming.
- The email feature is very cool. It will upload any video on the camera to the Flip website, convert it to Flash, post it on a private webpage, and email a link to the private page to whomever you want. No giant emails and recipients don't need to create an account anywhere. If you're the paranoid type (and there's nothing wrong with that) and don't want to give Flip your friends email addresses, send it to yourself then forward the email/link to whomever on your own.
CONS
- The software is slow
- The software feature to make a "Mix" of multiple videos is buggy. Gets mostly done and locks up. Tech support was nice, but I still have the problem... I just don't make Mixes anymore.
- Software can create movie mixes (rarely), but not just concatenate a couple clips together.
The Flip Mino is great for what it is -- a video camera designed to be convenient and simple (+5 stars).
The software in the camera is a good idea poorly implemented (-1 star). = 4 stars - 2008-07-22, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Awesome camcorder
- This device is wonderful. I bought it because (a) I don't like carrying large, clunky devices such as traditional camcorders, and (b) I wanted something that would transfer videos very fast to my computer (my other camcorder transfers at a "real time" rate - very time consuming!).
This device fits both criteria! It is super small, about the size of a cell phone. And, a 20 minute video clip is transferred to the computer in about 1 minute. It also allows you to edit clips, and has a friendly UI allowing easy send via email or uploading to YouTube.
Other pros:
*built-in USB, allowing quick charging and transfer of video without cables
*easy button controls
*good screen
*good sound quality
Cons:
*limited zoom (only 2x, I believe)
I couldn't be happier with this device! - 2008-07-21, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
