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Travel Tech Gear: Flip Video is the New iPod

March 20, 2008 at 1:47 PM | 1 Comment

Earlier this month, on our field trip to Puerto Rico, we ran into the Flip Video camera for the first time. A fellow traveller raved about their tiny, utilitarian video machine. It is the size of a small digital camera, but you hold it vertically when shooting.

We were confused. How was this little Flip different from every other digital camera with the ability to shoot video? The answer seemed to be its simplicity. No stills, a tiny 1.5 inch screen, no memory card, no menus, or settings, just this neat little USB jack that pops out right from the camera. The owner of this particular Flip camera was most impressed with this built in jack. "No wires or connection issues", she almost shouted. Hmm.

While we are still unsure of the Flip for ourselves, we now understand its appeal. According to the NY Times this little camcorder now owns 13% of the camcorder market. Why? It is pure video. Before Flip is you wanted to shoot pure digital video you were forced to purchase and lug along a big digital video camera. Next you had to learn settings, lighting, and then transfer your digital video to your PC or Mac and deal with clumsy video editing software.

Flip has found a place between camera phone video (The quality of Flip video is surprisingly good, 640x480 pixels, TV resolution, and it captures 30 - 60 minutes of video), still camera video, and professional digital video. Perfect for the traveler that just wants to shoot a bunch of quick YouTube style videos without clogging up your digital still cam.

Furthermore, Flip has that "it" factor. Travelers love to show it off. These Luddites brim with pride about their inability to fidget with cords and software.

With their low price point ($150 - $180) We are guessing you are going to see more and more of these as we get into summer travel season.

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Author Photo: markj by markj

1 Comment

Return to » Travel Tech Gear: Flip Video is the New iPod

  1. ecortes

    Jaunted Member
    March 21, 2008 at 9:16 AM




    Great idea

    With the rise in technology this is actually a GREAT idea. Anything someone can use without the use of WIRES in my books is good. The size of things are also getting crazy but once I see this device in Target, I'm there!

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