size – it’s surprisingly small! i read a description that said it was the size of a can of coke, and i just assumed that was accurate in terms of length but not its width. well, i was wrong. it’s actually about the size of a can of coke all around. maybe even narrower.
easy mode – i like the fact that right out of the box, this camera is configured using it’s “easy mode” setting making it point and shoot friendly. there are loads of settings that you can tweak to your geeky heart’s content, but there is a single “easy mode” button marked clearly so you can return to that mode with one touch.
sdhc card compatible – this camera uses sd or sdhc cards to record footage making it easy to increase storage capacity, or record on multiple cards without having to download footage to a computer or record over footage. (there is also some hard disk space built in if you’re in a pinch.)

compatibility – one of the primary reasons i was drawn to this camcorder was the fact that it was advertised on the apple website. granted, i had my suspicions about its compatibility, but i decided to take a chance. unfortunately, at this point, it is only easily compatible with windows. like many of the other hard disk/flash memory cameras on the market, this is one that uses a proprietary encoding format (MOD) that requires the use of the camcorder’s software to convert it to a usable format. that said, there are several programs available (including handbreak – $0 – which works for windows, mac, linux and visual hub – $23 – that works for mac) that can convert this camera’s video footage, but this is another (rather annoying) step in the process making it less and less mom & pop friendly.
importing – unless you purchase a separate USB card reader, you not only have to plug in the camcorder directly to your computer, you also have to keep it plugged into a power source while importing video footage. this is pretty annoying and not exactly easy when you’re on the go.

picture quality – granted, this is not a high definition camcorder, but i was disappointed with the overall picture quality. the picture is crisp, but to a fault. there is no smoothing effect for movement resulting in awkward, jerking movement and grainy/horizontal lines in the picture. (to be honest, the picture quality of the flip camcorder is not nearly as crisp as this camcorder’s, but it’s almost preferable because it’s smoother.) considering the cost of this camcorder (around $300), i expected the picture quality to be significantly better than it was.
my overall feeling about this camera is that i like it ok, but i wish it did more. i wish it were universally compatible (i.e. i could plug it in and it would magically work no matter what computer i was using or where i was using it). i wish the picture quality were better especially considering how much more you paid for it.

thumbs up features

size – it’s small enough to fit in a pocket

easy to use – it has a grand total of 3 buttons on the back

point and shoot – auto focus pretty good and it handles movement pretty well

built in usb connection – this is an all-in-one unit so you don’t have to worry about cables or chargers getting lost or broken

tv output – a single cable connects from the camera to your TV to show off your newly filmed footage. it’s a handy feature if you filmed your baby’s first steps in the living room and want to rush over to grandma and grandpa’s house to show them on tv.  (by the way, it’s the only cable this camera comes with — another thumbs up.)

price – at just over $100, you can’t go wrong with this. even if you drop it on the ground and break it to bits, it’s easier to justify replacing it next payday (or holiday).

getting used to holding the camera vertically – this is not a problem for me, but for the “more senior people in the family” the tendency is to turn it horizontal like a digital still camera. unlike still pictures, you can’t easily rotate video footage once it’s recorded.
only 60 minutes of recording time – this is sort of a throw back to the DVD camcorders with the low recording time, but it is simple to delete footage from the camera or you can upload it to ANY computer with a USB port.

built in memory only – there is no SD card slot to increase recording time swap out so you can record more on the fly. this is a big thumbs down for me.

the battery situation – this particular model takes two AA batteries, a thumbs down in my book, but as chip pointed out to me, if you’re on a trip and run out of power it’s easier to buy AA batteries than it is to charge a lithium battery. a better option, in my opinion is the flip video mino model. it uses lithium battery, making it slightly smaller than the ultra, and it also charges by plugging it into your computer’s USB port (that’s two thumbs up from me). if you want to be able to charge your flip video mino using a power adapter instead of your computer, though, you’ll have to buy that separately (thumbs down).

the built-in software – ugh! i hate the built in software that comes with cameras in general. my opinion: why bother? the good (and seemingly unique) thing about this camera’s software is that a) it works on both PC and Mac OS X and b) once loaded can be used to upload easily and directly to online video services such as YouTube or AOL video. both are thumbs up in my book. don’t get too excited, this software is pretty bare bones and has the same chintzy appearance and functionality of other camera software products.

picture and zoom – if you’re looking for a super high quality camera to document important moments in history, this camera is not for you. for such a small, point-and-shoot camera, the picture is good. it’s not great, but it’s good for what it’s designed for. there is very little zoom – only 2x digital – and the picture quality is poor when using it. so, plan to stand close to your subjects and physically move even closer for better zoom/picture quality.

coming tomorrow, i’ll have a review of the canon fs100.

i am really excited about testing out a few gadgets for work. we needed a couple of camcorders to have on hand for checkout, and my only limitation was that it had to cost less than $500.  i wanted to test out some that didn’t require tapes or DVDs. my experience with tapes has been positive overall except for the whole “d’oh! i forgot to buy more tapes!” situation. my experience with the cameras that use DVDs has been horrible — never enough space, bought the wrong kind of DVDs (or it requires those special mini DVDs), not easy to use/forget to “finalize” the DVD so it’s usable, etc.

right out of the starting gate, i knew i wanted to try pure digital’s flip video cameras.  they’ve been getting rave reviews all over the internet for being an easy-to-use point and shoot camera.  beyond that, the choices were wide open. 

i started doing a little research on amazon.com, found some cameras with good reviews but consistently ran into the same speed bump with the hard disk and flash memory cameras:  it doesn’t work with mac.  seriously?  but it’s saved to a hard disk or SD card and you plug it into your computer using a USB connection! why is it different than a digital camera where you can plug it in and pull your files directly? what gives?

here’s the skinny:  the manufacturers opted to setup many of these camcorders to record in proprietary formats (e.g. MOD) instead of standard formats (e.g. MPEG).  this makes it unreadable not only by macs, but also PCs.  so why do all the reviews say these camcorders work with PCs?  the manufacturers provide a crappy software supplement that’s only written for windows xp (or vista if you’re lucky) that can transcode the MOD file (or whatever they’re using) to a readable format such as MPEG.  (btw — anyone who’s ever bought a digital camera or camcorder knows that the software that comes with the camera is NOT the software you ever want to use with the camera.  so why bother?  /rant)

not having much luck finding anything in my price range, with positive reviews, or obviously designed for multi-platform use, i headed over to the apple website to see what camcorders they recommended and came across the canon fs100.  it had one positive review on the apple site and mixed reviews regarding its compatibility with mac os x leopard.  this was at least moderately better than what i’d been reading about similar products and decided to chance it.

so, here’s what i’ve been playing around with:

flip video ultra
(around $125)

these are two VERY different cameras intended for VERY different purposes.  the flip is super small, lightweight, and designed to catch every day moments on the fly.  the canon is designed to be a higher quality camera, more like a traditional camcorder.

in the next couple of days, i’ll post my full reviews of these cameras.

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