Gearhead Mom

Friday, July 10, 2009

I’m Flipping You ON

Posted by Jenny M. @ 8:49 AM

I’m afraid to burst the bubble of our readers, since I am sure that you are all convinced that Missy and I are hip, happenin’ mamas in our late 20s, but I have to announce that recently my BFF and I celebrated our 20th High School Reunion.  That’s right folks, we’re pushing 40.  Luckily, so was everyone else at that party. [Ed. Note: We looked hot, pushing 40 or not.]
What does this have to do with GHM, you might ask, besides the fact that we’re mamas who often feel old and tired, with gray hairs we hastily covered with dye before we greeted our old prom dates (we’d long given up on major weight loss)?  It’s the Flip Camcorder, friends!  I’ve been needing a compelling reason to review my little videotaping gadget, and our reunion is providing it. 

The week before our reunion, I was talking to the wife of our classmate, a SEAL who is deployed in Iraq and unable to attend the reunion.  I was hoping to talk her into attending without him, but, you know…reunions are so much fun when it’s not your class and all.  She politely declined.  But she was sad, she said, because it occurred to her that it would be great to make a videotape of her husband’s friends sending him greetings from the reunion. 
“OMG!”  I replied with excitement.  “I will totally do that! 

And it was a great reason to go up to people I wanted to talk to but felt awkward about approaching…you know, just like in high school.  And because I have the Flip UltraHD Camcorder, which is roughly the size of a cell phone, I didn’t feel like a complete dork wandering around the party taking video. [Ed. Note: You totally looked like a dork, Jen. Just kidding.]
I bought my husband the earlier model, the Flip Ultra for Christmas last year, as he likes to videotape our kids’ mostly mundane moments (Hey, honey, 10 minutes of the kids snuggling and watching TV:  cute, but not so riveting after the first 30 seconds!).  The Flip is small enough to fit in his pocket, making him more likely to take it places and use it. 
A friend of mine works for Pure Digital, maker of the Flips, and when I expressed interest in the new HD model, he sent us one to try and review.  There is simply no comparison between the original and HD version—except that you can see the contrast in the Tee-Ball Season Montage I made, which includes footage filmed on both cameras.  HD video is clear and crisp and makes the earlier model’s footage look blurry.  The new model’s 120 minutes’ worth of capacity also makes it less essential that we upload our videos regularly, though we’re not likely to get close to 120 minutes before our kids are in high school (short clips are better, folks!  Edit those shots DOWN!). 
Read below for more thoughts on Flip specs.  In the meantime, I was really excited to unobtrusively record some personal greetings and memories for a dear friend serving our country far away!  We miss you and thank you, AW!
Here’s what we love about the Flip:
-size
-the flip-out USB connection that allows you to simply attach camera to computer to upload video
-the video quality

Slightly irksome:
-relatively short battery life (rarely made it through an entire Tee-Ball game of short shots
-not enough zoom for long-range shots.  The Flip is better suited for small, up-close venues and events
-simplicity of FlipShare free software.  You can make simple movies using the downloadable software, but there are no options for subtitles or advanced editing.  After making two movies, I was ready for something more sophisticated. 

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