March 1st, 2008 Posted in Steve Levitt's Blog | Comments Off
Google this year gave out the Flip video camera to some of its top clients, SEM firms like the one I work for, and Account Managers who handle some of our larger accounts. It seemed like such a great and simple way to shoot and upload video that i thought I’d go out and buy one. Here is what it looks like:
Its very basic in its form and function. After an out of the box experience where I had to reformat it and re install the operating system with help from Flip’s tech support, I had the thing running and shot some video with it. Its pretty cool in that no software needs to be installed on the computer, you can plug it in via USB, run the software and upload from anywhere. I use YouTube to publish my videos and quality isn’t the best but overall this is a great one for amateur quality video shooting and ease of use. I really got tired of pulling the memory card out of my old camcorder, waiting the 20 minutes to translate the video into the right format then download to YouTube. so here are the specs and a link to buy one if you are interested.
Here is a link to the Flip Ultra Video Camera Page at Amazon
Product Specifications
|
| Internal Memory: |
30min.- 1GB, 60 min. - 2GB |
| Screen Size: |
1.5″ (diagonal) |
| Screen Resolution: |
528 x 132 pixels |
| Video Resolution: |
640 x 480 |
| Frame Rate: |
30 frames per second (constant) |
| Video Bitrate: |
4.5Mbps (average - auto adaptive algorithm) |
| Video Format: |
Advanced Profile MPEG4 |
| Lens Type: |
Fixed Focus (0.8m to infinity) |
| Aperture: |
f/2.4 (fast lens for great results in low-light environments) |
| Zoom: |
Smooth multi-step 2x digital |
| Interface: |
8 Buttons (Power, Play, Delete, Record and 4 way navigation) |
| Dimensions: |
4.17″ x 2.16″ x 1.25″ (H x W x D) |
| PC Connection: |
Built-in flip-out USB arm (up to USB 2.0 speed) |
| TV Out: |
NTSC (cable included) |
| Battery Life: |
Up to 2.5 hours (with 2x AA Alkaline batteries) |
| |
Up to 6.5 hours (with 2 x AA Energizer® e2® batteries) |
| Tripod Mount: |
Yes |
| Operating Systems: |
Windows XP, Windows Vista |
| |
Mac OSX |
| Min Requirements: |
(Windows) Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz computer with at least 512 MB of RAM, Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista, SVGA display monitor (1024×768) and video card, Windows Media Player 9.0, Microsoft DirectX 9.0 |
| |
(Mac OSX) PowerPC G4 1.0 GHz, Intel Core with at least 512 MB of RAM, Mac OS X 10.3.9, SVGA display (1024 x 768) monitor and video card, QuickTime 7 or later |
| Online Sharing: |
Unlimited Private Sharing |
| |
Video greeting cards |
| |
Upload to YouTube (public and private) |
| |
Upload to AOL Video (public and private) |
| |
Prepare for web publishing (any other site) |
