Best Buy Flip Mino HD 3rd Generation 120 minutes recording 8GB Memory Image Stabilisation Black

The Flip MinoHD is small in size and big on quality. Its the one to carry everywhere. It has image stabilisation and a wide 2 inch screen. Pre-loaded FlipShare software makes editing and sharing your videos easy. Just plug in your video camera, open FLIPVIDEO and launch Setup FlipShare (PC) or Start FlipShare (Mac).FlipShare Features: Save videos to your computer. ? Organize your videos. ? Capture snapshots from your videos ? Create custom movies and greeting cards ? Share videos by uploading directlyMai...

The Flip MinoHD is an HD pocket camcorder made by Cisco, a networking and communications company based in San FranCISCO. There are two ranges of Flip camcorders available in the UK (Flip UltraHD, Flip MinoHD) and each range has two models (4 GB 1 hour, 8 GB 2 hour). This particular product, the Flip MinoHD 8 GB (3rd generation), is their latest top-of-the-range model and currently the second Bestselling Camcorder on Amazon.com!
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The Flip comes beautifully packaged in a luxurious little (12.1 x 4.7 x 6.8 cm) black box which contains the following seven items:

- Flip MinoHD Video Camera (black)
- Wrist Strap (uncomfortable plastic coated wire)
- Soft Protective Case (soft black pouch)
- User Guide (very short and easy to read)
- Important Safety Instructions
- Warranty Information
- Battery Charging Reminder (4 hours prior to use)
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The Flip itself is tiny at just 5 x 10 x 1.9 cm. This truly is a product you can slip into your jeans pocket and take with you everywhere. With no removable battery pack or SD cards to deal with, the weight is fixed at just 103 g, about the same as an iPod touch (4th generation). It's worth noting that the 8 GB model is only available in black, so if you want a silver Flip MinoHD you'll have to buy the 4 GB model, which comes in both silver and black.

Compared to most camcorders, the Flip has a refreshingly small amount of buttons and controls. On the back are six touch-sensitive backlit buttons: Play, Delete, Up, Down, Left, Right. There's also one big red Record button in the middle, that you have to press to either start or stop recording. On the left side of the Flip is a USB Latch, which you have to slide down to release the USB arm/connector that "flips" up via a spring-loaded mechanism. And on the right side is a simple Power button.
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The unique selling point of the Flip is that it's really easy to use. To get recording, all you have to do is press the Power button and wait for about three seconds for it to power-up. Once you see the word "Ready" on the LCD screen, all you have to do is press the Record button, which immediately starts recording a new video clip to the 8 GB of internal memory. A red timer appears in the top-left corner of the screen, counting up the duration of the current clip in minutes and seconds (e.g. 02:58), and a red recording light glows through the microphone grills on the front of the Flip.

The Flip takes pride in having no complicated settings or nested menus to worry about. Really the only thing you can customise are the five options presented in the Setup menu, which appears automatically the first time you power on. The options are:

- Set Language (e.g. UK English)
- Set Date (e.g 08 Dec 2010)
- Set Time (e.g 01:24 PM)
- Tones (On or Off)
- Recording Light (On or Off)
- Save settings? (Save or Cancel)

However, Cisco may have taken their quest for simplicity a little too far, because there are no video resolution or quality settings. The Flip shoots video at 720p (1280 x 720 pixels, progressive scan) at a fixed frame rate of 50 fps. You can't change or lower the frame rate to 30 fps (or even 25 fps or 24 fps) which is a major disappointment as the majority of websites and devices use 30 fps. The bitrate used automatically adapts and varies from clip to clip, but one minute of video usually takes up about 66 MB of storage.

So how do you charge it up? Since the Lithium-ion battery is non-removable, and there's no AC Power input, the only way is via USB. The Flip was really designed to be plugged directly into the side of a laptop, and left there for 3 hours to charge its 1 hour and 30 minute battery. If you don't have a laptop and instead have a more traditional desktop or all-in-one, you may have to buy a USB extension cable to connect the Flip to those hard-to-reach USB ports. Amazon.co.uk actually sell a pack of three (white, yellow & pink) Flip Video USB Cables, but these have been rated poorly for being overpriced.
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What happens when you connect it to a computer? Well if you're a Mac user, you're in luck. The Flip is fully compatible with Snow Leopard and works immediately with all its applications without you ever having to install any software or drivers. When you connect the Flip to your Mac, it mounts on the Desktop as a drive called FLIPVIDEO. Navigate through the folders (FLIPVIDEO > DCIM > 100VIDEO) and you'll find the Flip has saved each clip as an MPEG-4 movie file (e.g. VID0001.MP4). You can Quick Look the clips directly in the Finder straight off the Flip, without having to copy them to your Mac first. Alternatively, you can use iMovie's "Import from Camera..." option to browse the clips on your Flip and import the ones you want straight into your Events Library. The only catch is, since iMovie doesn't support 50 fps video, it will only edit and play your videos at 25 fps.

Overall, I think the Flip MinoHD is a great product. It's attractively priced and it makes shooting HD video very easy indeed. If you want to quickly record something without the complexity, the buttons, the battery packs, the weight, even the tapes of a traditional camcorder, this is the product for you.
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There's just one slight problem; extremely aggressive competition from Apple. For just 18% more than a Flip MinoHD you can get an iPod touch (4th generation) which offers not only HD video recording, editing and uploading to YouTube, but state-of-the-art features like FaceTime, Multi-Touch, GPS, Voice Control, AirPlay, the App Store and a Retina display! Can you resist the temptation?