The Flip

There are two flavours of the Flip - the Cisco one and the one I've had to play with called the Mino HD Flip. There are some legal battles going on as I write this, so once the dust settles we'll see who gets the Aussie rights to the name/model.

For the uninitiated, the Flip is a small, boxy 5x2x1cm HD based video camera. Controls are minimal. On the back is a small 4cm LCD screen and underneath that is a Big Red Button for on off. Either side are indentations that offer transport and zoom controls and delete. The sides of the Flip have switches to turn the unit on and to pop up the USB port to allow battery charging and video transfer to a PC or Mac. On the front is simply the lens. The only port apart from the USB is a TV out port (not HDMI - simply composite)

Using the Flip is therefore easy. Start up is quick and imagery is while not exceptional, quite good. Or to put it another way, if you regularly post YouTube with video from your mobile, the Flip will certainly set your trousers on fire. If however you're used to, say, an AVCHD based Hi-def camcorder, you'll most likely yawn.

Based on that, the Flip and its ilk have their place, but I suspect the marketers are aiming at the YouTube/Vimeo market as against anyone with an interest in making video of length. As if to support this notion, there's even Flipshare video designed for exactly this, shipped with the camera.

Creative Vado

In the same vein as the Flip is the Creative Vado. I feel somewhat sorry for Creative; 15 years ago it was a major force in the gadget market and literally owned the sound card and PC speaker market. Since then it's been copier rather than real innovator and despite the fact in a number of cases in my opinion, the products have been superior (the Creative Zen music player springs to mind) it's very much an also-ran these days. Hopefully that will pick up.

I fear not with the Vado however.

In many ways it has advantages over the Flip. The lens is higher up the body meaning it is harder to get your finger or thumb in the image. The controls are on a 4-way and press button affair that's more intuitive and it even has an HDMi port making the imagery played back on a hi-def TV far better than the Flip can offer with its piddly composite cable. The LCD playback screen is also bigger (5cm v 4cm) and again, in my opinion clearer.

But the marketing machine of Cisco I suspect will walk all over the Vado. I have yet to see anyone comment on Twitter that they've uploaded via their Vado. In other words, the Flip is the iPod and the Vado is the Zen or Zune.

So I'll say this. If you're in the market for one of these cameras, do have a look at the Vado and the Flip before buying. Don't be one of those going baaa.... Baaa.

But if you want to make video with decent audio as against 10 second YouTube clips you little control over, get a proper video camera you can hold steady. Unless you want to attach them to a helmet, an internal car mount or similar, as for this, the Vado (and the Flip) could be perfect companions.

By David Hague

David Hague is the owner and publisher of AusCam Online. He has a background in media dating back to 1979 when he first got involved with photojournalism in motorsport, and went from there into technology via a 5 year stint with Tandy Computers. Following that, he ran a software distribution company on the Gold Coast and was one of the first to recognise the potential of Microsoft Windows.

Moving back to WA, David wrote scripts for Computer Television for video training for the just released Windows and Office 95 among others, and was then lured to Sydney to create web sites for the newly commercial Internet in 1995, building hundreds of sites under contract to OzEmail including Coates Hire, Hertz Queensland, John Williamson, the NSW Board of Studies and many, many more.

He went back into full time journalism as the Managing Editor for Channel 7's 'Gadget Guy', Peter Blasina's publications VideoCamera and Pixelmag, before starting Australasian Camcorder magazine when these publications were shelved. He now lives back in WA (Mandurah) on the ocean front with dog Budweiser and in his spare time is a nut for motor sport, road safety (he is on the Roadwise committee for Mandurah City Council), fishing, science fiction - especially Dr Who - and technology.

David can be contacted via david@auscamonline.com, vbthedog@gmail.com via Twitter via @vbthedog. or