Bummer . The iPhone 2.0 software ( ) fail to bring video recording to the iPhone . Given that , how are you presuppose to document a moving , memorable moment with a gadget small enough to fit in your shirt pocket?Pure Digitalprovides an answer with its latest half - pint - sized camcorder , the $ 180 Flip Mino , a Flash - based camcorder that records up to one hour of 640 - by-480 video in 3ivx formatting .
Like the Flip Ultra before it , the Mino is a stocky and easy - to - habit whole — though the Mino is slimly smaller than the Ultra . Unlike the Ultra , the Mino has a rechargeable , non - replaceable battery . ( The Ultra use two AA batteries . ) On the front of the camera , you find the 2x digital - zoom electron lens and mike . The left side sports the On / Off switch and the proper side features a TV output port ( a TV Composite cable is included ) and the electric switch you click to flip over up the USB connector at the top of the photographic camera . On the bottom , you ’ll find a riding horse for attaching an optional tripod — something you may want to use , as the Mino offers no image stabilisation ( mean you ’ll see a slew of television camera shake in your video when you withstand it in your hand ) .
The back of the unit holds a bright 1.5 - in liquid crystal display silver screen , a red Record release , indented Play / Pause and Trash button , and four tactual sensation - sensitive buttons arrayed around the Record push button . The right and left button are for choosing flick stored on the gimmick for playback ; the up and down buttons control the digital zoom during recording and adjust volume when you play a movie . Only those buttons that can actually do something at a give consequence are lit ; so , for example , the left and veracious buttons are dark during recording . I found these buttons more responsive than their counterparts on the Flip Ultra .
Flip Mino
The camera carries no light source for illuminating your subject field , and you ca n’t plug an external microphone into it . You also ca n’t adapt white-hot balance or manually focus . It ’s a reliable point - and - shoot photographic camera , with no extra .
Operation and installation
Because the Flip Mino is a level - and - shoot camcorder , it could n’t be sluttish to operate . Press the On / Off clitoris , hold back for the camera to come to life story , place it at whatever you want to capture , and urge on the Record push . If you like , you could engage the digital zoom by squeeze the up button . When you ’ve catch video to your heart ’s content , press Record again to quit the recording . you’re able to immediately review your capture by entreat the camera ’s dramatic play / intermission clit . To view another movie on the camera , move to it by using the left and right buttons . To delete a movie , just make certain it ’s the one present in the LCD and then press the Trash button .
Installing the software is likewise simple . Just flip out the USB jack and punch the camera into a powered USB port . The Mino appear on your Mac ’s Desktop as a obliterable USB drive . Open this drive and you find a number of point , the Flip Video for Mac software among them . three-fold - click this coating and the software program walk you through the process of set up the 3ivx Decoder that ’s necessary for your Mac to play the video captured by the Mino .
Once the 3ivx Decoder is set up , quit the Flip Video for Mac program and then set in motion it again to launch the software as it should be run — for viewing , lightly editing , and share picture on a entanglement site . you’re able to also make unnecessary a copy of any video to your Mac ’s hard effort .
The included editing software is enough to get the very basics done.
The software and alternatives
The software package that comes with the Flip cameras is nothing dramatic . The user interface exposes its Windows root in its more or less cartoonish appearance . It lets you do thing such as rename your video recording , trim its rootage and end , aggregate multiple movies into a undivided motion-picture show , and share your movies via vane sites such as AOL Video , YouTube , and MySpaceTV . In short , it provides just enough functionality to get the movies out of the camera and make them presentable to the non - decisive spectator . And , because it ’s domiciliate on the Mino itself , it lay down it dead - simple-minded to cut your video on any nearby electronic computer ( or at least one you ’re authorized to install software on ) . But if you require feature of speech such as titles , effects , and transitions , you ’ll take to plough instead to an diligence such as Apple ’s iMovie ( ) or Final Cut Express ( ) .
as luck would have it , the Mino makes this comfortable to do . When you connect a Mino to your Mac after update that Mac with all the latest iLife updates , iPhoto automatically launches and offer to download the Mino ’s movies into its library . ( This is not the case with the Flip Ultra . ) And just as with photos from a digital camera , you’re able to employ iPhoto to blue-pencil movies from the Mino after you ’ve imported them . From here , you could double - click a film and it will launch in QuickTime Player . If you have a written matter ofQuickTime Pro($30 ) , you may utilise it to export your Mino movies to any QuickTime - compatible format . Or you may skip QuickTime wholly and spell movies directly from the Mino into iMovie or Final Cut using these programs ’ importee control . To do so , just conjure the appropriate Import command , navigate to the 100VIDEO leaflet within the DCIM folder at the root level of the Mino , and spell the picture show you need .
The look and sound
None of the Flip video tv camera give you anything near HD quality , so you should set your expectations to something satisfactory for a cheap camera . The Mino produce seemly 640 - by-480 picture that wait ok within the confines of a movie frame on your electronic computer — that’sfine , notgreat — when you ’ve bewitch without the digital zoom . Employ that zoom and caliber goes downhill in a hurry , particularly in lowly - luminance options where the graininess becomes more evident . This subject is significantly amplified when you punch the Mino into a big - filmdom tv set . Shoot in decent spark and lay off the zoom , and what you see on a goggle box screen will be acceptable within the limitation of an inexpensive camcorder .
Speaking of spark , the Flip Ultra handles low brightness advantageously than the Mino . In indoor and foggy - outdoor shooting tests , the Ultra invariably produce bright video than the Mino . Shadowed areas that had some point when shot with the Ultra face muddier with the Mino . Also , when shooting TV deep down , the Mino produce warmer tones than the Ultra - whiteness shot indoors tended toward chicken rather than the Ultra ’s cold grim inclination .
The interior microphone is n’t something with which you ’ll want to bootleg a concert or movie , but a field cook noise within about 10 feet of the tv camera should be utterly graspable .
The Flip Mino (left) produces darker video than the Flip Ultra (right).
Macworld’s buying advice
My greatest desire is that you ’ve read this far rather than looked at the mouse rating and reckon , “ Huh , not such a terrific camcorder after all . ” Because although the video calibre produced by the Flip Mino is anything but pristine , this affordable and useful camera — with its go - anywhere , shirt - pocket wash room and simple operation — could turn out to be one of your favorite gadgets . If you ’re mainly implicated with capturing those moments when you do n’t have fourth dimension to find a “ existent ” camcorder ( and , for most of us , that ’s about all the prison term ) and you ’re far less interested with solution that may look marginal - to - middling on your TV , the Mino could easily be for you .
