I was curious about the Flip Video as an cheap, easy option to let my kids do the video thing, but never got around to picking one up. Turns out waiting was a good strategy, as Facebook gave away a hundred of 'em last month and I won one.
I just got it last night, and took it straight to the bon dance at my local church. No instructions, no practice. And I was impressed -- again remembering that it's a $130 gadget. Heck, its ability to capture ANYTHING at night was surprising. For a while I was flummoxed to not find a single administrative menu on the thing (I can't turn off the cheesy beeps)... but then I realized that's exactly why this might work for kids, grandma, or the wholly impatient YouTube fan itching to get SOMETHING online. The hardest part of getting started was getting the thing out of the darn molded plastic coffin it came in. The hardest part of using the videos it recorded was... well, using a Mac. It comes with stuff for Windows, but to use OSX video tools takes some hacking. More hacking than I had patience for. So I just ran the Flip Video software under Parallels. I used the "Movie Mix" tool, strung together 25 clips, and voila: http://www.lightfantastic.org/imr/extras/videoblog/archives/2007/08/bon_dance_by_fl.html Not sure if I'd have bought one (over the nearly comparably priced low-end Xacti, which has more features), but I love it given the price I paid! Ryan
