To MinoHD or not to MinoHD
I thought I would give typing out a blog post while exercising a try. Consider this an exercise in exercise 2.0…
Essentially, my whole family will be going on a cruise to Alaska in May and we are all pumped. I have been toying with the idea of getting a Flip MinoHD to record some lightweight family video on the trip.
At first I was stoked to get the Flip and the underwater housing, but the realized the underwater kit only works with the Flip Ultra…
Hmm. One of the main reasons I wanted the smaller camera was so that I could use it in non-ideal conditions…
So, is the Flip MiniHD still worth it or should I save my $250 to purchase post-apocolyptic weapons?
Gotta run, the bench press is open…
March 24th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
It just came to my mind that the new iPhone (that could be coming out in June) might have video capabilities… I think I am going to save my moolah and see what happens this summer.
March 25th, 2009 at 7:55 am
Brooks,
You can’t get much when it comes to post-apocolyptic weapons for $250. A good piece costs at least $800. I say get the camera and make a tight mini documentary for city focus about Round Rockers on the go. Hell, if you do that you may be able to expense the camera and the enclosure.
March 26th, 2009 at 9:10 am
Actually, I can build the ESAG (http://home.actlab.utexas.edu/~brooks/) for a pittance…
March 28th, 2009 at 8:38 am
You need to hit craigslist for that thing.
April 10th, 2009 at 10:12 am
TOTALLY GET A FLIP MINO HD! The Flip Mino HD is fantastic. The -only- problem is that the mic is inside the camera housing and you can -not- add an external lavalier mic. In outdoor or high-noise situations the Flip has trouble with sound. Indoors, however, it is great.
However, I get around that by using my iPhone as if it were a mic (I have my hapless victim hold the phone like it was a microphone) and the iTalk software from Griffin (that turns the iPhone into an audio recorder) and then I piece back the audio from the phone over the video from the Flip using GarageBand (or did I use Final Cut Express?). The synchronization is perfect – you just drop the audio track into the video, cut out the previous audio track, and it plays. See these interviews, which weren’t done with a Flip but the principle is the same -> http://peace.tmpp.org/tv/x/backstage.jsp – they were done using an iPod with an iTalk (physical plug-in device) as the recorder, sitting on the table.
I have totally converted to using Flip Mino HD for my interviews as of a couple of months ago. And I purchased mine from their website adding my own JPEG logo to the front of the camera (CafePress does the printing and shipping of the custom designs). I’m in love with it.
The Flip Mino HD has greater resolution (1280×720p == true HD) than the iPhone (800×600).