I Sleep With Flip

As a dinosaur who can get technophobia attacks I could not believe how easy this little one hand held camcorder is to use. OK, I don't literally bring it to bed with me but in the three weeks I have owned it I have done more recording with it than with the other camcorder I have owned for several years. This is because of its size (slightly larger than a pack of cigarettes) so it can be carried in a coat pocket, a woman's handbag, thrown in the car's glove compartment, or hung on a hook near the door. You just never know when there's going to be a moment.

The ease can be attributed to the design that has a few buttons that take a minute to understand after spending five minutes reading the quick start guide. I don't understand why there hasn't been a lot of demand since it's introduction in early 2007.

Perhaps the low popularity is due to the price for either the 30 min hard drive or the 60 minute one, but I tend to think that Puredigital has not aggressively marketed it. I happened to catch a minute given to it by a tech reviewer on a TV show. Even now none of my relatives or friends have heard of it. It originally retailed for $179 but many places will now have sales. I lucked out and got my 1 hour version for $129 just before Christmas 2007 at an office supply store and that included batteries and an AV cable to hook it up to my TV. The only extra thing needed is a small camera case to protect it.

I have found the best use to be for interior use although half of my recordings have been outside with very good results. Inside use results in recordings with clear video and easy to understand audio if the speaker is no more than six feet away. Obviously, the more external noise in the area then the closer you will have to be to the sound you want to record.

I have brought it into two establishments when I was first learning to use it and both proprietors thought it was so neat that they agreed to "be interviewed" as long as I burned a disc for them. Got some brownie points and good will for future purchases. By the way, if you stick it in a shirt pocket, place it on a table near your conversation, or just casually hold it up to the person speaking they become almost oblivious to being recorded after only a minute because of its size.

Uploading is extremely easy with the flip switch USB connection as part of the unit. There has been only one occasion when I had to extract it and reset it because it did not connect properly. I did purchase it with an extended one year warranty so I am not worried about a loss for two years if that proves to be a major problem. So, I can record anything from one minute to one hour, upload the videos to the PC and I'm good to go for another hour.

I'm looking forward to using it more and can't speak highly enough of the value in return for the expenditure.