I'm Flippin for my Flip

Before I get started, if you want specs - then this isn't the review to read. I am not a techie and my reviews are meant for the common lay person such as I who just want to know if and how it's going to work when I turn it on.

This is actually my daughters video camera, but she found she wasn't using it as much as she thought she would - and thus it is now mine (well, I'd give it back if she were to ask).

I initially didn't use it a lot either, then we moved and my sister who lived 3000 miles away wanted pictures of our new home. I started taking digitals and emailing them - then remembered the Flip. I got it out, put new batteries in and did a walking-talking tour of our home, loaded it onto our YouTube account and she loved it!

And since the birth of our 3 grandchildren this past year - this little video camera has not had a moment of peace.

It is about the size of a digital camera, in fact, most people mistake it for a digital camera until I tell them otherwise. Not a lot of bells and whistles. Just on, off, record and delete ... my kind of technology. While the screen isn't big compared to some, it is absolutely adequate. There are micraphone holes on the front and back, so it picks up sound well (perhaps too well for the grandma who can't keep her mouth shut while filming grandbabies). It takes 2 AA batteries and doesn't seem to eat batteries like some cameras and recorders I've had. The batteries seem to last a long time too which may be due to the fact that the this turns itself off after a few minutes of inactivity - thus saving battery life. It will make a little digital-type sound when you turn it on or off, or it turns itself off.

You get a total of 30 minutes recording time. This is all self contained, no need for purchasing and loading tapes. My husband is a pastor and I have recorded a couple of his sermons. I simply turn the camera on, sit it on its end on the piano and wait until he's done. He paces when he preaches, so he is anywhere from 4-10 feet from the camera and there is no distortion to the audio or visual aspects of what I am recording. These have been loaded onto our pc and DVD's burned for home use.

Probably my favorite feature is a flip-out USB stick, so no need for a cord that you will never be able to find! The USB port on my pc is located on the front panel so I simply release the USB stick and stick it in the port. The first time you use it on your pc - the pc detects a new program, loads it and then prompts you through a series of pop up windows to assit you in saving your videos. It is so very simple and user friendly. It is very durable. It has been dropped at least a half dozen times and has not affected it at all.

This is a very "Kodak moment" type of video camera. We do have a full sized vidoe camera that we can get out - but would miss those "quick, get it now moments". While there is a slight (seconds) delay when pushing the "on" button - it is SO much faster than going with the big video camera.

So if perfectly crisp and pristine audio/visual quality isn't a priority - but getting the jest and getting it as quickly as possible to preserve it forever - you can't go wrong with a Flip and I have dozens of videos of my grandbabies to prove every grandma loving minute I've been able to catch.