I picked mine up for $105.99 which seemed like the deal of the year back in early October but the price has gone up considerably since then. I blame the recent flooding in Thailand for the price increases, since many of the hard drive and flash memory and camera factories were flooded, I will firther guess that the Flip was either manufactured there or components like the flash memory were. If you look in Early October 2011 a 1TB hard drive was about $60, by November 1st they are well over $130 for a no-box OEM 1TB drive. So people trying to figure out the price gouging, it's not deliberate - it's supply and demand. Lower supply from the floods coupled with a higher demand this Christmas/Holiday season equals an 80% price increase in a month for the Flip HD 3rd gen. If you bought yours for $105 like me, nice job. if you are looking at this for $190 - there are MUCH better cameras for the money. Look at the Contour or Hero HD if you are looking for something that shoots video and would work well for a bike/motorcycle-cam or a head mount sports camera.
This camera is compact with surprisingly good audio, 60fps and solid AVCHD video quality. When you're dumping footage to the computer the flip-out USB plug looks flimsy but supports the weight of the camera even on one of those weird front-port USB plugs on a computer tower. Exporting is easy with the Flip firmware, which exports your sequentially numbered files quickly. The camera is pre-loaded with decent firmware, but it needed updating the first time I installed it (which quite frankly took FOREVER to download and install the patch). The video files were easily imported into Premiere 5.5 for editing and cut nicely into my other professionally shot footage with my NEX-FS100UK. It's 720p not 1080p, but it's still a lovely image.
Best uses: It's a nice camera for tight shooting situations, like inside a small room, a car, a trailer or somewhere a large camera will not work. With a mount it would make a decent motorcycle or mountain biking camera. I've actually used this for b-roll in places I could not bring a full sized HD camera and have even used it as a breakaway/secondary camera on shoots in tight locations.
Pros: Great video image quality. Decent adaptive iris for bright light. The camera has a nice feel and the rubber grip material feels nice to hold (I bought the black version). You can toggle the recording light on and off when setting the unit up, (but I haven't figure out how to retoggle it "off" the first time I plugged it in). The files play best in Videolan's VLC media player. I tried to play the Mp4's in Windows Media Player but it can't handle them very well, Quicktime is better but still slow. Li-Ion Battery has a decently long life, it's been in my pocket for weeks on a single charge.
Cons: I don't like that the lens has no protection or a way to screw on a small UV filter. Fragility: I'm worried the first time I drop the Flip that the unit will be toast. The wrist strap seems flimsy. You need to store the camera in the felt bag it comes with for fear of scratching the unprotected lens. Only way to charge the unit is with USB. Not weatherproof or waterproof.
If you can find it for the same price or lower than I did it's a steal! if $190 seems high, it is. Wait until January 1 for closeouts when the company closes its doors for good.
I take my Flip with me everywhere, you will too. It's a nice pocket video camera.
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This Item  Flip UltraHD Video Camera - Black, 8 GB, 2 Hours (3rd Generation) |  |  |  |  |  | |
| Price | — | -11% $65.99 List: $73.97 | $209.00 | $44.99 | -25% $59.99 List: $79.99 | $228.00 |
| Delivery | — | Get it as soon as Monday, Feb 12 | Get it as soon as Tuesday, Feb 13 | — | — | Get it as soon as Saturday, Feb 10 |
| Customer Ratings | ||||||
| Picture quality | ||||||
| Battery life | ||||||
| Zoom | ||||||
| Image stabilization | ||||||
| Sold By | — | kicteck | GreenBox26 | KSADBOSSBO CAMERA | BOBLOV Store | Amazon.com |
| model name | — | NP-FV5 | — | H82 Body Camera with Audio & Video Recording | A22 | HDR-CX405 |
| display size | 2 inches | 3 inches | 2.7 inches | 1.3 inches | 1.3 inches | 2.7 inches |
| digital zoom | 4 multiplier x | — | 27 multiplier x | — | 16 multiplier x | — |
| optical zoom | — | 0.1 multiplier x | 27 multiplier x | — | — | 30 multiplier x |
| video resolution | 720p | FHD 1920x1080(15 FPS), HD 1280x720(30 FPS), 480p | 1080p | 1080p | 1080p | 1080p |
| connectivity tech | USB | USB | Wi-Fi, NFC | — | ✗ | USB |
| shooting modes | — | Automatic | — | Night | Night | Easy, Automatic |
Videos
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Customer Review: Good little video camera back in the day
Guru
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Flip Share Software
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Flip UltraHD, 2 Hour
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Welcome to Flip Video
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Reviews with images
The record button is iffy
It's a good camcorder, I've used Flips for years. My only issue is that it's hard to get the record button to work, which requires a certain amount of retrying and patience. Also, accessing the settings requires holding down the record button, but, when the button actually works, holding it down just starts recording. It's probably just a problem with the particular camcorder that I received. It's an older camcorder, so issues are to be expected, though.
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2011
Color: BlackProduct Packaging: Standard PackagingVerified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2011
Color: BlackProduct Packaging: Standard PackagingVerified Purchase
