Richard J. Williams wrote:
> "I have found my video camera, it's so
> small and light, there are no plugs or
> cords, it takes great videos, no tracers,
> no little pixel smudges and the lighting
> is great. I took one outside at dusk and
> it looks nice. This thing records twice
> as long as my bulky handycam and I don't
> have to format any disks or plug in a
> bunch of stuff. The picture quality of
> the Ultra Flip videos is really amazing,
> my other cameras (handycam, Creative labs,
> the onboard Vaio and VIJE) do not hold
> a candle to the Flips quality. I'll be
> using it for video projects. I am very
> happy with the Ultra Flip and will be
> bringing it along with me for a family
> visit. I recommend it! Yes, I flipped
> for it!" - Gina Miller
>
> Read more Amazon reviews:
>
> 'Flip Video Ultra Series Camcorder'
> Amazon $116.49
> http://tinyurl.com/3aglsy
>
> "Munger took the camera with him when he
> left home for the scene of the shooting."
>
> Read more:
>
> 'It's not the camera, it's the journalism'
> Posted by Jack Lail
> Knoxnews, July 28, 2008
> http://tinyurl.com/5zvotv
For $99 you can get a Jazz 178 which does 720p HD. The flip only has
"VGA Quality" video, definitely yesterday's product. My Aiptek A-HD+
does 1080p and 16:9 480p. It is frequently on sale for as low as $120
at places like Target. This market is exploding and more companies are
entering it daily. Want something better? Well some of the majors are
offering some models at around twice the price or more of these low-end
hybrids. Some will have image stabilization and better lenses. Many
however including more expensive cameras suffer from a a problem with
CMOS sensor called "rolling shutter" in that each line of the video gets
sampled at a different time and creates a wavy effect when you scroll.
CCDs don't do that because they store an image and it is then sampled so
the frame is stable. Trouble is the CMOS sensor currently have better
color than CCDs unless you get a 3 CCD color which may not be very
satisfactory under low light. Of course CMOS manufacturers are working
on the problem and they will get better.
Today's TVs are also 16:9 in aspect ratio so shooting with a 4:3 camera
is soon going to be passe. And sure they are lots of 4:3 cameras being
blow out by stores just to clear out the stock.
