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Product Spotlight: Flip Video Ultra

2008-05-07
it's a digital camcorder that's popular pocketable and it just might flip you out I'm Bryant on for cnet.com and the product spotlight is fix and focus on pure digital split video trap the flip video ultra is a real simple plug-and-play digital camcorder that's easy to use and it's the perfect camcorder for the YouTube generation it captures video at 640 by 480 at 30 frames per second which is considered TV quality and its improved video is superior to other cameras in its class the flip video ultra stores its video clips on its internal memory the one gigabyte model holds 30 minutes of video and the 2 gigabyte model holds an hour of footage but there's no expansion card slot it comes in five different color schemes and it's a narrower design from previous models but its thickness is still about the same you won't have a bunch of menus and settings to mess with because that's not what this camera is for it's basically a point-and-shoot camera now on the back side you'll see the 1.5 inch LCD and its controls there's the main record button and the directional pad is used to zoom in or out while recording or to change volume and scroll through your saved movies you'll have the power switch on this side and over here this is where you flip out its USB connection it's super easy to get the video off this guy to the flip video is PC and Mac compatible and the software lives on the flips internal memory so Q can connect it to any computer and you'll be able to use it wherever you go the software lets you navigate and save the clips to your hard drive and one of the cool features is the ability to instantly publish your Clips directly to YouTube or AOL video now I've been able to use this for a while and the thing that impressed me the most is its video and audio quality especially for its 150 dollar price tag I use it front row at a concert and when I turn the camera towards my friend and me you could still hear us through all the noise colors are pretty vibrant and it shoots really well in low-light conditions - it's the best-selling camcorder at Amazon and even Oprah uses it I don't know if that's a selling point but where does it need to improve it's screaming to have an expansion card slot for additional memory if you take this on a trip sixty minutes just isn't good enough I also think the unit could be a whole lot slimmer currently it uses two double-a batteries and that's a lot of unnecessary bulk and weight also when I zoomed in tight during the concert you could see a lot more visible artifacting when I replayed the video so you're better off getting closer to your subject instead of using it zoom I'm Bryant on for cnet.com and pure digital flip video ultra is a great on the go pick up and shoot camcorder especially for its price and it's the leader in the budget digital camcorder space
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