Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 21-25 of 428
 Wont work for long September 21, 2009
Scott F. Hilinski (boston)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Great product as is well documented, but the battery will crash in 3-6 months of normal use and ou will be severely disappointed like those of us that have been using this little gadget for a while ARE.
 Mobile and Easy September 17, 2009
Grant Fritchey (MA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
If you're looking for a small, light, easy to carry, easy to use, quick to transer, HD video camera, then you just might be in luck. The Flip MinoHD has been a great experience from the moment I opened the box. I have used the camera to record events outside and inside under varying lighting conditions. It works great. I've used it to record a video for a vcast and there were very few issues (sound was a bit light). The camera is so simple to operate and it holds a charge very well. On a recent time using it, I let my son shoot video. I wasn't paying attention to him, but he shot almost an hour of video without stopping. The battery still had almost 50% left on it. The only complaint I've had so far is the microphone isn't terribly great and there's no way to plug in a different one.
The software that comes with it is very simple to operate, but it's not terribly intuitive. I had to poke around just a little to figure out how to trim a video. It's easy to do once you understand it, but it wasn't right in your face obvious, or at least I didn't find it so. The installation of the software, which comes built right into the Flip MinoHD camera, was very easy as well.
I did find the image to very shaky unless I paid closer attention to the video than I was used to with larger cameras. I also noticed that really fast moving images or moving the camera quickly lead to quite a bit of matrixing. But since I'm not counting on this for broadcast quality video, it's hard to complain. Other than these complaints the picture quality is superb.
Overall, it's been a great experience and a great product.
 Good if you're always within reach of a computer September 16, 2009
plyopowerd (MD)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I already have a mini-DV camcorder and a digital camera that takes videos, so I was curious what advantages the Flip has over those. On the plus side, the Flip is small and very easy to carry around in a pocket or purse, and the controls are simple and easy to use, although you have to hold down the red button for a second to turn on and off (I left it on a couple of times in my pocket). The HD videos are very clear on my computer, and the onboard software is very easy and intuitive to use. Even my 7-year-old can easily edit and string together movies with titles and background music, as well as upload to YouTube or the Flipshare site which lets you share videos privately with family and friends.
Drawbacks: the lens angle is not very wide, so I have to really back away if I'm shooting a group. As others have mentioned, a microphone jack would have been nice. I also wish this had a card slot so you could travel and take more than an hour of video without having to have access to a computer. My Kodak digital camera was about the same price as the Flip, but it takes both stills and videos, stores them on SD cards and allows you to view videos with sound on a larger screen than the tiny Flip screen which is really of no more use than as a viewfinder.
The videos look and sound great on my PC with XP, but some computers that are only a couple years old may not be able to view the minoHD's videos. On my father's iMac, the videos were choppy and unviewable, whether played online or from his hard drive; we eventually figured out that his iMac's CPU wasn't fast enough.
This is a fine device for YouTube or Facebook addicts, video bloggers or anyone else who is surgically attached to a computer, or for families who will make most of their videos at home or close to home. For travelers, though, unless you lug your laptop everywhere, a digital camera is a better choice, and the "big" miniDV camcorder is still useful for recording shows off TV. As with computers and cars, pick the size that is most useful for your needs.
Cracked lens cover = toast September 15, 2009
K. Crater (North Grafton, MA USA)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Problem solved - no thanks to Flip - see below.
Although I was initially happy with my purchase of a MinoHD, the cover glass over the lens area turned up cracked one day, casting a blur over any recorded image. An email to the manufacturer brought a quick reply: It's not covered by the warranty (I didn't think it would be, and hadn't even asked about this), and there is no way to repair it.
Sorry, but this seems like such an obvious point of exposure as to be worth the additional 3 cents to make the lens cover replaceable. I'm not very happy with the design, or the company, at this point. And I appear to have a $200 piece of trash. Feh.
Two solutions:
If you carefully break out the cracked lens cover, use needle-nose pliers to remove the glass shards, then use canned compressed air to blow out the glass chips from inside the lens cowling (wear goggles, and understand that your warranty is deader than a dead thing). Gently use needle-nose pliers or tweezers to remove the black adhesive ring that held in the glass. Then...
The Surplus Shed has a 20mm heat absorbing filter PM1161 that drops in place, which you can seal in with liquid rubber (sealant, etc.) or some such.
or...
This is solution I liked best: GGS has a product called the DC Accessory Kit. It comes in various sizes, but 22mm seems to work for my MinoHD. There is a clear filter that has a ring of adhesive around the edge that sticks onto the surface of the camera to hold it in place. Then, there is a rotating polarizing filter included in the kit that attaches to the clear filter with magnets. Also, there is a lens hood which also attaches with magnets. Cool -- since I had neither before.
My rating remains the same, but at least I resurrected the camera, and it's arguably better than the original.
Almost perfect... September 13, 2009
A. Merritt
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Overall a great camera for the price. Love the size - so handy to bring everywhere and take out quickly to capture the moment. The videos are good quality and it is a very easy camera to use. My only complaint is that the camera, when plugged in to charge, does not charge all the way. I haven't had a chance to figure out the problem yet, but this seems to be the only downfall.
Showing reviews 21-25 of 428
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