do you flip?

no, i don’t mean flip as in, you know, to move suddenly or jerkily or to turn over suddenly.

i mean do you use the flip video? maybe you have not heard of it before. yes, there is a small, light, hand-held basic video camera which is very easy to operate known as ‘flip video’. i don’t think it is available in our country yet.

i have not heard of flip video until feb. this year when i was in malaysiakini’s basic training on citizen/video journalism. our citizen journalism coordinator, maran from malaysiakini, introduced the flip video to us and said that they get the videos direct from USA. the price around US$120 – US$250, depending on the model.

then at our recent advanced training, since i don’t have a video camera, malaysiakini lent me this flip video (ultra series, white colour, exactly as seen in the picture here). earlier in feb. i had already thought of getting one since i don’t do video much, it is not necessary for me to get a good one with lots of features. the flip video will be ideal for me. i was very happy to note that now i ‘owned’ the flip video, courtesy of malaysiakini. well, ‘owned’ as that one fine day i have to return it to malaysiakini but for the moment the flip video is mine.

during one of our assignment last week, i try to capture a video shot using the flip video, and you will see the result below. the picture quality is quite good and clear. of course the shots are not good since i’m an amateur… but it s a start for me.

the flip video that i have is the ultra series model. one good thing about the video is the ease of use. click on a button to record, then plug it in computer (via the usb arm attached to the video cam) and play the video! literally a plug and play device. you can read about the review here and have a look at the specifications too.

here is a sample of a video i shot with the flip video. sorry, at somewhere the centre part, the video seems to be so jerky (me just a beginner lah so excusable). i want to show the quality of the video cam, not the quality of the videographer (that is me. heh. me no quality at all lah).

UPDATED: just realise that the converter i use, being for trial period only, converts only 60% of the video. alamak! so now the video you see here is not the full video i had shot but only 60%. hmm… must go and search for a complete free converter to download that does not come with any string! (eg earlier one, it converts all but it has it’s name watermarked on the vide0)

2nd UPDATE: ok it is 100% now.