Flip Video Mino HD Review

Coming on the heels of the successful Flip Video Mino, is the Flip Mino HD. The Mino HD is billed as the world’s smallest HD video camcorder. This compact video camera allows anyone to take one hour of high quality HD video with its 4GB of built in memory. Pure Digital designed this camera to be extremely easy to use, and it shows. Its very convenient to carry around, and I was able to carry it anywhere, whether in my shirt pocket, or in my front pants pocket together with my iPhone. The controls are designed for novices and you can go from powered off to shooting video in a couple of seconds. This makes it the perfect video camera for capturing those impromptu moments.
The Flip Mino HD shoots video in widescreen format at (1280 x 720 resolution) and the quality of the video was very good. It doesn’t compare to more higher end video cameras, but it’s great for its price. I was able to record 4 hours of video on it, before I had to recharge it. Hooking up my Flip Video Mino HD to my laptop is extremely easy. Just “flip” out the USB arm and plug it in straight into the USB port. The included FlipShare software is pretty nice and works well on both PCs and Macs. With it you can quickly upload your videos straight to Youtube, Myspace and a bunch of other video sharing sites. It even allows you do some simple editng of clips and creating snapshots of your videos.
I only came up with a few issues with my Flip Mino HD. Due to the higher quality video, any shaking while recording is pretty noticeble in the video. You really need to learn to hold the camera quite still to get good results. Shooting in low light was a mixed bag. There were some instances where the Mino HD had trouble in low level lighting situations. I also wish they included an external microphone jack so I could plugin my own headphones.
I’m really quite happy with my Flip Video Mino HD. It’s simple to use and I get nice quality video. I took it on a recent ski trip and I got some great video of me and my friends. For a little over $200, I think it is well worth the price. Its so convenient to carry around and its nice to have a video camera on me whenever I need it.