Flip Mino HD - a Camcorder Review

The Flip Mino HD is a really cool video camera. It is compact, light, and simple enough a five year old could figure it out. It only has five buttons, which makes it fun. It will automatically do the white balance, lighting, and color.

This camera is very small. It can fit in any pocket without any effort. It is also really light. Your hands will not get tired from holding it, and you will like the way it feels. It feels sturdy, the buttons have just the right amount of effort to press (not too hard, not too soft). The only setback is that the center button feels flimsy and cheap.

The camera has great video quality. It shoots in 1280 X 720 (also known as 720p). The camera can shoot an hour of film without emptying its memory card. This is helpful, considering you don't want to have to keep plugging your camera into your computer to download files.

The camera's automatic features work well in almost all lighting conditions. When you are in a lot of light, the camera will filter some of it out, while still keeping a clear picture. When it is cloudy outside, the camera will not add false sunlight, but it will brighten things up. The camera is built to shoot best in a certain light. It will change the picture to make it that lighting condition so as to perform at its highest potential. The only place the Flip Mino HD falters is in very low light. It will try to brighten up the picture, which it will do pretty well, but the quality of the video will drop dramatically. The video will seem like it was shot on a cellular phone (and not even a good one). If you are planning to film in low lighting conditions, this is not a good choice. You will lose your HD and be reduced to REGULAR D.

This is a nice camera, but it does not preform as well as I would expect. Though it only costs a few hundred dollars, I expected more from this brand, who normally makes great cameras. This camera is not what you would expect, and that it not good. If a few more hours at research and development were put in, this camera could top the charts, and it is sort of sad that those hours were not put in.