Posts tagged ·Simplicity·...

December 30, 2009 5:08 pm

Flip Ultra Camcorder 2nd Generation 120 Minutes Pink

Flip Ultra Camcorder 2nd Generation 120 Minutes Pink

It’s the Camcorder, Uncomplicated
The Flip Ultra camcorder makes it easier than ever to shoot and share video. Ultra features Flip Video’s signature shoot-and-share simplicity: just power on and press record to start capturing high-quality video in seconds.

Ultra-Spontaneous, Ultra-Fun
With 120 minutes of record time, you’ll never miss another minute again. And because it’s super-portable, Ultra lets you capture spontaneous video anytime, anywhere. Whether it’s a busy evening at your kids’ soccer match; a weekend camping trip; or simply an unplanned, everyday event, your Ultra will let you capture the moment. So you never have to say, “You should have been there.”

Incredible Quality
While it may be small, Flip Ultra packs a big punch. Ultra produces video that rivals that of far more expensive camcorders. Its 4 GB of built-in memory lets you capture 120 minutes of crystal-clear video, even in low-light situations. Premier AAC audio compression means your videos will sound crisper than ever, too. The included connector cable makes it incredibly easy to watch your videos on your TV.

Pre-Installed FlipShare Software
Ultra comes equipped with FlipShare, Flip Video’s video-sharing solution. FlipShare launches instantly the first time you connect to your computer. Featuring an intuitive drag-and-drop interface that’s as easy to use as the camcorder itself,

FlipShare lets you:

Save and Organize: Watch your videos on your computer whenever you want, and create your own folders to organize your videos, or simply use the automatic date-stamp system.
Publish Online: Upload your videos instantly to YouTube, MySpace, and many other websites, all with the click of a button. It’s never been this easy to share your videos online!
Email Videos: Send your videos privately, and select from a wide assortment of included greeting cards to personalize your me

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Flip over Flip
Great little camcorder for the money. Very portable and easy to use make it a great shoot on the go recorder.

4 Stars Happy with this product!
Very happy with this product. Only downside the low light filming is a bit grainy but in daylight film quality is great. Even did some filming cruising fast on our boat and the quality came out better than expected!

5 Stars Perfect Gift for Tweens, Teens or the PC Savy user
This camera was an impulse purchase for me after viewing video review (#1) for it. I was looking for something I could carry in my purse to all the school functions; band concerts, etc…, and then quickly use to upload to Facebook the video. This item fits the bill perfectly!

I love these things about it:

+Great looking video, even though the resolution is only 640×480 at 30 frames per second. It’s done in H264 video and AAC stereo audio in MP4 file format with this camera. NOTE: This is NOT the HD camera. If you want HD, buy this one: Flip UltraHD Camcorder, 120 Minutes (White).

+Audio is great too. Microphones picks up well and replay doesn’t sound distorted at all.

+Works with a MAC or PC!

+Takes AA batteries – easily picked up wherever you go.

+2 hours of recording time is ample for most of my needs.

+Software seems easy to use for uploading to websites, emailing and saving to files.

+Has a zoom feature!

+Lightweight and compact.

Things that could be better:

-USB connection option for desktops; not really supported as the connector flips out and there’s nothing to support the body of the camera. This problem can be fixed via a USB ‘A’ cord (not supplied but mentioned in the directions for use): USB 2.0 Extension Cable Type A Male to Type A Female 6 ft, Black.

-Battery life. Might need to invest in rechargable batteries or the lithium battery pack: Flip Video Battery Pack for 2nd Generation Ultra & UltraHD.

-Plastic cover for batteries feels a bit flimsy and has small plastic tabs that allow it to lock into the body of the camera. I’ll have to be careful when changing batteries!

-Wish it came with a clamshell style hard case instead of a pouch to protect it. That would add to its bulk and weight though, and for some, be a negative.

Uses:

+Uploading video to websites.

+Emailing video.

+Making home movies to burn to DVD.

+Archiving family gatherings to digital video.

This highly portable video camera is a great find. While part of me wishes I’d spent the extra cash on the HD model, right now I am pleased with the price I paid, the features of the camera and the ease of set-up and use.

I highly recommend the Flip Ultra 2nd generation to anyone who is PC savy and likes to upload video. Kids ages 9 to 49 will love it!

**Check out the photos of the Flip I uploaded to Amazon, and the notes on each.

5 Stars Flip Ultra
I am a 73 year old man and love to use modern day stuff,but most of the electronics have way too many features I do not use,The Flip camcorder is not like that. Flip is very easy to use and a handy camera to take with,where ever I go.Videos are Easy to upload to my grandkids,no fuss,no muss,all business and no gimmicks

1 Star 2 Flips died on me!
I had three Flip Ultras (120 2nd gen) and they all stopped working within 6 months to a little over one year of usage. One was still under warranty and got replaced. But warranties had run out on the other two and Flip company totally unhelpful and provided NOTHING. Bad product and the worst customer service I have ever received. I would never ever purchase another Flip. They may be easy to use and cute, but they die early and you will get no help. So, why waste your money?

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tags: Aac, Assortment, Audio Compression, Click Of A Button, Connector Cable, Date Stamp, Drag And Drop, Drop Interface, Everyday Event, Folders, Gb, Greeting Cards, Intuitive Drag, Light Situations, Punch, Record Time, Rivals, Simplicity, Video Sharing, Weekend Camping

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December 24, 2009 4:57 am

Nikon D5000 12 3 MP DX Digital SLR Camera with 18 55mm f 3 5 5 6G VR Lens and 2 7 inch Vari angle LCD

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by Bill in Photography

Nikon D5000 12 3 MP DX Digital SLR Camera with 18 55mm f 3 5 5 6G VR Lens and 2 7 inch Vari angle LCD

A remarkable blend of simplicity and highly advanced D-SLR capabilities, the compact and powerful D5000 offers breathtaking 12.3-megapixel image quality, along with a flexible, Vari-angle, Live View monitor for fresh picture-taking perspectives. Nikon’s EXPEED image processing further enhances performance, contributing to split-second shutter response and continuous shooting at up to 4 frames-per-second to capture fast action and precise moments perfectly.

User Ratings and Reviews

1 Star Serious reliability problems
When I got this camera, I was thrilled. It was light, easy to use, and took great pictures. I missed the top LCD that my D70 had, but it was mostly great.

Just recently, after about six months of ownership, but only maybe 20 or 30 days of use, the camera broke. Well, not broke exactly. It still takes pictures, but the mirror seems to be locked up or something. When you look through the viewfinder, you see what looks like a focusing screen with the blurry out of focus image and several focus points clear. It takes clear pictures, but is unuseable because you basically can’t see what you’re pointing at.

I discovered this problem the day before a three week trip to Australia. My local camera guy says this is a common problem with the D3000 and D5000.

I live overseas. I can’t bring back the camera. I’ll have it repaired when I get a chance to return it in the U.S. (this warranty is not international).

But the damage is done. I won’t be buying another Nikon. I’d only bought this camera over the Canon d500 (Ti1) because of my previous investment in lenses, etc. (turns out you can’t use lenses from the D70 in auto-focus anyway).

When I get my camera repaired, I’ll use it and probably take reasonable pictures with it until it possibly breaks again. But I won’t be investing in any more lenses, etc. My next camera will be a Canon.

5 Stars AWESOME DSLR!!!!!! GET YOUR MONEYS WORTH!
I was looking at the Canon T1i and this. I ended up buying the D5000 because I heard image quality was better. This camera is much cheaper than the T1i by like 70-80$. That’s great if your on a budget! The video is pretty good for 720p but the mic is bad, cause it does mono audio, which sounds horrible. I don’t know why they didn’t add on a external mic jack. Video to me was just the extra, also theirs no continuous focus during video recording mode. I really like the vari-angle screen, its very useful and fun to play with when taking self portraits. Also the 4 frames per second is great when taking action shots. Overall I really like the D5000, it’s a great camera for 1st time DSLR owner and I think you will definately love it!

5 Stars Better than I had expected!
There are many features to what this camera can do, and I was a little hesitant when I started to read all of the reviews on Amazon about this camera. I stepped away from Amazon.com and started going through what real professionals thought about this camera. I started at [...]. This website goes through each of the cameras settings, gives you an in-depth detail of the camera, what the Pros & Cons are, how to use it, what type of pictures it can take, compares it to other cameras and so much more. This website really helped me decide because reading some of these reviews on Amazon.com scared me quite a bit.

After I got the camera I was playing with it for hours trying to figure out if I could recreate some of the issues these people had. I found an issue that I read earlier in one of these postings about the Autofocus feature turned off. There is actually a setting that I personally changed that affected the camera’s autofocus even when the AF was switched to on, on my lens. After reading the book I had it fixed in just a couple of seconds!

I then compared the camera to a Cannon RebelXLT that I had purchased a couple of years ago. I know the technology has changed, but when I was on the hunt for a new digital camera I wanted to look at all angles of brands. One of the first things I liked compared to the Cannon was the view finder. I’m not too sure why but my eyes always had a hard time trying to Manual Focus with the Cannon. With the Nikon the viewfinder is tinted slightly and that is just enough tint for my eyes to recognize what is focused and what isn’t. Not only did the Nikon beat the Cannon in the focusing arena but more so in photography studio shooting as well. I work for a company that manufactures aftermarket parts for the Hot Rod & Street Rod Industry. I have been using the old Cannon for all of my shots until I received my Nikon. I took one shot of our products with both cameras and the Nikon by far and hands down took a better more clearer picture.

I am very pleased with my purchase and I can’t wait to try all of the other lenses that are made for this camera. If your having issues with your camera my best advice is to read the book and possibly purchase another book about the camera so you can learn the in’s and out’s of what this Nikon D5000 is capable of.

1 Star $800 down the drain. Nikon does a switcheroo to customers
If you buy your Nikon online you may not be able to have it serviced. They may tell you it is ‘grey market’ and not honor the warranty. I always thought grey market meant that you bought it off the back of someone’s truck or in some other sort of illegal way. NOT SO! If you buy your Nikon online, you have no way of knowing where the seller purchased the camera. If they purchased it outside the US (for example, from a Japanese wholesaler with lower prices than in the US which is the case) their profit is greater/camera cost is lower to them. However NIKON will NOT service that camera for you! They call them “Grey market”. Nikon obviously makes less money on these cameras and won’t service them. My husband paid $799 for my camera and it is money lost.

It gets worse…I sent my “grey market” camera in for repair and not only did they call it grey market, they switched it with another customer’s “Sigma” branded cheap product and sent it to me. Can you believe that?? They must not have an investory control system and someone else has my Nikon camera. 6 months into this, I have sent them the serial number, pictures of the box, original receipt, etc. and they keep saying my camera was a different brand (Sigma, which I had never even heard of). I got someone else’s ugly, cheap camera sent to me by Nikon and they won’t take responsibility for it.

I suggest you take a look at comments about Cannon and how they stand behind their products. Lots of people onlne/blogs, etc. are complaining that Nikon does not.

Be careful when making such a significant investment. This is criminal behavior on Nikon’s part. And we thought Wall Street was a problem???

I never got my camera back from Nikon and they won’t respond to my repeated requests to have it returned to me! $800 down the drain! If you go online you will see tons of complaints about the Nikon service. Nikon seems to make good products, but does not stand behind them whatsoever.

5 Stars Better than I hoped!
I did a ton of research before buying this camera, and I am really happy I did. It does everything really well. It takes beautiful still photos and great video. Video is manual focus only. Some people consider that to be a disadvantage, but feel that is a big advantage if you want interesting video. Once you get the hang of the focus, it can be really exciting to control focus, and depth of field. I highly recommend a video light for this camera if you are interested in using video, in anything but direct sunlight. The in-camera retouching features are quite fun, and build quality of the camera is good. The articulating live view is quite handy for odd angle compositions. Great Camera!!

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tags: Angle Lcd, Auto Focus, Camera Guy, D70, Digital Slr Camera, Dx, Focus Image, Image Processing, Image Quality, Mirror, Mp, Nikon Digital, Perspectives, Precise Moments, Reliability Problems, Remarkable Blend, Shutter, Simplicity, Six Months, Viewfinder

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December 18, 2009 4:08 am

Flip UltraHD Camcorder 120 Minutes White

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by Bill in Photography

Flip UltraHD Camcorder 120 Minutes White

The Flip UltraHD Camcorder combines Flip Videos signature shoot-and-share simplicity with the power of vivid, vibrant HD video. Power on and press record to start capturing incredible HD video in seconds. When its time to share your video, use the flip-out USB arm to connect to any PC or Mac and launch built-in FlipShare editing and video-sharing software. Built-in FlipShare software lets you easily email videos, edit individual clips, make custom movies, capture still photos from video, and even upload video to sharing sites likeYouTube and MySpace

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars use a fan whilst charging to stop it getting hot…
Have had the flip ultra HD for a couple of weeks now. Really love how easy it is to use and i am pretty sure my old panasonic mini DV camcorder is now going to be collecting dust in the corner. Although the quality on the panasonic is far superior, it was just too much hassle to download the videos and to edit and convert them into a smaller file on the pc, which meant i rarely shared my videos of the kids with anyone.

I have read other reviewer’s comments about issues whilst charging, but i decided to go ahead with the purchase anyway since i also have rechargeable AA batteries that i can use. i thought i’d add my experiences so far. I have had issues with the unit giving an error message that it is getting too hot whilst charging, and so i now take off the battery cover and have a fan blowing on the device whilst it is charging, which keeps it cool. not the most elegant solution, but it works!

It seems to take a couple of hours to recharge fully.

4 Stars I like it BUT Image stabilaztion is pretty bad without tripod!
I purchased this for my wife to take on a trip to India and a skiing trip I will take in January. The packaging was great and over-all it is a quality product. For the small purchase price it delivers your moneys worth but everyone needs to understand its limitations. If you can use the camcorder on a stationary table or tripod it will work perfectly. If you take videos on the go in your hand you will NOT be happy with the results. It does not have image stabilization so it is VERY jerky and a chore to watch. If you move the camera quickly you will also get jerky video like it doesn’t have enough frames per second. Keep in mind this is a very small package and can only do so much. I found the audio to be more than acceptable and the video is excellent when placed in a stationary position. If you can live with this restriction I say go for it. Before I purchased this particular recorder I viewed some videos off the web where comparisons were made between several different camcorders and this problem is normal for all small flash memory camcorders. The Vado was the closest top rated camcorder and it has the same problem. This camera does seem to record in lower light areas better than I expected. It isn’t great and it is a little grainy but to me it was acceptable. You have to buy a wall charger seperately if you want to charge it without a USB port. One other improvement I would recommend in future Flips is external memory card slots. It will hold 2 hours but it is strictly internal memory so if you use it up on a long vacation you have to take your laptop and download the videos off the camera to shoot some more. If it had external memory slots you could just slip in another card. 2 hours is a lot of video so for me I believe it will be fine. I love the fact that is powers on in a matter of 1 second and is ready to record right then. No waiting just point and go. I also like the fact you can use regular AA batteries if you can’t wait to recharge the main battery pack. This can really save the day if you forgot to do a recharge and the baby is putting on a production or that tornado is in sight. The flipshare software is very easy to use and if you upload to myspace,youtube or facebook it can’t be any easier than this. For the money and on the go tripod recording I say buy one and enjoy!

2 Stars No. Please don’t buy.
I’m sorry to write a negative review. Here are my beefs:

1. The battery dies after 1 hour of use. However, this makes no sense as the drive holds two hours of video.

2. The images are very jittery due to a lack of image stabilization.

Those are my two main beefs and the reason why I think this is a bad choice for a portable video camera.

Is addition, the only way to charge the batteries is by hooking it up to your computer (which is why it’s so strange that the camera holds two hours of video. It seems to me that the battery life should be comparable to the amount of video one can shoot.)

As well, the Flip software is not great. I’ve had other cameras and software that is much more user friendly. The software is clunky and cumbersome.

Also, I’ve shot videos in a well-lit kitchen only to see that the faces of the people in my video were dark and hard to see until I moved the camera right up into their face. This was during the day with the lights on as well.

For $200 or so, I think there may be better options out there. If you can find this camera used or refurbished for a much lower price, then I’d go for it. But even then, you have to be able to live with the limitations. My iPhone takes better video!

4 Stars Good for day-to-day, wouldn’t use for long-term “memories”
We received the UltraHD today (12-9-2009) – shipping was incredibly FAST.

Out of the box the battery had a full charge and I was recording in seconds (not minutes, seconds); the usability is great, the interface is easy, and the software is actually quite good.

The biggest pro: speed. After hitting the power then record buttons, you can literally be recording in 2-3 seconds. This is perfect when trying to capture those special moments (like our 9-month old son throwing his Cheerios all over the place).

The biggest con: pixelation. In low-to-medium light the quality is quite poor (even in a brightly lit kitchen). If it had a bigger/better sensor, I could easily use this to record long-term “memories” of my son growing up. But I’d hate to look back 2-3 years from now and find myself saying “I wish it wasn’t so pixelated” or “We missed X detail because of the sensor”. For comparison, my HTC Droid Eris (a Verizon Android phone) takes comparable videos, although the quality is lower and there is an audio-to-video delay (but no pixelation, especially when recording “blacks” and other dark colors). The HTC Passion is coming out in Q1 2010 with 720p capabilities and I might just return the UltraHD (and my Eris) and use the Passion, depending on cost and image quality.

Regarding the software: you can manually transfer the files in XP, but the software does a great job at grabbing the files from the device, storing them, and allowing you to burn them to a DVD – nice. The configuration options could use some improvement (naming of files and folders, i.e. yyyy-mm-dd-0001.mp4), but overall a very usable piece of software. I tried watching the files using GOMPlayer and/or Quicktime, but my computer wasn’t speedy enough to render the video in sync with the audio. The FlipShare software (for whatever reason) renders everything quite nicely, so don’t freak out about jitter and such.

We plan on using it for a few days, and after such time I will post a follow-up report.

4 Stars Battery will not charge
I purchased this just before Thanksgiving. I could not get the supplied re-charge battery to charge. So I used AA batteries that I had. It worked fine for the holiday. Then I contacted customer support, to let them know about the error message I receive when I try and charge the supplied battery. After numerous suggestions from customer support, nothing worked. So they have sent me a RMA # to send the camera back and have them try and diagnose the problem. This would take 6-8 weeks according to them. I want to use this camera for the Christmas Holiday, which was the whole reason for the purchase. So I have not sent it back, and will continue to use AA batteries. Using the AA batteries, the camera works fine. I have no other complaints about it. It would be nice to just plug in and recharge, but not worth the hassle of the return. Maybe after the holidays, I will send back…..

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tags: Collecting Dust, Elegant Solution, Error Message, Hassle, Hd, Mini Dv Camcorder, Moneys Worth, Panasonic, Panasonic Camcorder, Panasonic Dv, Panasonic Mini Dv, Panasonic Mini Dv Camcorder, Quality Product, Rechargeable Aa Batteries, Sharing Software, Signature, Simplicity, Skiing, Tripod, Video Power

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December 15, 2009 9:09 am

Flip Ultra Camcorder 2nd Generation 120 Minutes Black

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by Bill in Electronics,Photography

Flip Ultra Camcorder 2nd Generation 120 Minutes Black

The Flip Ultra camcorder makes it easier than ever to shoot and share video. Ultra features Flip Videos signature shoot-and-share simplicity: just power on and press record to start capturing high-quality video in seconds.