Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

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Posted on August 27th, 2008 | No Comments »

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

I had mentioned this a few weeks ago, and I finally took the plunge and bought a Flip Video Ultra. While I have a larger camera, I wanted something smaller that made more sense for me - having the larger camera was nice, but I never used it. I’d rather take quicker little videos when convienient and deal with the negatives of a smaller camera, rather than lugging around a beast of a camera but never really getting a chance to use it. When I saw the Flip was on sale on Amazon for $119, I took the plunge.

The Hardware

I was instantly pleased with the packaging. It felt like something that you’d see an Apple product shipped in, and the unboxing experience was just as pleasant. The first thing you see is the camera sitting there, and below the tray holding it is the other accessories and materials. Very Apple-like. Finally companies are realizing that first impressions go a long way.

Once I got the camera out, I quickly put the two AA batteries that were included into the camera, and I was on my way. If you don’t know much about the Flip Video Ultra, it’s premise is that it is a very simple point and shoot camera, and you can be up and shooting within a few minutes. I took a few quick shots of my dog and tested out the low light / bright light shooting conditions.

That is not to say that the product is perfect, however. Quickly I noticed that there is no battery indicator, so you’re left to guess how much time is left. From what I’ve read, 5-7 hours is a pretty reasonable estimate of what you’ll get. The nice thing is that you can bring along two AA batteries and you’re set. No silly cables or chargers. Not the most eco-friendly solution, but it’ll do. I’ll probably invest in rechargeable batteries at some point for the Flip. Another thing that I noticed is how awful the digital zoom is. I didn’t expect much, but the thing is a total waste of time. They should have not even included it as an option. The ‘flip’ out USB drive is a really nice touch, and it makes it simple to get your video onto your computer from anywhere. Again, it’s one less cable to carry around.

Video Quality

Here is a quick sample:

I feel that the quality is about exactly what I expected. It’s solid, it handles well in low light, and the colors are pretty accurate. However, the framerate isn’t always up to par, the video can look really washed out when the lighting isn’t great, and sometimes you can hear machine noise when the camera is running. Additionally, the microphone is pretty weak and doesn’t really allow you to pick up any dialogue from folks more than a few feet away.

More examples can be found on my Flickr page.

Software integration

The software (on the Mac at least) is pretty second rate, but still a nice effort at making a clean experience. The one thing that does deserve kudos is the fact that the codecs & software live on the camera, not on a separate disk. This will prove to be very valuable when I need to watch or download a movie to another computer. Before you can watch a movie in QuickTime, you have to install a supplied QT codec, which only takes a minute or two. From there, you can run the included movie management software or you can simply drag the movies out of the mounted drive on the desktop. I chose the latter.

If you’re an iMovie user, iMovie HD works by default with the .avi movies that are on the camera. iMovie 08, on the other hand, will not accept .avi movies and requires a conversion before digging in to the editing. A free utility that works great is iSquint, or if you want to pay for more advanced features, Visualhub. A quick conversion and the videos are ready for iMovie 08. Apparently Apple and the Flip Video folks are working to make this process a bit friendlier to us Mac users.

Overall, the experience is pretty straightforward, and if importing to iMovie 08 is ever resolved, Mac users everywhere will rejoice. I’m a Final Cut Express 4 man myself, so the videos import without a hitch for me.

Overall recommendation

The Flip Video Ultra is exactly what you’d expect from a camera that retails for less than $150. It’s a cheap, lightweight camera that makes shooting video easy and fun, and leaves out fancy features that you’d see on nicer cameras in the name of making a simple user experience. Frankly, I think that for it’s indented purpose, it’s hard to beat the Flip. It’s not perfect, but you get what you paid for and a whole lot more.

Technorati Tags:
applications, reviews, software, apple, videos, iMovie

Posted on June 1st, 2008 | No Comments »

Wednesday, May 21st, 2008

I must own this shirt.

If you have’nt seen this video, or the (surprisingly catchy) dance remix, do yourself a favor and jump in now.

Posted on May 21st, 2008 | 2 Comments »

Sunday, April 13th, 2008

Over the weekend, I came across a really great resource, if you want to call it that. The Nerve is listing The 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time, and there are some gems to be sure. Some of the ones that made the cut are amazing, including:

• “More Cowbell,” Saturday Night Live, 2000
• “Ass Pennies,” Upright Citizens Brigade, 1998
• “Celebrity Jeopardy!,” Saturday Night Live, 1996
• “The Pre-Taped Call-in Show,” Mr. Show, 1997
• Citizen Kane - The Kids in the Hall
• Wycked Sceptre Party Tape - Mr. Show
• He’s Rick James - Chappelle’s Show
• The Racial Draft - Chappelle’s Show
• “The Idiot in Rural Society,” Monty Python’s Flying Circus, 1970
• “Dead Parrot,” Monty Python, 1969

My major complaint is that while one of my personal favorites (pre taped call in show) did make the list, some of the best Mr. Show sketches didn’t. Ah well. I guess I am a Bob & David fanboy.

Anyway, I hope you have an hour or more to kill, as this is quite an extensive list of great comedy sketches. If you can think of any that were left out of the list, feel free to add it in the comments.

Posted on April 13th, 2008 | 3 Comments »

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

Some really interesting news in Flickr-land was announced today. Flickr has, after many weeks of rumors flying around, announced that they will be allowing users to share videos on their site. This is really great news, as I subscribe to some folks on YouTube, but most of the videos they post are crap (funny videos, clips from TV shows, etc). And there is nothing wrong with that sort of stuff, but I think there needs to be a filter mechanism to separate all of the recycled stuff from personally crafted content.

On top of that, they have imposed a 90 second limit for the videos. I’m sure some people will say that they want to share longer videos than that cut off, and I can certainly see that side of the argument. But, as the Flickr Blog states:

“90 seconds? While this might seem like an arbitrary limit, we thought long and hard about how video would complement the flickrverse. If you’ve memorized the Community Guidelines, you know that Flickr is all about sharing photos that you yourself have taken. Video will be no different and so what quickly bubbled up was the idea of ‘long photos,’ of capturing slices of life to share.”

I think folks will learn to share their quicker ‘clips’ at Flickr and find another place to share their longer videos, either at YouTube or a nicer competitor like Vimeo.

I’m really excited about this, as I really think that the best way to share video online is through short video clips rather than long, epic movies. It’s kind of the Twitter-esque philosophy, but instead of 140 characters, it’s 90 seconds of video. I think this will encourage people to focus on quality and not just upload every stupid video clip they produce. And since Flickr guidelines state that the only video you can share is video that you yourself have taken, it kind of makes sense in that regard as well.

This also may inspire me to purchase a Flip Video, which it would appear about half of the internet is talking about. It’s a tiny little camera that only costs $179, and shoots one hour of video at 640×480 in AVI format. From the examples I’ve seen out there, the quality is excellent for such a low-priced camera. The problem most people have with video is the fact that their gear is cumbersome and expensive. Both make it pretty tough to want to take to social functions or just ‘out’ for the day at the park or whatever. This will make it a lot easier to capture quality video, plug it into your computer, and within minutes have your video online.

Anyway, if you’re a pro Flickr user, I recommend you get over there and check out some of the videos and share your own.

And if you’re feeling really saucy, check out an old favorite. At least an old favorite of mine.

Posted on April 9th, 2008 | 4 Comments »