Flip Ultra HD Camcorder Review

I’ve had the Flip Ultra HD Camcorder for a couple months now, and it is a great little camera. However, there are a few things that are not so great about it, which I will mention below. The main thing with the Flip Ultra HD, and most of the other camcorders in the Flip line, is that they are meant for a particular type of person, and if you are not that person you may not be happy with the product.

First, let’s talk about the camcorder a little bit. It’s a small, boxy looking gadget with a pretty tiny screen on the back and very few buttons. You’ve got the record button, zoom in and out, and left and right scroll buttons. Those and the power button are the only controls on the camcorder. It is very light, but feels almost plasticy and cheap in your hands. However, I feel like this was done to keep it light weight and is a worthy exchange. There is a rubberized finish on most of the camera so that it doesn’t slip out of your hands and this helps make it feel a little less cheap. Its got 2x zoom, 2GB internal memory (no SD card slot) and shoots high definition. And, of course, like with all the Flip cameras, its got that great little USB arm that slides out for quick, convenient hook up and transfer to a computer.

That’s the Flip Ultra HD Camcorder, in a nutshell. Now, let’s talk about some of these features and what’s great and what’s not so great. First of all, the zoom is terrible and borderline worthless. I hardly use it and when I do it doesn’t make much of a difference. The screen on the back is small, but I think it is adequate and I almost prefer that it is smaller because I find that when I am filming something I have less of a tendency to get absorbed by the camera and lost in the screen, which let’s me record my memory and stay in the moment to a greater extent, and this is great. I have no complaints about the viewing screen for this reason – is it small? Yes. But it works and is more than adequate, especially considering the limitations of this camcorder.

What are the limitations of the Flip Ultra HD? Well, for starters, the memory. I thought it was kind of neat it was all built in at first, but once I filled it up the first time I was quickly wishing I could just pop an SD card in and be good to go. That is not possible with this device. It would have been an easy addition and it was left out for no apparent reason. Another quip I have with the Flip Ultra HD is that you can not take stills with it. This seems to be a standard feature on most other cameras and the Flip doesn’t do it. However, you can take stills out with the included software once you get it to the computer – but frankly, this is a bit of a pain in the butt and I’d prefer to be able to just do it with the camera while I’m in the moment.

Who is the Flip Ultra HD Camcorder good for? The Flip is great for people who don’t know much about cameras and don’t wish to learn. Its for people who want to spend their time making memories and conveniently catching them on camera, instead of interrupting memories because they have to spend 20 minutes messing with a million different settings. This is really the reason I bought this camera to begin with – it turns on in about 2 seconds, hit one button to record, hit the button again to stop, and your back at whatever you were doing before. I love it for this reason. I throw this thing in my backpack and if something interesting starts happening, I can have it out and recording in about 30 seconds or less – which is awesome. The video quality it amazing too – it definitely looks high definition. I love playing back everything I record on the Flip because it just looks so amazing. Sound is pretty decent too and the mic is very sensitive so it will pick up a lot, and it sounds nice during playback.

So, in conclusion, if you want to shoot great video in various settings and are a camera geek, this is not the device for you. You will probably hate it. However, if you are a regular Joe looking for a camera with nearly no learning curve and great looking video, this is a great camera for you.