I got a Flip today and was curious to see how it stood up to the Sony Net-Sharing Camera and my Canon SD750’s video mode.
The Flip is definitely the easiest to use. No doubt this is great feature. The quality is decent but my test shows the Canon SD750 as having a slightly better quality. I wasn’t surprised since I had read this a few weeks ago. So I took the three cameras out for a test. I did a simple pan across and zoom of the same area. Here are the results:
The bottom line is for schools/classrooms and many folks, the Flip will provide a great way to document events. All three operate like storage devices in terms of importing the video to your machine. The Sony definitely does not play nice with the Mac but having used it on the Windows machine it is a great solution as it does not need any installation to work. Our IT guys quite liked that feature. The Flip built in software looks okay as well but I didn’t really use it.
As I said in the video, I’m not much for instantly uploading. I think much like writing, editing, revising and simple cleaning up even if you’re not doing a full blow production. But still, these cheap cameras have huge potential.
I have the Flip Ultra and the Sony. I prefer the Sony by far. Plus, if you can catch them on the Sony site, they are selling refurbs for $99 each. Killer price for a neat piece. Thanks for the comparison of all three. The Canon seemed to do a better job with both video and quality. What is the time limitation on it?
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Dean,
Very interesting product comparisons with the three cameras. I wonder how much better the Flip will get? I think most people would like to just share it quick (I ALWAYS need to edit). As you were showing this I was thinking of another way for students to do some video in class: to compare products with the cost, size, weight, details, and then have them justify their answers for which is better! Much like how you brought in the details from each camera on the video, or on your blog.
Thanks again…..I think I’ll wait a little while, then ask my boss for a Flip camera!
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Hey Dean,
I’m definitely a big fan of the Flip camera, primarily because as a teacher of sixth graders it is instantly usable! There are absolutely no tech barriers at all for my kids.
I bought my first Flip last year the day before our field day, took it out of the box, gave it to one of my students and he’d made a short video documenting the fun by the next morning. Ease of use outweighed any quality concerns I had at all.
I think that’s what makes the Flip so valuable to teachers of younger children. Being able to turn kids loose and see them churn out final products without extensive support or frustration is golden.
(Do I sound like a Flip groupie here?)
Definitely going to check out the Sony, though…Always looking for something new to play with!
Rock on,
Bill
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Scott,
I’m not ready to pass judgment quite yet but indeed the Canon has the better quality. The video length is dependent on your SD card. Using a 2GB card you’ll get about 20 minutes. Certainly a limitation and also explains the difference in quality.
Nice comparison Dean. As you know, I have been playing with the Flip recently as well. I hadn’t completed as thorough an investigation, but had assumed my Pentax Optio took better video. As I take a variety of clips with the flip I am finding my own camera work to be jumpy and wonder if it is magnified during the upload or export. Also, the mic on the flip needs improvement. I have uploaded the flip video to both youtube & blip and think that it comes through better in Blip. But as I was told today, it still looks like it is shot through a bowl of Jello.
A question for you or any of the readers would be wether anyone knows how to reduce the noise of the wind on recordings? is it possible? Is there any way to adjust the colour drain? I use iMovie and am not sure if I can adjust levels. I am novice and have a lot to learn to improve my clips.
I had problems with the Flip and my Mac (importing to iMovie). Didn’t you have that issue?
Kyle,
A sock will reduce your wind noise. I did notice the volume a bit weak on the Flip as witnessed in my video. I didn’t bother fixing the audio because I wanted the footage to be fairly raw.
Alec,
It was pretty simple with 06 and 08. Did you install the codec?
I also had problems importing directly into iMovie, but had no problem opening in QuickTime Pro and doing some crude editing and saving it in QT for iMovie. For Kyle, D’Arcy Norman put masking tape on the mic for use on his bike; I did the same thing and it worked great. I guess the trick is how many layers of tape if you want to still hear something. But then, that’s fodder for the next test.
Thanks for running the tests, Dean. As far as the Flip goes, I love it for the many quick and dirty uses I seem to have. I have other ways to gather better video, but I really like the Flip for catching stuff quickly.
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This video was shot entirely with the Sony NetShare in a snow storm. Audio taken from Olympus digital voice recorder since I knew he would be a distance away the whole time. It is a large file, but a good sample of the quality. I did have the cam on a tripod for extra stability (and my arm would have gotten tired) and an umbrella over my head, but no changes were made to the video itself. I used iMovie HD to edit for length and to add the audio track. The video imported straight into iMovie via drag and drop.
http://vr.woisd.net/users/intermediate/weblog/9ac15/Water_Cycle_-_McBride.html
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