Midnight Blue Says

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Released in 2008 by Pure Digital, the Flip Mino is the world smallest HD video recorder. The camera can record 720p high definition video for approximately one hour. It comes with 4 gigs of onboard memory. The image sensor is CMOS, with a frame rate of 30 fps. The camera has automatic white balance, automatic exposure control and dynamic exposure compensation and fixed focus lens.( To my photography friends you can equate that to a prime lens – more or less) A NTSC cable is included, and has joined the other NTSC cables I have collected over the years. There is also a port for an HDMI connection, but no cable is provided. The camera also comes with a velvety pouch for storage. The online Flip store allows for custom designs of its HD models. For a great example, check out Lord Matt’s design.

The Vado HD marketed by Creative Labs provides 720p high definition video for two hours. The software allows the user to select a standard definition video setting as well. There are 8 gigs of memory on board the camcorder, along with software to do basic video editing. A CMOS sensor shooting video at 30 fps. A wide angle lens and 2x digital zoom come standard. Like the Flip, I consider it to be a fixed lens as well. It comes with an HDMI cable and plastic protective cover, along with the unrestrained adulation of Chris Pirillo

Does this sound geek to you? This can seem a bit daunting if this tech is unfamiliar to you.

Let’s briefly review some definitions:

HD or high definition simply means you can see more detail in your video compared with SD or standard definition video. This quality is measured in the number of pixels. The textbook definition of high definition video would have a pixel count of 1080 x 1444. Standard Definition pixels are typically 720 x 480. In essence, the more pixels you have to work with, the more detail is captured in your video. The Mino and Vado shoot at 720p which converted to pixels would be 1280 x 720. Not quite textbook High Definition, but it is real close.

CMOS stands for Complimentary Metal Oxide Sensor. This is where light let in from the camera lens is converted into an electrical signal. A rather important component to your camera, as it is where the rubber meets the road for image processing.

NTSC cable connects the video camera to the television in order to play the video direct from your camera to the TV.  I’ve got a growing collection of these cables which I never use.

HDMI stand for High Definition Multimedia Interface. On a single cable, it supports any type of TV or PC video format. This provides the best quality of video to your home entertainment system.

The Mino and Vado have an impressive 4 second power up time. 4 seconds can make the difference between capturing the scene or watching it pass by while your camcorder is reading its hard drive.

Memory storage is on board and so is the video editing software. With the flick of a USB connector you can download your videos, and the editing software is automatically installed. The software allows you to perform basic editing on your video – you can trim the video, add titles, losing credits and music if you so chose . Directly from the software you can upload your video to YouTube, AOL, MySpace, Photobucket and box.

Both have sleek controls and combined with automatic everything leads to near perfect idiot proofing of the camera. I mean that in a good way. This is a grab and go camcorder that you don’t need to waste time fussing with numerous settings. This is a HD camcorder that you can put in your pocket, Hobo or your black hole of a tote bag and head out to a Tea Party or Birthday party.

It is not all sweetness and light with these camcorders. One hour battery life of the Flip Mino HD can throw a monkey wrench into your coverage of an event. In fact, I ran the battery down to empty on the Flip smack in the middle of an interview. Not cool at all. The software is simple and basic, yet I’ve been unsuccessful at adding titles to my Flip videos. Every attempt to do so has crashed the program. To date, I’ve been unsuccessful in troubleshooting this annoying problem.

The LCD (liquid crystal display) is substantially larger in the Vado in comparison to Flip.

Both camcorders do NOT have lens covers. After pulling the camcorders out of my purse or Lowpro slingback, I find the need to frequently clean off smudges off the lens before shooting video.

Both are roughly the same size and weight, both have a flippy USB connectors and tripod connections. If you want good video – get to know your inner tripod. This is important since both camcorders do not have image stabilization on board. Sudden movements produce nausea inducing video on both cameras.

For more advanced users, you can bypass the editing software and use your preferred video editing software with raw Flip videos. The Vado requires that you create a movie in .wmv format before using in another video editing system. This has been my experience using Sony Vegas 8 to edit Vado video.

For such small camcorders, they really pack a great video punch! I’ve included video samples in this post to illustrate the quality of video produced by Flip Mino HD and Creative Vado HD.

FLIP MINO HD:

Screen capture:

Screen Capture:

Side by side video comparison of the two camcorders – The Vado clip was shot in VGA and the Flip video was shot in 720p.

I will tell you it is tough to place one camera above the other as both have similar good points and manageable annoyances. If pushed, I’d place the Vado HD over the Flip Mino HD – just barely. It comes down to the more vibrant colors recorded on video and the software package – the Vado video editing software is slightly more robust than Flip Mino. Both pack a lot of tech into a small and inexpensive package, you would not go wrong with one or the other.

You can purchase a Flip Mino HD HERE
You can purchase a Creative Vado HD HERE

I’ve no conflict of interest to disclose. I’ve not received financial or material compensation from Creative Labs or Pure Digital in exchange for this review.

Walking Buster at the Rhawn Street Dam:

Pennypack Creek:

The Explore Video SD card automatically geo tags photo for all you geo-cachers out there.

Was very excited about this wireless technology being brought to the consumer level. Until I ran into one small snag – the card was unusable with a Nikon Coolpix P2. This is the only camera I own that uses SD cards to store images and video. Frak. What to do? Tomorrow my new point and shoot arrives, a Canon Powershot SD789 IS. Video review will be uploaded to Flickr.

Intrigued?
Mesmorized?
Quizzical?

Check out the details of Eye-Fi HERE

The ShoZu website has a more precise definition :

Shozu means you can share the moment, be it photos or video or a blog. You can send your stuff to friends and family, email or social networks as simply as pressing the button.

ShoZu and I first met when I purchased the 3G iphone. With the purchase of this phone, I lost the ability to send photos and text directly to my blog and Flickr account from my phone. With all the flash and glamour surrounding the iphone, I figured it was a small price to pay for this wonder of modern technology. Humph, you really don’t comprehend the value of a blogging widget until you no longer have use of it.

Desperately missing the ability to mobile blog, I started poking around the Apps Store on the i-phone and found a free and uniquely named application with a description that fit my mobile blogging needs.

This easy to use application has far more capabilities than just a photo up loader, I quickly added a Flickr up loader, a Twitter feed, and my Blogger account. With the ShoZu application, I can Twitter, monitor replies from Twitter followers, upload photos to Flickr including photo tags, descriptions and geotagging. Combining ShoZu with the G3 network, I am now freed from my laptop or desktop in order to blog. All of this from one i-phone application!

Little did I know how huge an impact these features would have on my coverage as a credentialed blogger at the 2008 RNC Convention. Credentialed bloggers at the RNC convention were treated as main stream media, and were expected to fork out between $850 – $52,000 dollars for 4 days of internet access at the Xcel Center. That’s a lot of clams! With the G3 network and ShoZu, I was able to work around this expense and blog from the Xcel center. Sitting in the Xcel Center as Gov. Sarah Palin gave her historic and groundbreaking speech, I was twittering my impressions using ShoZu’s platform. During the four days of the convention, I posted many photos from events in and around the Xcel Energy Center on to Flickr using ShoZu. Without this application, It would have been difficult to get timely stories and photos out to my readers and lurkers on MidnightBlue.

This iphone application is a must have for citizen journalists, bloggers or anyone who wants to share their thoughts with the world.

For more information about ShoZu go to their WEBSITE or check out the Apps store on your iphone.