Techie
6:48 AM | Wednesday | 10 March 2010

We live in a world where technology is aimed at convenience. Many gadgets have cropped up and evolved to support our daily needs. Music players like the iPod are getting smaller. Laptops are becoming lighter. Video cameras are getting its share of evolution as well by becoming tinier and tinier. We now have pocket video cams such as the Flip Video Mino.

The Flip Video Mino measures 3.94x1.97x0.63 inches. Screen size is about 1.5 inches in diameter. It basically looks like your average cellphone. Some people even mistake it as one minus the keypad. But that outer casing shouldn't fool you. It's lighter than your average mobile phone.

So yeah, this Flip is a petite and light gadget that can still do the main functions of the video cameras of yore. The price is also "cute" – the device retails starting at $150 (about P7,000). But is it a great portable gadget to add to your cart?

Yes, it is. Sad to say, though, that the Flip Video Mino's lightness comes with a price: an issue with image stability. There is no image-stabilizer mechanism. And due to it practically weighing almost nothing, it is hard to avoid natural shake. Thank God it has a small port – you can screw it onto a tripod.

The Mino I have is a non-HD device with a 2GB internal storage (but there's another one that shoots in HD, and that Mino has 4GB of storage). You can record an hour's worth of vids which isn't bad considering the amount of space taken up every time you max out the memory.

The Flip Mino records at 640x480 pixels – all in MPEG4 AVI format (30fps) – with a fixed focus lens. Zoom isn't that impressive, though, as it can only do 2x zoom. Further zooming would result in digital cropping which means "hello, pixelation."

During playback, there is an option to control the volume of sound coming out from the speakers.

And another option for fast-forwarding or rewinding during playback. Each video is separated by individual files, just as it would have been recorded in a digital camera capable of video capture. All the files are arranged chronologically in Playback mode. Deleting files can be done while you're in this mode as well.

The best thing about the Flip Video Mino is its ability to directly connect it to your computer. A USB connector on top comes out just with a switch of a button. No need for wires. The gadget also acts as an installer of its very own Flip Video Software.

Organizing, copying, deleting, and editing your files can be done using the software.