Sad to see the Flip Go

Today, Cisco announced that it is doing away with the Flip camera and I’m sad to see it go.

For me, using the Flip gave me some of the most fun I’ve had with a video camera in years – certainly more than any video camera I owned before it came along and I’ve seen the evolution of home video from near the beginning.

The Flip was cost effective. It was portable. It was easy to use. It gave you a quality digital v ideo with decent sound. It gave you video that was quick and easy to edit and easy to share. It was a movement and there is a community of Flip users out there who share videos and information about how they use the cameras.

What’s not to love?

People say that the improved video quality in smart phones killed the Flip and that may be true. But smart phones aren’t video cameras and Flip cams aren’t smart phones. I got each one of my kids a Flip cam at one point or another, so they could run around and capture the golden moments of their lives. It gave them a whole new avenue for creativity and it’s just not something I could do with a smart phone or a higher end video camera.

Was it the best video and sound around? Probably not, but it was pretty darn good and it was a solid and consistent performer. I found many practical uses for it both at work and at home and even now, there is rarely a moment were a Flip cam is not within an arm’s reach.

I honor it and thank it for all the things it is and won’t disparage it for all the things it might not have been.

In our tech-rabid world, there is little hope for saving Flip and its various iterations from its ultimate fate. The masses have likely already moved on to the next greatest thing.

My message here is that while everyone else is trying to make the smart phone the end all be all to all people and things, we should realize that there was a place in the world for the Flip cam and the other pocket style video cameras it spawned. It had one job to do – allow us to create video easily – and it did it.

My hope is that Kodak and some of the other companies making similar cameras today, stay the course. Do not be intimidated by the smart phone. Rather, continue to give us the ability to make and share video with affordable cameras that are easy to use.

With the passing of the Flip, I have to say the best pocket video camera available now is the Kodak Zi8. It offers great HD video, solid sound performance that is improved by having and external mic input and expandable memory among other features. It’s fun, easy to use, affordable. What’s not to love?

B+ for new Crackle.com content

I’m not much of a cable guy. Evey time I think I want to get cable, I take a gander at the listings to see what’s on and it seems like it’s the same old same old. That, or there’s hundreds of channels of stuff I have no interest in.

Last October, I decided to invest in a Roku so that I can push away from the computer periodically and watch Internet content in a more comfortable chair. I like Internet content. I feel like I have more control over what I watch, it suits my schedule and there are lots of pleasant surprises out there as far as what people are creating goes.

That beings me to this past weekend. When I sit down with the Roku remote, I often sift through the channels to see what might be new and interesting and I’m rarely disappointed. This time, because it had been a while, I jumped into Crackle.com to see what might be cooking there.

I don’t know if I missed it last time or just wasn’t drawn in by what I saw in prior visits, but this time there were all sorts of new things to look at.

They now have over 35o movies and all sorts of television shows ready and waiting to be watched. Every one is listed as being free and uncut -  so that is a draw and then there was some original programming in the mix to boot.

As a test I watched Ghostrider with Nick Cage and Ultraviolet with Milla Jovovich, both free, uncut and coming through in fine quality. In fact, I plan to dig deeper into the catalog to check some other releases including The Davinci Code, Stranger than Fiction, Snatch and more.

The downside of this latest discovery is that ‘uncut’ does not mean uninterrupted and ‘free’ means free is you don’t mind regular breaks for promotional material – aka – a commercial or two.  As I watched my movies, it was a bit jarring to see everything stop mid action so that SONY could use Maggie Q to promote the upcoming release of ‘Priest.’

I didn’t care much at first, but as the movies went on it felt as though the ads came more frequently, though that’s probably not the case. The other problem was each break featured the exact same ad which grew tedious. I guess if I’m getting commercials, I’d like at least a couple of different versions to keep things interesting while I wait for the movie to come back.

All in all, Crackle.com has new stuff for me to look at and big enough releases to keep me interested. Because of the ads and the lack of variety in those ads, I give the new content a B+.

Sanyo looks to heat up pocket video

It looks like the latest entry into the world of pocket video is about to heat up…again.

The announcement of the Sanyo Xacti VPC-PD2BK is causing quite a buzz with very few people actually having touched one yet.

The reason? It looks like Sanyo is answering the calls for what some complain are the current shortcomings in pocket video offerings, primarily:

•  potentially weak sound
• the lack of an optical zoom

I love the pocket video cameras and I love watching the evolution of the media. I’ve used a number of them and I’ve come to favor the Flip cameras for their ease of use, reliability, low cost and fun factor. In my world the Kodak pocket cameras are also a favorite because of expandable memory, quality HD and, in one version, the option of adding and external mic.

I’m not one of those people that will tell you not to explore these cameras because they are low quality. In fact, I’m the type that is going to tell you to jump in and get all kinds of dirty with them. They are fun and the video and sound quality are great for most daily uses. They are clearly not high end cameras, so if you buy one thinking your going to get studio quality video, you have other problems and no right to complain.

The competition is fierce. Flip has the advantage of name recognition and being an initial leader of the genre. Many now refer to other cameras in the field as "Flip style" cameras when not talking about the original product. Flips are great. However, their most recent release – The Slide – did little in the way to provide the consumer with something more or improve the general usefulness or desire for the camera. I thought it was a tiny step back.

Kodak, as I mentioned, seemed to be listening by providing expandable memory for virtually endless recording times, some image stabilization, a remote control, face recognition, external mic option and even a waterproof version. Their next camera release will be a smaller, non-HD, camcorder (about the size of a credit card) to try and hook a greater teen audience.

That’s where Sanyo seems to be taking the next step. Optical zoom has been lacking in all the pocket cameras, but for good reason, a movable lens makes them more vulnerable to potential damage as you pop they camera into your pocket, purse or backpack. Stereo mics are also a nice add. It’s HD and it looks like the Xacti will be price competitive. However, to truly be an effective competitor that captures market share, inspires desirability and motivates the competitors to cram more and more options into those tiny camera bodies it will have to perform.

There are a lot of people out there ready to take a good hard look at the new kid on the block. If the image drags, the color is weak, the video is murky with muffled sound or functions poorly in low light, the Xacti will end up with some of the lessor competitors. But it the performance is at least with comparable with a Flip cam or a Kodak Zi8…it will be an exciting add to the game and interesting to see what the others offer up next.