Pure Digital, makers of the easy to use “Flip” series of digital camcorders just released the latest version, the mino (pronounced “minnow”).  The Mino is slimmer and lighter, has touch controls and uses a rechargeable battery making it superior to its predecessors in almost every respect.

If you already have a Flip there may be no compelling reason to upgrade but if you don’t then now may be the time to pick one up.  Amazon has taken notice and according to Punch Jump, the Flip Mino has already become one of the top sellers in the Flash Memory Camcorders category.

And why not?  People have been comparing the Flip Mino to that of the iPod or iPhone.  Stripped down user interface with only basic controls and almost no custom settings but you don’t need them.  From what I’ve seen the Flip does a good enough job on its own of adjusting settings for optimal quality.

It’s not going to replace your $800 camcorder but I challenge you to be able to pull your $800 camcorder out of its bag, remove the lens cap and be ready to shoot in under five seconds.  No?  Didn’t think so.  That’s where the flip fits in.

There have also been those that say point and shoot digital cameras have better image quality than the flip – that can be argued and will be until the next generation of cameras comes on the market.

Some cameras are limited to 15fps at 640 x 480 and some cameras are capable of shooting hi-def video at 30fps until the memory card is full but that takes a lot of memory.  My camera reports that it will record 30 minutes of 720p video and 80 minutes of VGA quality video on an 8GB memory card – either it’s reporting wrong, the camera is in some way defective or there is something wrong with the memory card because those numbers don’t seem right to me.

It still takes longer to get into video mode and start recording than it would to whip out the Flip and start recording.

Perhaps Pure Digital will see fit to equip its next model with a larger flip-out LCD display, hi-def video capture, optical zoom and expandable memory through the use of SD memory or microSD memory cards.  Surely this would be a hit and could be sold right along side the Flip Mino.

The Flip Classic is set to be phased out and the only models to be sold are the Ultra and Mino.  If you prefer the use of AA batteries then the Ultra is for you, if you prefer using rechargeable batteries then the Mino is for you.  The Mino will last about four hours on a single charge so you should be all set to go since it can only capture an hour of video before it needs to be transferred to a PC.

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Entry was posted on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 at 7:02 pm under Uncategorized.

Read more entries by Jonathan Schlaffer.
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