Flip video or regular camcorder

[jamnich314]

My fiance and I will be honeymooning at WDW at the end of August this year . I would like to get a video recorder for the vacation. I am trying to decide between the pocket-sized Flip video or a full-fledged Sony camcorder.

The obvious upside to the Flip (or any camcorder similar to it) is the small size: I could just put it in my pocket. Possible downsides seem to be video quality, battery life and storage space.

The Sony-HDR-CX190 camcorder is everything I am looking for, I am just worried about the size. My father always carried around a camcorder while we were at Disney and he never seemed to mind it. I am also planning on carrying a draw-string backpack with us while in the park to carry cell phones, wallets, water bottles, etc. so I would have a spot to store the camcorder.

The Flip video seems to be the best option for me since I don't see myself doing much more video recording besides the Honeymoon, the price is about 2/3 less than the Sony (and that is on the lower end of all Sony models), portability is far superior, charging is built in with the USB flip and the video quality and storage are very comparable.

 

[TinkNH]

I have a flip video and a standard digital recorder. I use the flip a lot, and am pretty happy with it. It is what I will be bringing with me on our trip. I havent touched the other recorder in ages...

The only drawbacks I can see are the zoom is not great, so dont expect to get closeups from any distance. Also I think they stopped support for their flip-share program...so it will no longer be updated. I never bothered using it and just imported files through windows so it didnt matter to me.

heres a video i took with my flip...im sitting probably about 50yards away and had it fully zoomed, which makes the quality suffer a bit I think
http://youtu.be/Ir1shPCyVnI

I am sure someone has more technical info but I love my flip because it is sooo small. I have the micro HD

 

[photo_chick]

My question would be what do you plan to do with the video? If you just want to capture things and not really edit much, want easy sharing, the Flip would probably be a good choice. If you want more control when shooting an plan to do a lot of editing then something with more features when you record might be a better choice.

 

[jamnich314]

My question would be what do you plan to do with the video? If you just want to capture things and not really edit much, want easy sharing, the Flip would probably be a good choice. If you want more control when shooting an plan to do a lot of editing then something with more features when you record might be a better choice.

I'm not planning on doing a ton of editing but the lack of good zoom does scare me about the Flip . Not that I'd want to but say I am sitting on a bench in Italy and I want to record somebody walking around in Germany next door, with the camcorder that would be possible, not as easy with the Flip.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

From my post in the Theme Parks section...


We've had some GREAT discussions about this in the Photography forum here on the DIS.

Having said that, I own a Flip, a Kodak PlaySport, Zi8 and several other pocketcams as well as 3-4 full sized camcorders. The Playsport is the answer.

Don't forget that the Flip is no longer being manufactured and Cisco has officailly shut it down. What you are buying is new/old stock. When they're gone, they're gone.

Why? They are a dying breed. I rarely pull my pocketcams out anymore. My iPhone 4s does everything my pocketcams did and does it better. the Galaxy Androids and many others fall into exactly the same category.

Do a search for "PlaySport" and "Flip" in the anals of the Photography forum and you will find many heated discussions regarding them. You'll also notice they rarely happen anymore. Why? See the paragraph above.

 

[k5jm]

I use one of these guys...

Zoom Q3HD

The audio is A M A Z I N G!! And Video is pretty good too. And it is small.

(Make sure to wear headphones or playback on good speakers)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1B43D6KeSE&hd=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wocUscOlDLw&hd=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3j8IBJ9gxc&hd=1

I also use my DSLR for Video, but that little camera fits the bill for most everything.

 

[FigmentHair]

I have the GE DV1-GG Waterproof/Shockproof 1080P Pocket Video Camera, which is basically the same as a Flip, just waterproof.

The zoom wasn't really a problem for me in the parks.
The only real problem I had was being able to keep it still enough while at the shows. It gave me trouble trying to watch it, and record something, without a little bit of shake going on. It's so small, that sometimes it hard to keep it stable for more than a minute.
If this isn't a problem for you (if your hands are less shaky than mine) I say go for it!

 

[donaldduck1967]

Cisco shut down Flip,so I'd stay away from that. Personally I would get a regular Camcorder, but that's just me.