Flip MinoHD (Current Gen) with FlipShare TV Wireless A/V Extender
$119.99 + $5 Shipping
Condition: New
DISCLAIMER Wootalyzer! is in no way affiliated with Woot!, and this post may not always be here!
Great item. WOW WOOT is on a Roll!!!
What’s the support/warranty on this item since Flip went the way of the Dodo bird?
This is an excellent deal.
Minimum focus distance of 1.5m kills it for me. 5 feet is not a good focus distance at all.
What are someways to get more than “up to 1 hour” battery life on this??
I’m in the market for an inexpensive camcorder. Does this one have decent audio?
Flip doesn’t look too Dodo-ish yet. The Mino version on their website lists for $100, with the TV broadcaster thingy for another $100 - http://store.theflip.com/en-us/products/Accessories.aspx . So a good price on here. Plus I saw a big Flip display at Staples today.
The April NY Times article tells of its demise http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/technology/13flip.html, but it seems there must still be a lot of stock to sell, with the store active and all.
Here is more about the flipshare tv.
Both of these items together would cost you $200 directly from the Flip website
Can I use this as a webcam? I want to stream online, and upload more vlogs to youtube…
An OK price, but not great.
$94.24, with free shipping at Walmart.com
[STAFF: That is only for the camera. This sale includes the FlipShare TV as well.]
We used to sell these at the camera store I work at and there is a reason Flip heavily advertises all the video functions and mentions the great picture but not the sound. As with any pocket sized camera that records video, these things have a very tiny microphone. Louder noises will peak the mic and give you that awful distorted sound, but the microphone is not strong enough to pick up quiet noises from more than 7 or 8 feet away. If you want audio of a person talking in a normal tone to be recorded, they would need to be no more than 5 feet from the camera.
As for audio playback on the Flip itself, you almost have to be in a silent room to hear the little speakers.
These cameras are really more for being able to quickly record a moment on video to have a memory you can go back and see later, not necessarily hear.
That price is only for the Flip camera, it does not include the Flipshare tv adapter.
If only it was the 8GB one, it would be mine!
“Comes with 4 GB of built-in memory; no additional memory needed.”
How do they know how much memory I need? I like to have about 3 hours recording time.
Ugh, Flips are simply the most overpriced and under-featured camcorders out there. Basically, you’re paying for the status and the beautiful presentation box. Flip smartly dumped their cameras onto Hollywood celebrities so name recognition is high. Otherwise, they pale compared to virtually every other hand camcorder, i.e. Kodak Zi’s, Creative Vados, JVC, Sony Bloggies, etc. Here are reasons not to buy this:
Flips are the only brand I know of that can’t do still photos. Even $20 ebay offerings have a still mode. Instead, you need to go to your computer and capture frames from your videos.
Flips are one of the very few brands that doesn’t have removable media. That means you can’t expand the memory should the Flip become full. That also means you’ll need to bring your laptop with you on vacation if there is a risk of the memory filling up. It also means you can’t simply remove your media to play on digital photo frames or other media players, or easily give videos to friends by simply handing over a media card.
This holds only 1 hr of 720p video, Think how quickly you cna fill an hour on vacation – especially since you can’t PAUSE during recording. In other words, you’ll have lot of junk footage.
Cisco has discontinued the Flip and no future software or hardware upgrades are planned. This is important because drivers are often incompatible with major OS upgrades, i.e. WIndows 8 or OS XI. Since USB is the ONLY way to get videos off the Flip, once drivers fail, there’ll be no way to access the videos. if the Flip used SD cards, this would be a non-issue but as things stand, you’ll have a paperweight if you can’t access the Flip via USB.
The IRREPLACEABLE Flip arm is a joke and often the first part to break. Few people have enough deskspace to have the Flip jutting out the laptop so the use of a USB extension cord is common. Furthermore, since your USB port is not at the exact height of the Flip’s arm, there will be some strain on both the arm and your laptop’s port. Using an extension cord eliminates the whole point of the Flip arm. Furthermore, you can’t suspend this Flip on a desk top so again, you need a cord. Why not just use a simple USB port and an easily replaceable $1 USB cord instead of the stupid arm? It’s tried and true. Or use the Creative Vado’s approach and have a retractable USB cord built-in?
This wireless A/V thingie is also pretty much useless. You can accomplish the same thing easily with a $6 HDMI cord. There is no advantage to making it wireless.
If you want to spend very little money but still have HD video and excellent macro focus, get yourself a Kodak Zi6. I’ve seen them for as little as $30. The Macro mode is so sharp that I use it professionally for medical photos and videos. It performs best at about 1-2" (inches). You can literally see every feature of a fingerprint.
REgular videos compare favorably with the Flips, plus it has a 60fps mode for incredible smooth videos. Note, however, that it’s an old model so you won’t have things like image stabilization.
When I last criticized the Flip’s lack of features, some countered that a lot of people prefer the simplicity of the Flip. What they;re ignoring is that all the other major brands I tested also had simple interfaces and a minimum of buttons. Simply turn on and a press ONE BUTTON to record and stop. But the extra features were there if you needed them, i.e. still photos or multiple speed playback. In fact, I tested various models with elderly users, including some who didn’t speak English. Not only was the Flip not easier but many like the ability to take still photos and the ability to increase capacity with removable SD cards (reminded them of removable film).
If you don’t care much for the TV accessory, the 8GB model is available on Amazon for slightly cheaper (~$115) with a promotional free one-day shipping.