Flip is dead, Long live Flip

The flip cam series is associated with vlogging. I have a Flip camera. It turns out they kind of suck for vlogging. They have a lot of drawbacks.

Drawbacks of Flip

• Over priced
• Their minimum focus is longer than the average arm. Not good for vlogging.
• Can't have an extra battery in your pocket.
• Can't have extra media (SD card) in your pocket.
• Not full HD (only 720p not 1080p)
• Not wide angle lens
• Doesn't take stills. I don't care about this one, but a lot of people do.
• No built in lens protection. This is really nice on the Canon PowerShot cameras.
• No light or flash

I still use the camera for things I need to shoot that take longer than 10 minutes. This is because my primary camera, a Canon PowerShot 940, limits videos to under ten minutes. Not making that mistake again.

It's funny because I've noticed only about 3 companies doing the pocket video cameras that don't suck. Panasonic makes one, but it rattles. There are several digital camera companies are trying to do HD video on their snapshot cameras. Most of them have issues. Flip, Canon and Kodak are really the three companies that do a decent job on pocket cams. Many vloggers are just using their new iPhone 4s. You can upload them straight to YouTube without a computer. Can't beat that. This is most likely where the concept of pocket sized quick shot HD video cameras is going. It is also why so few companies are getting in to the field I imagine.