The Wall The Misadventures of a PK

Flip UltraHD 120

We have had a time the past few years with classes being assigned video projects, but the school not offering cameras for them to use.  This has led to a lot of opportunities for the HUB. Students can check out VHS cameras from media services, but they have no real way to get them on their computers.  They will sometimes use a digital video camera, but have no way to get it on their computer.  Worst of all they will use a camera that stores video on some weird tape or DVD.  I have taken it upon myself to look into this and figure out if their is a better way.  Enter the Flip UltraHD 120.

This little wonder is four and a quarter inches tall by two and a fifth inches wide, yet it shoots 2 hours of 1280 x 720 (720p) video at 30 frames per second.  It has 8GB of internal storage, but really only about 7GB available for video.  So where did that extra gigabyte go? Preloaded on the device is an editing app for both Windows and Mac.  No need to have anything else.  Speaking of not needing anything else, the camera has a built in USB connector so you don't even need a USB cable.  I would absolutely want one myself as the camera seems to just dangle in the air when connected to my desktop.  Doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

My test unit came in today and I have to say that it feels much sturdier than the price, $199, made me think it would be.  I pulled it out of the box, put in the battery pack, and fired it up.  After a quick little setup the camera was ready to go.  I was amazed at how well it performed even in the dark recesses of the dungeon that houses my office.  The camera turns on and is ready to shoot in less than three seconds. I didn't have too long to play with it before Kim got to the office and we were off to lunch.  On my way back from lunch I shot a quick little video with the camera mounted on my dashboard.  Here are the results:

So far I am really impressed with this thing.  I will continue to play with it over the next few days to get a better opinion of it, but so far I really think a few of these could really go a long way to help our students at CSU.