The Bottom Line: Basically this is an over-priced high-tech toy made out of cheap plastic that takes really nice video. Wait until the price drops to buy one.

I first reviewed the Flip Video Ultra Camcorder when it first came out and I was much more impressed with it than I am now, so this is my revised review of the flip based on my current impressions of it.

VIDEO QUALITY

The video quality of the Flip Ultra camcorder is very clean as long as it is kept at a small to medium frame size. Once you stretch the video to a larger size format degradation begins to appear and doesn't look that good. This device is best suited for low frame sized video play on YouTube and similar on-line video services, or for e-mailing quick videos to friends.

Things I like

There are a number of things I really like about this video camcorder such as its size, its ease of use, it recording quality and the length of recording time allowed on its tiny 2 gigabytes of compressed storage space. It also shoots faster and smoother video than the similar Sony or Aipek models with a reduce amount of lag time from the lens to the LCD monitor. It's not perfect but not bad.

If you are looking for a higher level of video recording and your computer has a fire-wire (I-link)connection or your willing to buy a fire-wire (I-link) card, then you will probably prefer a regular video camera that uses mini-DV tapes, mini-DVD disks, hard disk or SD-Card which would eliminate the lag time, allow for higher size display presentation and allow you to store as many hours of video as you have space on your disk. It really just depends on why you are buying a flip.

Handling this camcorder is pretty easy and reminds me a lot of my cell phone camera, you just press the red button and point the camera in the direction you want to video record, zoom in or zoom out by pressing up or down on the buttons located above and below the record button and you have an instant movie.

What I don't like

On the downside the flip has poor video movement and shakiness when you're only using your hand to hold it. If you buy the flip and want more stable pictures, you will have to buy a tripod that the Ultra flip can accommodate via a hole in the bottom of the case.

The flip also only holds only up to 60 minutes of video. After you use up the 60 minutes of video space, you have to download it to a computer or delete the videos before you can use it again. Unfortunately, there are no storage space upgrades available - you're stuck downloading it to your computer.

I also don't like the USB connection that kept freezing and crashing my PC. This problem may be related to the pre-installed editing software and drivers; I haven't found a solution to the problem.

The software is fun to use when it works, but most of the time it just kept crashing, so I had to open the Flip as a folder and drag it to my computer desktop, but even that crashed sometimes.

FINAL COMMENTS

Despite the limitations of the Flip, I personally like it because it is small, easy to use and can record up to an hour of video on only 2 gigabytes of space.

I also like the flip because it has really nice video quality when kept to a small scale that is clear and will upload nicely to the Internet (if you can get the software to work on your PC).

The flip is fun to goof around with when you are hanging out with your friends, at a family gathering or a concert.

I don't like the fact that to use it for vacations you have to bring along a laptop to download video if you want to take more than an hour's time.

If the flip price ever drops down to around $85 you should run out and by one. I paid $180 when it first came out and as I look back I think I paid to much for this high-tech toy.

Remember to buy a tripod, a nice hard case to store it in and don't leave it in your car when it is hot or it might melt.