I received my Flip Video camera as a Christmas gift. I had been wanting to purchase a "full featured" video camera, so I was a little disappointed when I saw my fiancee had purchased this for me. (I gave a huge smile, said "thank you," and hugged her like any good human being would do)

Boy was I wrong. That is, I love this camera. Sometimes it takes someone who knows us better than ourselves to make the correct decision.

The Flip Video comes with a black velvet carrying case, a wrist strap, and a jack to play the video on a television. It runs on two AA batteries. I use Energizer 15 minute rechargeables. I've found battery life to be more than sufficient. I can record at least an hour without having to recharge.

The size of the Flip Video camera is perfect. It's actually smaller than my Kodak digital camera. But don't let the size fool you. The video screen provides high quality images, and the small speaker allows you to preview the sound of your recordings. The sound is loud enough, that I was able to hear it at Knottsberry Farm (California amusement park, near Los Angeles).

You can record, view, and export video from the camera. The quality of the video itself is amazing. One of my biggest concerns, was with the length of video I could capture before filling the memory and being forced to export my films to my laptop. But honestly, 30 minutes is A LOT OF TIME. If you're filming more than 30 minutes at an amusement park, or wherever, you may want to ask yourself if you're really being choosy with the subject matter, or are you itching to bore everyone to tears. There is beauty in minimalism.

The quality of the unit itself is great. It has a solid feel and so far, appears as durable as the day I removed it from the box. I've been using the camera regularly, oftentimes stuffing it in my front pocket, and so far, so good.

Playing your videos or saving them on the computer is very easy. One of the neatest features of this camera, is that the USB jack is built in to the side of the camera. The jack flips out from the side, and the camera plugs right into your computer's USB port. The software for the camera is already loaded in the camera itself. That means no cables to lose and no software to load.

I highly recommend this video camera to anyone.