
The pocket camcorder class would persist for another couple of years but would soon enough be rendered irrelevant by the camcorder you already have with you (sound familiar?). Interestingly, there doesn't appear to have been any attempt to sell the business, which suggests there was already a significant question mark hanging over it. But just two years later, under pressure from shareholders, it closed most of its consumer division to refocus on its core business. Network infrastructure company Cisco bought Flip Video in 2009, during a period in which cash-rich companies were diversifying into just about anything that seemed internet-related. Instead, its downfall was that the company got bought by the wrong buyer. The quality wasn't great, but pocket camcorders could be pretty fun Smartphones with video were still comparatively rare (though clearly visible in the offing) and the Flip was a successful product in a comparatively buoyant market when the plug was pulled. This talk of mobile data already hints at what would eventually wipe out the entire class, but interestingly, I think, the Flip itself didn't die as a result of the challenge from smartphones. Or, at least, were going to imperil our friend's mobile data limits by taking advantage of Facebook's newly-added video capabilities. We were all going to be the next Kubrick.
Flip video camera cases 720p#
The Flip Mino HD shot 720p video: resolution so high that not everyone had a TV that could show it, yet.Īs is probably very apparent from the footage included in our introductory article, I knew nothing whatsoever about shooting video, but since all you could do is hold the camera up the right way and hit the big red button, that didn't really matter.
Flip video camera cases full#
By 2010, Flip itself had dropped a little off the pace and rivals such as Panasonic, JVC, Kodak (remember them?) and Sony (whose 'Bloggie' branding just didn't pass into common parlance as smoothly as Walkman had) had not only started to muscle-in, but had already moved to Full HD capture. The speed with which the Flip phenomenon emerged meant the whole sector was comparatively mature by the time DPReview conducted a roundup/introduction. No need to carry cables or software: you could just connect the flip-out USB socket Beyond this there were directional buttons to activate the digital zoom, buttons for play and delete and that's pretty much it. There was a tiny screen and a big red button to start recording.

Flip video camera cases software#
A flip-out USB connector allowed this footage to be offloaded and some basic sharing software was accessed in the same manner.

The first version, launched in 2007, captured a claimed 13% of the total camcorder market within a year of launch and for a while they seemed like the only video devices anyone was buying.īy 2009, though, the Flip Ultra HD brought 1280 x 720 video and, with its 8GB of internal memory, could capture 2 hours of footage. In the classic ' it only has to be good enough' fashion that Allison highlighted earlier this week, the Flip was a raging success. In fact the Flip Video grew out of a device so simple that could only be used once, with the expectation that its output would be transferred to DVD (which, for all their 'digital quality,' are essentially 'widescreen' standard definition discs). The first units captured VGA resolution, which wasn't as undesirable as it now sounds, since standard (1950s) definition TV still ruled the world in the mid 2000s. Rather than making you carry around a full-sized camcorder, the Flip squeezed a small sensor, a battery and some memory together in a genuinely pocketable package. In a manner similar to GoPro, the Flip wasn't necessarily the most technologically innovative product, but it represented a novel arrangement of components in such a way that it heralded a new class of devices. The dead giveaway being that you can probably picture what I mean by 'Flip Video' but not by the phrase 'pocket camcorder.' For a couple of years, the Flip Video pocket camcorder was just such a device.

Whether it's the Walkman, Photoshop or the GoPro, every now and again a product comes along that so perfectly epitomizes the form, that its name is taken to represent the entire category of products (whether its maker likes it or not).
