Flip MinoHD 2

Last year, a little camcorder called the Flip MinoHD was taking the States by storm. Flip Video—a start-up bought by Cisco in May 2009—made a pocket camcorder specially designed for uploading films to the web, which has now been used to create thousands of clips and videos on all kinds of sites (YouTube, Facebook etc.) thanks to its budget price (under £200), lightweight design and ease of use (just two buttons). Now, a year down the line, the Flip MinoHD 2 is a new and improved version that promises to be even more user-friendly. It should sell for around the same price as its predecessor, but will have a bigger screen, a digital image stabiliser. We reckon it'll be one of the most popular pocket camcorders this Christmas.

Handling

In this new version of the MinoHD, Cisco has visibly sought to improve the previous model and correct its faults. First up is the LCD, which is now measures 2 inches diagonally from corner to corner compared with 1.5 inches on last year's model. This is particularly good news as the screen was a real downside of the 2009 Flip pocketcam. The camcorder is still as slim and sleek as ever, with the same mobile-phone-style design, and it can be easily slipped into a shirt pocket. It has the same big red button to start recording and a set of arrow buttons to scroll through your video collection. Plus, there's the same USB connector that flips out from the camera body for transferring videos to a PC or Mac.

Image Quality

Not much has changed in this field. Unlike rival models, which almost all film in 1920 x 1080 pixels at a framerate of 25p, the MinoHD 2 only films in 1280 x 720 pixels at 30 frames per second (720/30p is the American HD TV standard). The advantage of this is that the videos it captures are ready to upload to US-based media sharing sites (YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook) as soon as you finish recording. One new feature is a digital image stabiliser. The lens has an aperture of f/2.4 which is actually better than most camcorders, but which still isn't as good as an AVCHD camcorder (usually f/1.8). Ultimately though, the picture is still full of noise in low-light conditions. We therefore recommend you stick to filming outside where the colours will look bright and vivid. Video is recorded in Mpeg-4 at 9 Mbps and no other options are available.


The 4 GB internal memory (grey casing) can record 1 hour of video, while the 8 GB version (black casing) can record for 2 hours. There's no longer an internal battery either, as the new Flip runs on regular or rechargeable AAA batteries (included). For this kind of portable camcorder, we reckon AAA batteries are a pretty smart choice as it's often easier to pick up AAA batteries than find a plug socket when you're on the road.

The Flip MinoHD 2 comes loaded with FlipShare software which installs on your computer when you hook up the camcorder for the first time. Videos show up automatically in the interface without you having to copy and paste them in. You can then send the videos by e-mail, use them to make a greetings card, or publish them on YouTube or My Space.

As before, a few basic editing options are also available. You can pick a selection of clips, add an opening theme tune and title, closing credits, a little background music, the Flip Video jingle etc. and then save your creation as a final video. FlipShare then rolls all the clips together into one 720p WMV file that can be easily uploaded to the Internet.