The (Ir)Regular Periodicals

I’ve taken a lot of photographs lately and I’ll always enjoy that, but there are times when video is in order. Unfortunately, my digital SLR doesn’t take video, nor was it designed to, and I wouldn’t want to anyway, as the camera is far too big to tote along on a daily basis. We have an older Sony digital camcorder and a newer Canon camcorder, but even these are too big to have ready for the those times when you’d love to capture something unexpectedly.

I’ve been reading about Pure Digital’s Flip Ultra video camera for some time. If you want to see it in-depth at the Pure Digital site click here. I won’t go into all the specs, but I’ve deduced it’s the video gadget that falls in between your point-n-shoot digicam’s video setting and a dedicated digital camcorder. What’s great is that it’s the size of a cigarette pack (sorry for the tacky comparison…) and is embarrassingly simple to use. It’s what I’d carry around in a purse or even a pocket on a daily basis.

There’s a very interesting demonstration video of its capabilities at Kirk Mastin’s site (The Master of Emulsion) which, if you’re in the market for an ultra, ultra, portable camcorder, is definitely worth a visit. Watch his video there and decide for yourself.

For years I’ve worked with Apple’s iMovie from the first release years ago to iMovie6 HD to the newest iMovie8. I enjoy creating videos on my Mac because it’s so simple, and this Flip Ultra will make that process even simpler. I’d like to pick one up before going up to the cottage in the next couple of months and working with the footage in iMovie8 and its capabilities of uploading and sharing content to iWeb, a Mac Web Gallery, YouTube, or other sites.

There are bound to be competitors in this field, as seen with Creative’s Vado, and when I read further I was impressed with this device, too, though upon reading a few user reviews I was somewhat disappointed.

Unfortunately, the Flip isn’t available in Canada yet (I hear it’s Christmas 2008 ) but a quick trip over the River and presto, I have one of these little gadgets.

The only dilemma left is what colour to choose…