Sizzlin’ Summer Sweeps #giveaway Day 1: Flip SlideHD $279 RTV (ends 8/1)

The first time we ever used a Flip Video Camera was on the night of my son, Whistler’s birth.  My father brought the Christmas present he bought for himself, the Flip Mino HD, to the hospital with him on November 29, 2009.  For all the months of planning, preparing and packing we did for that night, the absolute best item we ended up bringing wasn’t the comfy clothes I planned on wearing for the following 3 days, or the stash of snacks and cookies to help stomach the hospital food, or the 2 copies of the same Sudoku book (so we can race each other), or even our trusty digital camera that I always bring everywhere.  It was the last minute tag along by my dad, The Flip.

While the doctors and nurses were prepping me for a C-Section, my dad was teaching Ben how to use the Flip.  “It ‘s simple,” he said, “Just point and shoot.  Press the big red button to start and again to stop.  That’s it!  If you want to zoom in or out, press up and down.”  Ben kept asking, “Is this tiny thing really a video camera?”  “Yeah – HD even!”  Cool.  All this is going on at the foot of the hospital bed while I’m trying to talk myself out of being scared to death of the Spinal Tap I was about to receive…alone.

In a matter of minutes, I was taken to the OR while Ben stayed behind and waited for the OK to come in.  When they let him in, I was prepped and ready to go – but shivering and cold from the anesthesia.

Ben was able to capture the birth and all the precious moments afterwards easily and with only a couple minutes of instruction – pretty impressive!

(*warning* this video contains the birth of child and is not suitable for viewing by the squeamish.  I have edited as much as I could, but there is *some* blood here and there.)

(be sure to change the video quality settings just to the right of the scroll bar to 720HD to see the full quality of the video!)

Ever since that day, we’ve taken literally hundreds of videos and captured just about every “first” imaginable with our new best friend, Mino.  Lucky for us, my dad graciously gave up his Christmas present to us and we’ve been in love with it since.

So it was with great delight when I was given the opportunity to review the newest addition to the line, the Flip SlideHD.  (My dad was pretty stoked about it too!)

First of all, I just love the packaging.  It comes in a classy fold-open box that makes me feel like I’m opening some expensive jewelry :)  Neatly tucked inside along with the Flip itself, is a silver wrist strap and soft dual purpose drawstring sack that acts both as a carry case, as well as a lens cleaner.

Everything about The Flip is sooooo user friendly.  From the controls on the camera itself to the included video viewing and editing software.  Everything you need is all bundled right onto the built-in drive on the camera!  All you have to do is “flip” out the USB stick and plug it into any computer.  It will immediately check to see if the software is installed on that computer, and if it isn’t – installs it for you – no additional disks required.  This means its easy to leave behind your videos when you visit relatives – no need to “email them later”!   It then launches the FlipShare program which allows you to view, edit, share and do just about anything you could possibly imagine with your videos.  It’s all super easy and intuitive and offers so much more than any other software I’ve seen.

Any novice can trim a video and then combine 5 clips together to make a movie (like I did above) in a matter of minutes.  You can even add a title and background music.  You can then burn a DVD or share the movie online several different ways – send an email, create a Flip Channel, create an e-greeting card, upload it to MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and more!  They really did think of everything when they designed this program.

I also love that I can throw it in my smallest purse or my biggest diaper bag  – its totally portable, which is a necessity for us.  Its sort of an unwritten rule that “he who has the baby, also has the Flip” :)

Since I’ve been using the Mino for 7 months now, I’d like to do a quick overview of the two models for you.  Here is a brief comparison of their specifications:

The first difference I noted was the size.  The SlideHD is definitely bigger.  The Mino is just plain tiny.  Amazingly so.  Now, the SlideHD is by no means a monster, it is comparable in size to my digital camera.  Still small, just not *as* small.

The second noticeable difference are the screens.  The Mino has a small, crisp screen that displays the movies beautifully – very clean and clear.  The SlideHD has a much larger screen that has the bonus feature of being a touch screen!  The widescreen 3″ display makes it much easier for everyone to gather around and share the videos you just took!  There’s no squinting to see a tiny screen here!  Now, although the specs state it has a better resolution, I feel the Mino screen is crisper in playback.  But I think this is largely due to the fact that the larger screen is a touch.  I do like that it slides out and sits at an angle so that you can place it on a table or desk and view movies comfortably without having to hold it up.

The SlideHD has twice as much storage space as the Mino (4 hours worth!).  This really comes in handy when you have grandparents that like to take LOTS of video.  My parents usually run out of time on the Mino within the first day of babysitting :)

They both have HDMI output so that you can connect the Flip directly to your TV to view your HD quality clips, as well as a place to screw it onto a tripod.  This is great for when I want to shoot Whistler and myself together and no one else is around to take the video for me!  The SlideHD has a bonus that the Mino does not have – a headphone jack.  I’m so glad they thought to add this.

The only other difference I noticed is the distance at which you have to be in order to get your full subject in the frame shot.  With SlideHD you need to stand back about an extra foot in order to get the whole picture within view.

I did not notice much picture quality difference between the two (I didn’t expect to as they have the same specs).

A new feature from Flip is that you can customize your SlideHD to show off your personality and spunk! The SlideHD can be personalized with images from the Flip design gallery or you can upload your own image! Find out more about this here.

Overall, I feel that the SlideHD is definitely worth the extra money for the double amount of recording space and ease in which to view and share your movies with the new bigger screen.  Cisco has really hit a home run with this line of video recorders and I am oh so happy to be able to capture my little one’s moments forever so easily and in such amazing quality.  Thank you, Flip!!!

The new Flip SlideHD retails for $279.99 and can be purchased online directly at www.theflip.com.

Want to get in with Flip?  Check out Flip Video on Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter.

The wonderful folks over at Cisco have been kind enough to offer one lucky Crazy Coupon Mommy or Sisterly Savings reader a new Flip SlideHD of their very own!!

Many thanks to Cisco who provided me with a Flip SlideHD for the purpose of this review.  No other type of compensation was received. This has no bearing on my completely honest review and the opinions expressed are 100% my own.