Flip off: Ultra vs. Mino HD
The Flip video cameras have interested me for a while. Their simplicity and quality get raves all over the internet. I figured I would pick one up at some point, but I was in no rush. Poking around a bit I saw that Pure Digital planned to release an HD version by the end of the year, but no firm date was available. I thought I’d just wait and see. Fast forward to late October at the height of the election excitement. I knew November 4th was going to be a historic day, and I decided that it would be fun to carry a Flip around with me to document the occasion (results can be seen here).
At the time, the choice was between the Flip Ultra and the Flip Mino. The main differences between the two were size (the Mino is noticeably smaller), the fact that the Ultra has removable AA batteries while the Mino has an internal non-removable rechargeable battery, and the lens. The Ultra has a larger and wider lens, while the Mino (I’m guessing primarily because of it’s smaller body size) has a smaller lens, with a tighter field of view. The Ultra was also selling for about $50 less. Since this was a semi spur-of-the-moment decision, I decided to go with the Ultra. I wasn’t sure how much I was going to use it, and I liked the idea of replaceable batteries in a pinch. And hey, it was cheaper.
Needless to say I fell in love with it right out of the box. There really is something to the fact that there is essentially just a POWER and RECORD button. I used it all over the place, and had a blast with it on Election Day.
Of course, shortly after that, Pure Digital announced, and started shipping, the Flip Mino HD. My initial thought was that unless there were major issues, the HD ability would trump all the other differences. Knowing that I was still within my return window at Amazon, I ordered the Mino HD so I could compare them side by side. While I was waiting, I poked around and read what people were saying about the Ultra compared to the Mino. In general, everyone raved about the Mino, but one question that came up was how the field of view compared on the two side by side. This is a pretty big issue for me as a lot of my use for something like this was going to be in close quarters: sitting across from someone on a couch, across a kitchen counter, etc. Just basic everyday stuff. On the DSLR side of things, I bought a 35mm lens that now gets more use than my 50mm lens for this same reason—the ability to take close up shots in more confined spaces.
There are a lot of great reviews out there comparing the Flip Mino HD to some of the other small HD cameras, so I just wanted to focus on how the Ultra and Mino HD compare side by side when it comes to field of view, and as I came to find out, White Balance. It should also be noted that the Ultra shoots 4:3 video, and the Mino HD shoots 16:9.
For the purpose of this comparison, I took a couple of shorts clips in a few different settings. I held both cameras side-by-side in one hand, and recorded the exact same everyday scenes with both:
Here is the video from the Flip Ultra:
Here is the same video from the Flip Mino HD (note: to see the video in actual HD, you’ll need to click through to the Vimeo site, as they don’t allow HD embedding with the standard account. Also, there are a few extra HD clips at the end for those interested. I combined them since you can only upload one HD video per week to the site).
FIELD OF VIEW
If you take some stills from the clips, the differences can be seen more clearly. In all of these, the Ultra is on the left, and the Mino HD on the right.
Take a look at the room above my fathers head, and the full view of the entire turkey:
In my office, notice that you can see the photos on the wall above the desk, the iSight, and the space below:
Finally, when standing directly in front of the espresso maker, with the Ultra you can clearly see the entire machine and the cups on the top, where on the Mino HD the top and bottom are cut off:
WHITE BALANCE
When looking at the clips side by side, you can see a massive difference in White Balance between the two. The Ultra appears more accurate, while there is a yellow tint to the Mino HD color. For reference, when I shoot indoors on my Nikon D80 with the 35mm lens (shooting RAW), the Ultra is closer to the image I get after I have corrected the White Balance in Aperture, and the Mino HD’s color is closer to the un-corrected image. Before and after.
CONCLUSION
In the end, the Ultra got packed up and returned, but it wasn’t as quick a decision as one might expect. As I suspected, the HD quality was the overriding factor in the decision. I can get used to the rechargeable battery, and the price difference was small enough that the superior video quality made it worth it. What gave me the most pause was the field of view. No matter how I cut it, I prefer the FOV of the Ultra. My ultimate Flip would be the Flip ULTRA HD. That would really be the best of both worlds. I suspect there is little to no chance of that happening however. If I had never used them side-by-side, I don’t think I would be as aware of the difference, and that will be the case for 99% of the people buying the Mino HD. I guess as the guys over on Tack Sharp say, I’ll be doing more zooming with my feet with the Mino HD, but I’ll be happy with the results.
Lastly, the best price I have seen is on the Mino HD is at Amazon:
Flip Video Mino HD Camcorder, 60 Minutes (Black)
UPDATED (5/1): Flip has released a Flip UltraHD
