The shrink sized, stripped-down video recorder has already taken 13 percent of the camcorder market, according to its maker, Pure Digital. It sells on size, shape, ruggedness, low price and one-button simplicity.

Pure Digital Flip Ultra entered the market around the end of Q3 2007, with improved features than previous versions:

Better looking form factor
Slightly improved video quality
Greater capacity
Tripod mount
Range of colors - white, black, orange, pink and green.

Since the very first day it launched, it has rocketed to being the best-selling camcorder on Amazon.com .

Flip form and feature range has been has been reduced to the absolute point and film essentials. Turn it on, and its ready to start filming after about a 2 second warm up.

Simply, press the red button once to record and once to stop.

Press Play to review the video, and Trash to delete a clip.

That's It!

Form & Function

Screen Size - 1.5 inches

Resolution - TV resolution (640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second). Offers softer images than you get with a standard sized camcorder.

Video and audio quality is surprisingly good -- not as sharp as a tape camcorder or digital still cameras, but far better than cellphone video.

Low-light abilities - exceeds even $1,000 camcorders. The video is grain-free, and recorded dim scenes actually look brighter than they looked to your naked eye.

USB Jack - when you are ready to offload your footage, a one button click and the USB jack pops out at 90 degrees to the camera body. No cable needed - just slip the FLip USB jack directly into your computer! When you do, Flip icons appear on the screen. Just open the folder and play your video clips, copy them to your hard-drive and edit in most standard editing programs. Note: Requires a one-time installation of a special codec to translate the video format.

Power Supply - runs on a pair of AA batteries (Alkalines last 2 hours; rechargeable AA's manage about 5.)

Features

Still photos
Zoom - no optical zoom, instead comes with 2X digital zoom
Memory - onboard memory, no tapes, disks or memory card, so you need to offload after 30 - 60 minutes of footage depending upon the model.
No menus
No Settings
No Video Light
No optical Viewfinder
No special Effects
No headphone jack
No high definition
No lens cap

Video Editing Program

The Flip comes with a very basic video-editing program for both Mac or Windows. It lets you:

Shorten scenes
Rearrange scenes
Delete frames
Upload reduced-quality versions to YouTube or AOL Video
Email scaled-down versions
Add cross fades and music, to produce a fast-cutting MTV like edit.

Export

Export is limited to Windows version

The Mac version of this program lets you rearrange your clips for playback, but you can't export the result, so you are better off using iMovie right on your computer. Flip video works well with iMovie 6, although not iMovie '08.

Attach the Flip directly to your TV using an included cable - the video is not DVD quality, but it's fine standard-TV quality.

Take your camera to a vendor that will convert footage into a DVD for around $13.

Price

$150 or $180 models

So why is this basic filming device so popular - its easy and its fun. Any video camcorder owner will tell you there is a learning curve to go through to get the best out of the video recorder. Instead, the Flip offers no learning curve, and no complex settings. Its the video equivalent to the basic point and click digital camera.

And the uptake backs up claims by many that the electronics market is getting over complicated. No longer can you:

Quickly get to an address book or write a text message on a cellphone without going through a complex menu.
Setting up a stereo or DVD player is beyond most people over 50.
Digital camera menus offer too much choice.

Not all of the population wants a big choice range - they want easy to find and easy to operate. And don't forget that running all those extra features drains more memory and power.

The Flip goes where you go, to capture those special moments. And since most people only share their videos via YouTube, picture quality is not such a big issue.

The end story - the Flip definately has limitations, but it purity in ease of use and surprising quality of both picture and sound betray its incredibly affordable price.

Check here for the latest prices of the Pure Digital Flip Ultra on Amazon.

Imitations

If you want to judge the success of any electronics device, just look at how fast the imitators copy it. Flip imitators include:

Thomson licensed version of the FLip, called the RCA Small Wonder EZ201 sells for $100. Its an enhanced version with a flip-out screen, 30 minutes of storage and a memory-card expansion slot.
Sony's Net Sharing Cam NSC-GC1 is similarly shaped, but has a larger flip-out screen, card slot and rechargeable battery but no built in storage. Sells for around $150.

Just remember however, when you start adding enhancements, you start adding complications and more moving parts to go wrong.

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