Christine and I both got some kick-ass Christmas presents this year — our Criterion Collection DVD of “The Red Balloon” is gorgeous, the “Complete Elvis Presley Gospel Recordings” has not left my CD player since I cracked it open, Christine’s scads of baby knitting books rock, and our new “Guitar Hero: World Tour” video game has been making our fingers sore ever since we got it — but I think my favorite gift under the tree was the beautiful little HD video camera pictured below.
Smaller than my digital camera (and my wallet for that matter!) the Flip Mino HD is kind of amazing. Not only can it record up to one hour of beautiful, High Definition video, but with the flip of a button, a USB jack pops out of the top of the camera for quick and easy transfer of all your footage to your computer. Crazy, huh? And best of all, the Flip Mino HD is totally customizable!
As you can see, we picked the rocking little “eL Diablo” design by artist Scott Lipe. But, seriously, there are hundreds of different designs to chose from…we literally spent days sorting through them all.
And while I have a few quibbles with the camera so far — the viewing screen is kinda small and the zoom is pretty much non-existent — the fact that I can carry it with me when I’m out for on-the-go videography is pretty damn awesome.
My last video camera was big with tons of wires and cords and transferring the footage to my computer took forever and involved this crazy machine. So, smaller and easier is way better in my book…especially when the baby comes! I mean, really, who wants to be fumbling for their clunky old video camera when she does something insanely cute? With “eL Diablo” I can point and shoot like the most seasoned stalkerazzi.
Oh, and did I mention that the Flip also formats your footage for YouTube? Yep, how’s that for ease of use? And probably my favorite thing about this crafty little camera is the fact that it is totally Mac friendly. Yay!
I haven’t shot anything remotely blog-worthy yet, but once I do, rest assured that you’ll be the first to see it! Thanks again to Christine for the coolest joint-Christmas present ever and que viva, “eL Diablo”!
make. see. eat. do. 
