Blog Consulting, LLC - before I launch into my article, please understand one thing: I am a screaming raving fan of the Flip Video.
There, I said it. I hope I don't need a 12 step program.
In spite of my enthusiasm, I have also learned (from shooting around 30 video interviews for a client) that the Flip Video has its limits.
Therefore, I thought a blog post with the pros/cons of the Flip Video might be helpful.
Pros
- incredibly easy to carry around
- point and shoot video capability
- very easy to upload to YouTube
- HD is quite remarkable
Cons
- the averaging light meter really struggles with high light contrast situations.
- no microphone input
- because of the lack of a microphone input, ambient noise really becomes a problem. If you are shooting an interview, in a noisy conference room, you are going to struggle to hear your subject.
In my blog consulting business, I have always encouraged people to think of their social media channels as a potential TV station. The Flip Video, at under $200, makes it very affordable for you to produce your own video stories, and easily get them published to your blog.
However, if you intend video to become a large part of your social media strategy, and you are a stickler for quality, like I am, you will find that you will quickly need to advance beyond the capabilities of the Flip Video.
For me, I intend to always have my Flip Video with me, because of its incredible portability, but from now on, when I can plan ahead for my video stories, which is nearly all the time, I will be turning to my new Canon Vixia HF S10.
Here is an example of a video interview that I did for my client, Scottsdale Bible Church, using the Flip Video. As you can see, the video is pretty nice in this example, but the on-board microphone is struggling to get the audio. I have also found that keeping this nice light was very difficult depending on what the subject wore. If the subject wore dark clothing, the meter, coupled with the dark background "flipped" out. A little pun on words!
Nonetheless, I hope this post shows you what you can accomplish with the Flip Video. Now get out there and start sharing your stories in video!
