Flip Video Camera (s)

[grendel]

Well this week has seen an addittion to my array of not new camera gear, I already had one flip video ultra HD video camera, this is a very basic camera that runs on either a rechargeable battery pack, or standard AA batteries.

mine runs for an hour, then has to be charged / downloaded.

they do do a 2 hour version, but these cameras new change hands from between £69 and £200, so when I managed to get a few on ebay, labelled as faulty for less than the price of 1 new one, I was happy, confident in my ability to fix them.

3 I got were the ultra models, of the 3 - 2 of them worked straight away when batteries were put in, one starts fine, but then shows blank, so one dead one, one of the others flattened the battery overnight, but as long as you only put them in when you need it, its fine.

of the remaining 3, one was the latest model, and came with the magnetic wide angle lens, (an extra £30 new), all that was required with this one was to press the hidden reset button, and put it on charge - now working fine - 2 hours video, and 90 minutes battery life. the second Mino model camera responded to a new battery, and the third is waiting for its new battery to arrive, so at the moment 4 cameras working, with a maybe on the fifth, when its new battery arrives.

I now reckon I am ready for the sea trip later in the month, both video and stills cameras sorted, I can see I will be having long chats with our Robin on the trip there.

Unfortunately these cameras are getting scarce new, as the company that made them stopped making that sort of thing.

[grendel]

pictures

[grendel]

bonus, I have just won the waterproof case for the flip ultra for just 99p on ebay, good for up to 30 ft underwater.

[grendel]

I am also trialing some new ni-zn rechargeable batteries in these cameras, these batteries have one advantage over standard rechargeables, instead of 1.2V they start at 1.6V, avoiding the normal problem of the camera seeing the battery as flat when the voltage drops below 2.3V (for 2 batteries) you get more useable capacity from these higher voltage batteries (standard alkaline batteries start at about 1.65V which is why they work better for high demand items like cameras) the disadvantage is they need a special charger.

[grendel]

here is a typiical video clip, it clearly shows the image stabilisation in action (watch the window frame moving while the view remains relatively stable). Excuse the dirty / wet windscreen, I was really testing the battery life on the way to work, it died at 90 mins - just as I turned into the car park

 

[Bound2Please]

Dartford tunnel???????

[ranworthbreeze]

Hi Grendel,

It looks quite good considering the poor light in the tunnel and as you say the rain on screen and vehicles around you.

I would hold back on the 30 foot underwater testing however

Regards

Alan 

[grendel]

I will just test using one of the less good cameras for now, I have one camera of spare parts at least (if I cant get it running as another spare).

[grendel]

Still awaiting 1 new battery, but today the waterproof case I won on ebay arrived, just got to test it now