Watch out. Courtney got me a Flip Ultra HD video camera for Christmas. I’ve been playing with it during our holiday trip up North, and so far I’ve been pretty happy with it. The camera turns on very quickly. Just hit the power button and you’re ready to aim and shoot in about two seconds. The microphone on the front of the camera does ok picking up the voice of the person holding the camera and whoever you point it at, but if you point it away from the speaker, you’ll have a hard time hearing him/her, and it doesn’t do well at all when there’s a howling wind blowing. The picture quality looks good on the camera, but appears a bit choppy on the computer screen. However, once you upload it to YouTube, it’s fine, and that’s all I really wanted this camera for anyway. I love the small size and light weight, as it slips easily into the front pocket of my DSLR bag, so I can carry it around with my photo camera while traveling and quickly switch to shooting some video without having lug another bag around.

Now that I have a new toy, I’ve started a YouTube channel specifically for clips I post to this blog. I think it’s going to be mostly travel clips, starting with the one below, which I shot with the Flip while our plane was descending into a snow-covered Philadelphia. The channel might also feature various clips I stumble upon on YouTube. Keep in mind that I’ve just started playing around with videography, so I’m in the constantly learning and highly experimental stage, and you get to suffer through the results.