has anyone used a FLIP video recorder in europe?

I have a Flip Mino and it works very nice but is new and am still working with it. I tried to e-mail a video that I recently took but did not go thru as it said it was too large. It was only about 30 seconds so still trying to figure it out. It may have to be compressed but am going to have to find someone more familiar with computers. Mine has 60 minutes of memory and when viewed on a computer screen it looks professional. Just hope another poster knows more about how to do it than I do. I plan on using in on my trip next year and that is the reason I bought it.

thanks, tony! that is the one i plan on getting!! good to know about the email problem though...hopefully others will post too :) if you figure more out, please post the info here if you have time, i'd really appreciate it!i will hopefully buy one tomorrow, and will post here as well, once i figure it out. i leave one week from tomorrow!! yay!! thanks again, and also to those others who may post!!

p.s. i LOVE this site!! every time i post, (not too often, but increasing, as i leave 1 week from tomorrow :) ), i get fantastic advice!! thanx to all you big posters for all the help!

If you plan to take the Flip as your only camera, don't. It's video quality is OK, but I found the zoom to be useless...in fact, it's downright fuzzy (2X digital zoom only). And the video grabs for still shots is not terribly good. I also don't like the fact that the Mino has a built in battery that you have to charge through a computer's USB port. At least the Ultra uses AAA batteries that you can replace quickly and easily. I would spend the same amount of money on a nice small digital still camera that also takes video clips....most of them do these days. It's also not likely that you will find many internet cafes that will allow you to plug in your Flip and allow its software to run....they're concerned about viruses, etc.

Tony...as noted, most still digital cameras these days will take good quality video clips a minute long, or longer...with better zoom, and the additional opportunity of getting a good still shot. Much better buying one camera than two.

norm and tony,

thank you for replying!!

my only reason for the flip is for easy video that i can email without any special software (it has its own built in). apparently with this new flip you can just plug it into any computer and email the video very easily or put it on utube or myspace. i thought i could send little videos to my son while i am away. but now i am hearing that it may not be that easy, or that internet cafes may not let me plug it in?

Exactly the problem. Some internet cafes may let you attach something from a photo storage card to an e-mail, if they're set up to scan your card to make sure there are no viruses....you could send video clips that way. But don't count on it.

I agree that you should not use this as your only camera. I bought mine to record several things that I plan to do in Europe and also record a couple things that just a picture will not do justice. If you are fairly close to the subject it works very well and the sound works well also. It is so handy because of the size so I carry if everywhere as you never know when something happens that you wish you had a record of.

I used one.

Your hotel may have a public computer that will let you plug it in. Try begging at internet cafes, showing how cool it is to the techies who work there, etc. and see if they will let you plug one in. The flip (mine is ultra) has all software in it, but the cafes are cranky about software allowed, as others have mentioned.

Email, unless you have very, very generous account (and your recipients need generous account too)is not really the answer. Files simply too large.

uTube is easiest. I would practice doing this at home first. They allow up to 10 minute long videos, and then you send the link in an email.

Happy filming.

liz,

thank you so much! you have answered many of my questions!! i wonder if the newest one is any faster? thank you all again! i'm going to go look at them again...

I used my Panasonic digital camera, which was great, but it only has 12 bit sound so don't try to make a DVD with more than 30 minutes of your footage or your sound and vision will get out of sync...