Flip Ultra - The camera that powered YouTube's Golden Era
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- Опубликовано: 11 дек 2024
- Review, teardown, and test of the Flip Ultra -- the best-selling camcorder at the time of its release in late 2007, which gave many people an easy beginning to RUclips fame, back when videos were short, quality was low, and ads were minimal.
Despite how old these cameras are, the fact that they could put this much tech and yet be this cheap is impressive for 2007.
Cisco pulled these for no reason. They were still making millions in profits. Look at gopro....that's where flip would have ended up
To be fair, an hour of video recording would have seemed good enough at a time when RUclips videos were limited to 10 minutes.
Huh now 10 mind is the minimum at least for money making
@@CommanderMouse72 They recently lowered it to 8 minutes for mid-rolls.
@@MysteryMii yay less filler content in videos haha, I shouldn't be happy that shorter videos are getting ads but as I use adblock all it means is less filler
I remember Ashens doing a thing on these years ago.
Yes, he compared it with the similar Creative Vado. "Flip the flip on the Flip, hear the blip."
"Years Ago" Damn. I remember watching that when it was posted. Feeling old here haha
This was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the title
@@TheComputerGuy96 I think this comments section applies for veterans discount...
Hahah, I thought exactly the same!
I remember a youtuber who put 2 flip cameras next to each other to make 3D-video when that was a thing...
The golden era of youtube into 2009 was amazing and really miss how it used to be plus the community that existed is unmatched in today's hell of social media. Now days all most here care about is farming as many views as possible to milk income from ad spam while shamelessly trying to sell merch and "services".
RUclips removed as many "community" type features as possible, which doesnt help. Google wants youtube to be less small community and more droney TV type content. They did bring back the ability for channels to publish messages which is cool though.
@@s8wc3 RUclips has announced that is will be removing the channel messages soon. So there goes that.
@@Syntax.error. The community tab posts on channels? Those? Wow, RUclips...
Couldn't of had said it better myself. Thats so spot on. I always rant about the difference between old RUclips and today RUclips and it grinds my gears when people don't understand how corporate RUclips really got.
Miss the simplicity of 5 min shitty quality videos and skits.
@@Thekijuju I think nostalgia gets the best of us. A lot of those videos were funny when we were younger, if that came back it would be cringe city. YT blew up when I was around 13-15 years old and I was the prime demographic. If skits like "Milk and Cereal" came out today like they did before I don't think it would garner the same hits. There are MANY quality YT channels here that the creators are getting profit for. I know everyone here watch LGR and Techmoan and they most certainly profit from making their videos. A lot of YT channels are also providing entertainment that cable TV certainly can't anymore and some are studio quality. Sure, they profit, but everyone focuses on the bad channels and never the tens of thousands of good ones. Possibly hundreds of thousands.
There's a little bit more to the story on these. These came about as the company who came up with this design originally sold them as a "Disposable Digital Video" camera. You bought it at CVS and had to bring it back there to get the video out. People figured out how to hack it so you could get the vidos your self at home, and keep and use the camera. At the end of 2007, I guess they realized their business model wasn't working out and they released this version with the USB port called the Flip. The business was eventually sold to Cisco Systems.
I remember those. I hadn't realized it was the same device.
PS to @VWestlife this means there may be a way to recover video from a dead one.
@@alextirrellRI No. The original one didn't have the flip out port. There was a "special" connector hidden under sticker on the top.
@@alextirrellRI Also meant to say, it was still the same USB, but you needed a special decryption key. The new model didn't need that.
I was just about to say that myself, I remember seeing those at CVS in 2006.
I remember the time when so many people had these Flip cameras and their knockoffs. Back then I had the Aiptek camcorder which offered a flip-out screen and optical zoom, so at the time I felt like I had something better. Still nothing compared to the people who had Digital8 or MiniDV camcorders and knew how to get their videos off the tape and onto RUclips...
The two Samsung chips are probably memory, one RAM, and the other one the built-in flash memory. I assume these camcorders, like so many other of these early solid state memory camcorders were based on an Ambarella all-in-one camcorder chip.
Funny that you too call that time RUclips's Golden Era. Back when most RUclipsrs were uploading videos as a hobby and not for the money, the videos were mostly straight-forward and simple (no reading a script off a teleprompter in front of an elaborate set) and most importantly, the viewers all had some of their own videos up and therefore knew to appreciate the work that got put into every well-produced video. None of the "I now watch RUclips instead of TV" crowd who always find something to complain about, but usually don't know what they are even talking about.
and now you have studio-like cameras
my family is cool. we had dv tapes. barely compressed 50fps baby
Having been trying to get video from a Hi 8 Camcorder to DVD using a computer at the time I can see the appeal of these. I spent £100s on hardware and software and by the the time I had got it working had lost all enthusiasm for doing it.
Im one of those that knew how to take my Digital8 to YT..and I used my lap top to film all so.
damn bruh called out
The Flip definitely enabled RUclips to take off. This really was the first very successful solid state video camera. No messing with tapes or discs, just plug it into your computer with the built in USB plug and bam, you're uploading to RUclips.
I like these history type videos, I'd love to hear your take on 'the cameras that shaped RUclips' or something like that!
I would say GoPro's followed the Flip Ultra's footprint. Simple to use, yet good quality video that you can take anywhere.
Imagine a Flip Action - smaller in size but with the same quirky design and waterproof.
It's the pre-GoPro of the 2000s.
The first video I uploaded on my channel about 13 years ago was done on a flip knockoff, the RCA EZ101. I remember standing on a bridge looking at boats and people partying on a sandbar when a guy walked up and began filing with a giant pro-Japanese video camera. I took out my little camera and began filming too as that is why I was on the bridge. he looked over at me and scowled. I could not stop grinning. the price was incredible, I got it for $29 at Ace hardware. I never looked back and have over 800 videos now. I miss the quirky amateurs from back then.
I still have my Ultra HD that I bought at a flea market many years ago, and it was my secondary camera for some time before my OnePlus One with a dying baseband took its place. The rechargeable battery it had no longer takes a charge, but the fact that it takes AAA batteries (they predate the popularity of external batteries) does allow me to still use it if I needed to.
Basically, as I imagined it, someone would be at an amusement park or some attraction, the rechargeable battery would run out of power, then if they were near a kiosk that sold camera supplies, they may have had AAA batteries that someone could buy and put in, and have 1 left over from a 4-pack.
This thing was almost ahead of its time, crazy.
*its
@@vwestlife Thank you for the correction
@@vwestlife Look if you just want to type the full rude word do it! Oh wait..... I see....... 😀😀😀
@@vwestlife I see you have at Andy in the background is it a Tandy 1000 SX or what model is it? is it still working? Thanks enjoy your videos
@@ThePalmermark Yes, it's a 1000SX.
I got one of these at a yard sale....and I lost it. Still, it started a generation of RUclips, and it's definitely something to remember.
That thumbnail was absolutely gorgeous. Absolute time capsule.
The Flip camera looks like a GoPro prototype.
Tech has gotten so much better since then.
Kevin,
That's a 1957 Thunderbird, in Thunderbird Bronze.
Yes, the column shifter was a thing back in the 50's.
I remember these camera's, they were popular.
Kevin, was the second T-Bird the same, or similar to the Bronze one?
Ahhh back to a time where youtube didn’t have constant ads every 5 minutes!!
I can just imagine the conversation at Cisco after they acquired Flip;
"Hey boss! We just bought this camera company that's making decent profits, what shall we do to move ahead with it?"
"Can it, nobody wants stupid little cameras now!"
"But, boss, profits are high!!"
"I don't care, close 'er down and sell off the assets!"
"Damn boss, you dumb...."
"And you're fired."
I won one in a competition from my dads workplace. I used to record videos on the white model that could record 30 mins of video. As a kid it was great to have a camera that could just record whatever you wanted and you didn’t care about quality or zoom or anything😅 you’ve reminded me of so many childhood memories
My Dad worked for Cisco, no not Sysco. He told me the conversation that his CEO, John Chambers, had with Steve Jobs about the Flip.
What about Sisqo? And The Thong Song?
@@Mario_N64 lmao.... I guess there is a lot of ways that you can spell it.
Seeing the video of that Thunderbird was just like an instant time warp to 2009 RUclips. A time that I fondly remember!
I remember when these came out and i wanted one SOOO badly. At a time when my phone could just record thumbnail size videos and i had no other digital camcorder yet. These blogger cameras were awesome. Flip Mino, Kodak Zi8 or the Sony Bloggie cameras. All of them were killed too fast by Android based Smartphones with HD video capabilities.
I remember using these at school. At the time they were so cool!
Something compact - that just made recording video easy 😀
The quality wasn't great, but considering it took years before smartphones could produce better, they served their purpose well.
EDIT: Did you record this video on a Flip camera? 480p and 4:3 aspect ratio - it fits for sure.
The video was recorded on either a MiniDV or Digital8 camcorder - you can hear the noise of the spinning head drum if you listen carefully. Also the quality (as in focus etc.) is higher than what a Flip is capable of.
@@DrCassette my first thought was "recorded on a flip", but you are right, the Camcorder is in picture at 5:43.
@@rarbiart Ah yes, it's a Sony MiniDV camcorder.
I am not sure about that that same year 2006 Nokia released N93 with optical zoom, auto focus ,stereo microphones and the only advantage Flip had was price.
Nah, definetly Mini DV
If you wanna take a video clip nowadays, you have to be sim loaded, logged in, geotagged, cloud enabled and consider which one of the half dozen lenses to use.
Using the Flip Ultra HD was the first time I ever saw video in 720 p
I remember when Flips were popular around 2009, but at the time I had a point-and-shoot camera instead. It took 480p video at almost the same quality, but could also take very good photos (and still can today if you don't want to use a smartphone).
The FlipVideo became so popular around 2007 through 2011, and it was a great run for 4 years until Cisco decided to ceased production on the FlipVideo camcorder, because smartphones including Samsung Galaxy, Android, and iPhones are taking over by storm that eventually killed the FlipVideo. I still have one from 2009 and it still works.
I remember thinking it was a mistake for Cisco Systems to end production of these camcorders. I still do.
The cameras that made vlogging mainstream. Good times.
I remember the times when ads didn't exist or were minimal, and that videos didn't have sponsors (where a person advertises a product in exchange for money) and/or try to promote their Patreon. These days, it's very common to find a lot of new videos, especially from big name RUclipsrs, push video sponsors (ads) for products/services (which you probably don't care about) as well as Patreon. I am not sure how useful the sponsor is considering anyone could just skip past the sponsor and into the actual video.
I like that you don't add sponsors for irreverent products or talk about Patreon like most other RUclipsrs have done.
7:49 maybe the previous owner used that black Flip camera to shoot videos for X-Tube! That's where the stickiness comes from. I kid, I kid! 😁
The day youtube removed the star rating system I knew quality was going to tank. Plenty of good channels, but some just gets likes which doesn't really tell you much about it's quality, it just allows them to be at the top of search engines.
I remember shooting with a mini DV then & wanting to get one of these, but never got around to. But a point-and-shoot that could fit in your pocket, no fuss, click ON & record; plug & play - that WAS the dream! How can they be relics now? Time is weird.
I remember Target having tons of sales of these Flip cameras.
J and R electronics in lower Manhattan, NYC had a special section in their store where they gave almost hourly demonstrations of these products. Man, I sure miss that place. I spent hours in there just playing with everything and asking questions. You hit a nerve there from a blast from the past.
I remember everyone having these back in 2009 lmao and also knockoffs. Nice video as always!
I have the knockoff too, my parents couldn't afford the actual flip video
I remember those. Now, the go pro took its place
I remember it was maybe RUclips Live 2007 or 2008 - There was a station where visitors could plug in their Flip cameras and upload to RUclips.
YouToube's slogan used to be called Braodcast Yourself. It is so corporate nowadays. Too many ads in the videos.
Better video quality than I imagined!
I literally JUST found my flip minoHD and fixed it to pull decade old videos off it. What a coincidence!
Just watching those video's you took with the Flip brings back so many memories. My mind knows it's new footage, but it also thinks it's from the early RUclips days.
I still have a Flip UltraHD III, from 2010. I think it was the 2nd-to-last Flip model that came out before Cisco discontinued them. It shoots 720p video. Nice camera, but it would run down the battery even when powered off, which was a pain if the camera sat for like a couple weeks without being recharged.
Many fond memories of these cameras, I got my start with video (way before I was on RUclips) with a Flip Mino HD that I still have and it still works, over 10 years later!
Bring me back good memories. Nice video Kevin.
Dude... I still have the regular and HD versions..
Mine is the UltraHD one that I got for Christmas back in 2009.
Thank you so much. Love watching your channel. Greetings from Amsterdam
Flip ultra solved the vertical video problem but even the latest smartphone defaults to vertical video if you hold it in the most natural way to hold the phone. WHY?
How's about this 1:1 aspect ratio that major news sites are now uploading to RUclips?
It looks terrible on RUclipss phone app. And will look terrible on many monitors.
@@jeffkardosjr.3825 I have the Motorola One Action, which has an 'action camera' that allows you get horizontal video from holding the phone virtually, because the camera has been installed at 90 degrees. I think they put that in 2 models in 2019.
These in combination with a unibody white MacBook bring back so many primary school memories haha. I remember filming many talent shows with these
I love this, I have one and still use it from time to time. It is much easier these days just to use my phone but I swear as old as this is it sometimes does a better job than my phone.
Came for the camera, stayed for the Thunderbird. 👌
My Kodak Zi8 was stamped for RUclips / Facebook videos. It worked fantastic. Still have it and still use it. :)
I loved my Flip camera, best thing was they could take some abuse, so great for putting in your pocket and stuff!
I still have one, excellent sound quality, nicad batteries still available on Amazon.
The first videos (since deleted) on my channel were recorded with one of these. This was back when 13 year olds showed off their trampoline wrestling moves complete with 360p resolution and the camera stability of an earthquake. A 13 year olds production workstation was most likely the family's Pentium 4, Windows XP computer with none other than Windows Movie Maker. Chances are your audio choices were the crackly vocals of you and your friends in between puberty or RUclips's default music choices: Paralyzer or Darude.
A simple camcorder that can directly upload to RUclips sounded unheard of! If somebody else bought the Flip brand, it would've been really competitive on the likes of Panasonic or Canon. Sad so see it die off.
I was considering the HD version of the Flip back in the day but went with a Canon Powershot. The price and limitations were a distraction.
Woah, I always remembered having a white little video camera as a kid but I never could remember what it was. But now that I've seen this I remember it was a Flip Ultra! Thank you for unlocking parts of my childhood brain!
I love these cameras, I have several Kodak ones and still use them. I think some of the later HD ones still do a good job and with a mic jack they still can be used in short vlogs. I picked up a Mino Ultra HD for $3.00 at a thrift store. did some minor cleaning of battery compartment and works perfectly. better to drop one of these than your smart phone.
I use alcohol pads to clean off vintage sticky rubber. I also use a little baking soda with water and q-tips to clean up battery corrosion (works about half the time).
I absolutely LOVED the Flip! I have 2 of them, the Ultra and Mino HD, but unfortunately neither is working anymore. While I preferred the video quality of the Mino, I thought the Ultra felt better in my hand and was my go-to Flip. Thanks for another great video.
still have mine . i did a workaround for mine well after flip quit . id record , put it on desktop and upload that way. i do not see what was wrong with these cameras except that smart phones were being shoved down our thorats at the time . the video seems to still hold up in 2020, and yes i know a lot of folk are going back to fip phone as they feel over loaded .
Welp, now that I’ve watched this video I know that a Flip Camera reboot product (maybe 4k 60fps capable?) will be hitting the market soon
Would be awesome but i doubt it..... the market for Standalone HD videocameras seem to shrink more and more. Even thou it makes sense to have a camera that is ONLY a camera and uses the whole battery power just for the camera. Not to run a whole OS with too much in the background.
Smartphones have just gotten too good. A good phone from the last ~3-4 years can record 4k at studio - like quality when the lighting is good. You would be surprised to see how many big RUclips channels just use a phone for recording.
I remember using one of these years ago, miss those days.
Oh god, I remember these. I worked in a bookstore chain when this came out. I had left the tech industry to sell books, more or less. Well, because of my background, when tech was sold by the book company, Kobo was another one, it ended up in my lap, as I knew how they worked and could sell the pros of the devices. But I still remember giving live demoes of this at the front of store. Though, I never bought one myself due to it's various quirks and limitations.
Still have my Ultra, in black. Actually tried it about a year ago, on my old Dell xp os that I used at the time and it still works. 👍
I remember this in a special ED School
I remembered seeing it in a gogurt commercial were people are gonna win a free flip video
I have one of these! Still works! My mom got me it for Christmas!
Interesting tidbit, when these first came out, CVS drugstore had a version that they sold for something like $14. It was identical to the standard Flip, except the USB connection was gone. The idea being once you fill up the memory with videos, you bring it back to CVS, and they send it off to have your videos transferred to CD. It did not take long for someone to figure out where the USB pins were on the board, so it was very easy to solder a USB cable and use it like a normal Flip. I had a bunch that I attached to RC aircraft, and got some pretty decent footage.
Also, if you can't remove the sticky rubberized coating, dust it with baby powder and it make it feel like new.
The scene figured out that special port was just a Palm PDA connection. When I hacked mine, I bought a cable off Ebay, flashed the onboard software, then used the software to connect and pull the files off. The funniest thing about that software was the coder had a thing for V for Vendetta, and made you change the date to Bonfire Night for the initial setup.
I love your videos man, all of them! Please upload more often :) By the way, Dodge trucks, 2010 & newer often feature the exhaust exiting thru the rear bumper. What a beautiful car.
I don't think the brass knuckle steering wheel was original either, but that car was before my time a bit.
11:50 Nice looking IHC Scout. Almost looks like a Scout Traveler. The other one is pretty nice looking too.
Kinda funny seeing a "fancy" car next to an International.
that scout is a 1980 traveller (tell tale is the headlights) probably a 4 speed nissan sd33t diesel
I recently bought a Flip Ultra HD on Ebay U.K for for £1. Advertised as faulty but works !
I found a new Flip camera for $12 on a 90% OFF table at Big Lots in 2008 and ended up carrying it EVERYWHERE for years. Standard definition, half-hour of storage. About six years ago I bought a pile of various used Flip and Kodak pocket cams on ebay. These were all HD versions, which sold for $5 to $20 each in working condition. Oddly, the Kodak PlaySport, which I think might have the same or similar video sensor/chipset as the Zi8, offers by far the best picture quality of the batch when mounted on a tripod with lots of light. Razor sharp 1920 X 1080 until you moved the camera and got the serious rolling shutter jello. I still use the Kodak for some well-lit tripod shots, because its output exceeds the apparent sharpness of more expensive "Coke can format" home video cameras such as the Panasonic HC-V520.
I had one for the car. You just never know when you might need a video camera. I got in the habit of keeping this and a cheap camera. Just in case someone broke into the car to rob its contents.
For many people this was their first iPhone before iPhone came out. The iPhone killed off a lot of technology that existed. Cheap digital camera, video camera, iPod music player, internet browser GPS, and of course a cell phone. It was everything in one package.
I used to have the white one. Got it back in 2008. I had it for a long time and have no idea what I ever did with it.
Vertical device that shoots horizontal videos. And you say this was VERY popular. Could this be the reason why so many people today have a tendency to shoot portrait oriented videos with their smartphones ?
I remember back in 6th grade ~7 years ago we recorded school announcements on these.
Remember when RUclips was a great site that treated its own users with upmost respect and dignity and wasn't about algorithms, subscribers, likes, and views? Pepperidge Farm remembers. #BringBacktheDislikeCount
I still use mine. I love its simplicity. Take out, turn on & press the big red red button. They are fixed focus so no need to worry about that or fiddling around with exposure. I can just concentrate on framing the scene that I'm recording. 480P is fine by me!
I actually used a flip back in 2011 until it was crushed by my friend on a bike. We were trying to make a home movie.
I was still messing around with 8mm/Hi8 when these came out.
We need to find that kid from the original owner footage
The one thing I mainly remember about the flip cameras is that they did really well when recording a video clip of a concert, surprisingly so. Too bad the video wasn't very good.
I used to have a Kodak HD camera like that. I loved it!
I had a flip when I was a boy. Absolutely loved it.
I had a Flip Mino HD in 2010. I remember thinking that was amazing for its time. It died out on me randomly. It didnt last too long. If it still worked, I would try making some videos with it these days. Theres something nice about watching old digital videos in the modern era.
damn i had the last one, the Flip Mino HD, loved that thing
the sounds are so nostalgic
I did notice that when I filled up my camera the first time it permanently lost 20 minutes of record time.
You could buy a waterproof case, sold as an "Underwater Case", to use with the Ultra's. I bought the waterproof case ($50) for my white Ultra. Had a black Mino too. Both failed over the years. I might still have that waterproof case somewhere. I remember it worked and you could control the camera while it was in it, but it wouldn't stand up on its own.
Back in 2012 my first camera for youtube vids were filmed on a flipshare. Good memories.
The best feature of this brilliant cam was 25FPS video as a default. It looked so good for early “HD” but with a buttery smooth film-like Quality of video!
I had a Kodak Zi8 back then, it was my first camcorder!! The 720p image wasn’t too bad, but the lack of image stabilization made most of my footage nearly useless. It took almost ten years until my Mac and digital image stabilization software were finally advanced enough to make the footage halfway usable. Even worse than the heavy shaking were the rolling shutter effects introduced by it!
13:55 there is a hole. Wonder if that's for a Ball Mount CB antenna.
Wow way ahead of time eh?
I got a Flip MinoHD in 2011, my first actual camcorder, my family gave it to me for my birthday and I used it for maybe 3 years before I got an iPhone 5S. I like the Flip camera, but I wouldn't use it again because its auto focus isn't very good. The other thing I liked about my Flip was that it had stereo sound. I still have mine, but I don't think the battery takes a charge anymore because I stopped using it years ago and left the battery in a discharged state. The HD Flip camera I have has a Mini HDMI socket on it, and I've no idea how easy it is to get the appropriate cable for it.
The HDMI cable is easily available online. As for the battery, that may a challenge.
I still have my Flip Video Ultra, although the battery compartments are messed up.
A great little camera. Still have mine, but unfortunately it has long stopped working.
Even in its heyday, the flip was despised by anybody who knew their ass from their elbow. The only saving grace for the flip, was the fact that you could record anything in an instant, that's it. Back in the day, for the same price or a little extra money, you could get a point `n shoot camera that had more features like, removable memory cards, optical zoom, and better image quality. That remained true through out the life of the flip brand.