If you're looking for an easy way to record video of your family this summer, you can't get much easier than the Flip Slide.This newest camera from Cisco holds up to 4 hours of high-definition video, and even has a widescreen display for instant playback of your cinematic masterpieces.
I've been testing out the Slide for the past week or so, and it's been mostly a joy. There's no driver disks to install—all the software, both for PC and Mac, is right on the Flip itself. So you can instantly set up the Flip to work with any computer in the house just by plugging it into a USB port.
But you don't have to run back to your computer to enjoy the videos you shoot. Unlike previous Flip cameras, the Slide has a built-in 3-inch widescreen touch display. The camera gets its name from the way the screen slides from its position on the back of the camera and pops up into playback mode.
You can also plug the Slide directly to your HDTV through an HDMI cable. so you can give your videos the full big-screen treatment. It's not the full-blown HD format video—the camera records in the 720p HD format, instead of the high-end 1080p. But it's still amazing video out of such a small and easy-to-use camera.
When you do get back to the computer, the included FlipShare software makes it easy to quickly share what you've shot on YouTube, Facebook, or MySpace. FlipShare can directly connect to these services and upload your video for you; for others (like Vimeo) it downloads the video as a file suitable for posting to sites via the services' websites.
There's also a free Flip service that allows you to create a "Flip Channel" for sharing videos privately with friends and family—a great feature for those who don't want to deal with the complexities of video sharing sites' viewing permissions. You can also format your videos to be sent in an e-mail, or as "video greeting cards".
There are no buttons on the Slide other than the power button and a switch to pop out its built-in USB plug. All of the controls for the Slide are in its touchscreen interface. That makes some things a little confusing—you need to adjust the volume on the Slide's built-in audio, for example, with the plus and minus (+ and -) symbols in the control screen—but they're not visible when you're playing back video in widescreen.
One downside I've found to the Slide is battery life—it has "up to two hours" of use on one charge, according to Cisco. So if you're out for the day, you may quickly find yourself carrying a dead camera if you aren't careful about how much on-the-spot playback you do, or don't turn off the camera between shots.
There's also the issue of charging the camera—it only charges through a USB port. But I found that it wouldn't take a charge from one of the USB ports on my older laptop. It's definitely worth investing in the $25 power adapter accessory from Flip.
The Slide is also a bit pricier than the other Flip cameras at about $280, but not outrageously so. If you don't care about HD video, you can still get the Flip Ultra for about $150. Other HD models don't have the widescreen playback feature and store less video, and start at $200.