Flip Video Flip UltraHD

Motion (5.95)

It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that the motion on the Flip UltraHD isn't great. The camcorder records video using a 30p frame rate, so moving subjects are a bit slower and choppier than a standard 60i camcorder would capture. The camcorder had less artefacting than we expected, which is a very good thing, but the motion didn't look very smooth. Also, the Flip records in NTSC-format, which doesn't help making the playback on PAL-TV's look good...

The Flip UltraHD did show less artefacting than expected, which is very good, but the motion was very choppy. Note that the YouTube clips shown below are heavily compressed, even in the larger HD versions. Still, they should give you a good idea of what these camcorders are capable of—especially since most users of these products are probably going to want to upload video to the web anyway. (More on how we test motion.)

There was a bit of juddering and choppiness in the Flip UltraHD's motion test. All video of the Flip UltraHD are recorded at 1280 x 720 with a 30p frame rate. While the Flip doesn't offer any options for changing size or frame rate, it did have the least amount of artefacting out of the camcorders in this set. Again, its footage was choppy and not very smooth thanks to its 30p frame rate, but this is entirely expected.

All recording of the Sony MHS-PM1, no matter what the resolution, is captured at a 30p frame rate. The motion on the MHS-PM1 appeared to be quite good, but below average—even for an ultra-compact budget cam. There was lots of artefacting in the RGB pinwheel, the footage was choppy, and trailing was significant.

The Kodak Zx1 is unique in this set of camcorders because it offers two frame rates for recording HD video: 60p and 30p. The video above is taken with the camcorder's 60p mode (called HD60). The Zx1's 60p mode offers smooth video that is the same, natural speed of a regular 60i camcorder. The Kodak's 60p mode, however, is actually even smoother than 60i and has less trailing because it is progressive. The Kodak's 30p mode (called HD) is more or less the same as the rest of these ultra-compact budget camcorders. The Kodak had a generous amount of artefacting in its recorded image, although that is the case for every one of the camcorders in this set. The Zx1 records at a maximum video resolution of 1280 x 720.

The video embedded above was recorded at the CG10's maximum quality setting, in 720p. The CG10 records video at either 30p or 60i, but only the 30p frame rate is in the camcorder's highest resolution. The resolution at 60i is a mere 640 x 480. This footage is also choppy, even though not as bad as the PM1's.

Video Sharpness (9.34)

The horizontal and vertical sharpness of the Flip UltraHD both measured at 600 line widths per picture height (lw/ph). This represents a big jump over the Flip MinoHD (375 lw/ph horizontal, 500 lw/ph vertical). Surprisingly, the Flip UltraHD wasn't far behind the MHS-PM1 even though it records video at a lower resolution (1280 x 720). All the camcorders in this set produced rather good video sharpness scores. (More on how we test video sharpness.)

Video Sharpness Score Comparisons

* Scores for these models were recalculated using the new 2009-2010 rubric.