If you were a child of the 2000s, chances are you’ve seen a Flip Video camcorder at least once in your life. Before cell phone video became commonplace, these bad boys dominated the amateur video scene with their ease of use and novel design that incorporated a USB port that literally flipped up on the side. But what happened to these once-ubiquitous cameras?
I have an uncle who travels everywhere and records just about everything with one of these cameras. Even at my wedding in 2012, long after cell phone video had outpaced the Flip camera, he was there, holding his 2007 Flip on a selfie stick, recording everything.
Another person who has a special affection for Pure Digital’s Flip camera line is “Krazy” Ken of Computer Family on YouTube. He actually found a working first-generation Flip 160 camera (so named because of their recording time, 130 for 30 minutes or 160 for 60 minutes). The first generation of Flips were actually rebrands of Pure Digital point-and-shoots with some minor tweaks, but I digress.
Ken considers the video and audio quality of the cameras, while not as good as they are today, were still perfectly acceptable when they first came out.
The trump card was the built-in USB connection. Back when I was messing around with Mini-DV tapes and cords, or early hard drive camcorders, these cameras simply plugged directly into a computer. If you watch the video above, the camera’s operations were largely limited to a single button and a four-way controller. It was incredibly simple at a time when shooting video wasn’t a big deal, and consumers quickly adopted it, making it one of the most popular cameras of its time.
So why did it stop? It’s easy to blame mobile phones, but that’s not the case. Ken explores the myriad reasons why the company stopped making cameras, and you can read about them in the video above.
Meanwhile, I’ll pour a glass for Flip. If you’re a fan, you can do the same in the comments section below.
