Alan Lebetkin

The new iPod Nano that shoots video has potential to become a popular tool for comedians taping their sets for review.  It shoots video at the same resolution and encoding specs as the Flip, placing it in direct competition.

iPod Nano

The Nano is ahead of the Flip in terms of portability, versatility, and convenience.  However it does lack a zoom, which is a major factor for consideration.  As for a tripod adapter, I’m sure third-party manufacturers will come out with one shortly if they haven’t already.

The Flip

While the Flip does have a zoom feature, it is in fact pretty weak.  I tested in real-life taping situations and was disappointed with how limited the zoom actually is.  A low 2x zoom feels like not being able to zoom at all.  It’s a rip off for the price.  For $100 more, you could purchase a Sony tapeless handycam that shoots much better video resolution and has a rich availability of features, including 60x zooming capability with something ridiculous like 4000x optical zooming.

My conclusion is that the Flip and Nano are great devices for shooting sets for your personal review only.  They are designed for simplicity–with a limited or zero zoom capability, lack of pratical camera features (e.g. light adjustment, steadycam, sound filtering), and resolution set to YouTube videos only (640 x 480, which looks decent only when played at the size of the small YouTube screen).

By the way, DO NOT WASTE MONEY ON THE FLIP HD.  Shooting in HD is key for making great videos but not having a good zoom for that price and video quality is a pratical joke.  Shooting usable video of stand-up sets is all about the zoom, as it’s always difficult to find a good spot to set up your camera in a room with an audience.  Being able to place your camera somewhere near the stage is a happy accident.  I never count on it when I’m taping.

If you want to shoot video to show to bookers, or to edit together into a fuller piece, you really should spend $100 more on an actual video camera.  I’d go with a brand name and tapeless recording method such as flash video (cheap) or a hard disk drive (expensive but dropping).  The zoom and higher video resolution are such a huge factor in making videos that you intend to show to other people.  And you get to own an actual video camera with the added features instead of something more resembling a gadget.

HD video should only be a consideration if you’re shooting something that has to look good when played in full-screen mode.  This shouldn’t be important if you’re making a video to upload to the internet.

Finally, if you do want the iPod Nano, consider waiting a few months for Apple to add the camera feature to their better iPod models like the Touch.  The Touch is practically an iPhone minus the phone.  This means that there’s no paying $99 every month on the phone plan, which brings the real cost of your iPhone to a minimum of $1200 per year.  So much cheaper just to buy a basic phone and phone plan, and carry around an iPod Touch for portable web browsing and your favorite apps.  The only disadvantage would be if you needed web browsing when you aren’t around a wireless hot spot (coffee shop, library, etc.).  So if you’re constantly needing to look shit up in your car, go with the iPhone.