I have held to a firm belief for a long time: if you’re taking candid photos, it’s about 25% more work to take a candid video, but you’ll reap 100% more rewards. Photos are fantastic little things, but it’s simply more interesting to watch a video than flick through a photo album, especially on the internet. It is with this belief that I purchased a Flip Mino HD, which isn’t actually available in Canada (see sidebar for more info). The camera arrived Monday, January 4th and I started playing with it immediately. Read on for a more in-depth review of this amazingly small camcorder.

I ripped open the package rather eagerly upon arrival. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the unboxing of it on video (or in photos), but this guy did, so if you want to watch a guy unwrapping a product on video, that link is for you. For those who want to read my blog instead, here’s a quick run-down. The packaging is very Apple-esque, with lots of detail on the opening of the product. It’s almost like opening a gift. The camera sits in a little tray, almost like that of the iPhone package. It’s odd – no amount of comparison photos or YouTube videos give you a sense of the size of this camera: it’s tiny! It’s about the same height as my iPod touch, about 70% of the width and a little bit thicker, and it records 720p video. Annoyingly, the camcorder either discharged during shipment or is shipped almost completely uncharged, so I had to charge it before I could test the image quality.

The video quality on this camera is, in a word, mindblowing (that’s probably two words, actually). For something this small, I was impressed at the sharpness and detail in the resulting test videos. I edited together a (cheesy) test video to show it off:

Unsurprisingly, the Flip video lineup has been successful. At the time of writing, the Flip occupies the top three spots for all camcorders sold on Amazon. At first glance, this is odd to any of you who have read the specs for the Mino. The zoom is only a 2x digital zoom (which just stretches the image instead of changing the actual lens zoom), there’s no still image support (not until the editing phase, anyway) and you can only store an hour of footage with the non-expandable memory. It also doesn’t have anything approaching advanced features. You can’t set the white balance or focus and there’s no way to switch between SD and HD recording. However, and this is the key to its success, there’s no pretentiousness associated with this camera. It’s like an old Mini. There’s no air conditioning, no luxuries, the engine is about as powerful as a mouse on a wheel and it’s too small. But it has personality and is admired for being simple transport for (usually) simple people. The Mino has drawbacks aplenty, but it’s ridiculously simple. You push the power button on the side and, before you can say “Flip Mino HD”, it’s ready for you to push the big red button on the back and start recording. It’s the best camera for social gatherings. No need to lug around the Handycam with tapes and a flip-out screen. The Flip fits in your pocket next to your cell phone and headphones and is ready to record at a moment’s notice, for those times when your friends start playing a round of beer pong.

Admittedly, there are one or two improvements that I’d like to see made. The first deals with a little thing that can make recording a big problem – the screen. It’s about the same size as the screen on a first-generation iPod nano. Even worse, it’s a fullscreen ratio for recording in widescreen. The makers of the Flip have attempted to justify this odd choice by putting the battery and recording information in the black bars on the top and bottom, but it’s still a stupid choice. The Mino HD should have the lens turned 90° and a proper widescreen placed on the back, rather like the new iPod nano (imagine the click wheel as the recording controls). It’s an odd design choice, and it could be a deal-breaker for some of you.

The second problem is more minor. Since the camera is essentially an extension of your hand (and lacks image stabilization), it records every little twitch of your hand in beautiful HD. You can probably see that the video above looks like “Cloverfield” as seen from a Starbucks location. Happily, the new version of iMovie will have a stabilization feature, which I can’t wait to get my (shaky) hands on.

In conclusion, the Flip Mino HD is an incredible little camera, marred only by a few faults. These faults might not be a deal-breaker if you want to get the absolute best quality footage of your drunk friends at a college party. And since Facebook and YouTube (amongst other sites) now show HD, it’s a great time to buy. In short, the Flip is the iPod of camcorders. It doesn’t do anything truly new or revolutionary, and lacks features that competitors have. However, it does everything it can do in the best, most elegant fashion.