Flip Ultra + Under Water Housing = RULE
Published by Jason April 15th, 2008 in Gadgets, Photo. Share ThisI know I promised to review the Flip Ultra a few weeks back, but I wanted to wait until I had a chance to really mess around with it. I have. It rules.
There isn’t much to say — low light, bright sunlight: it doesn’t matter! There is really only one button to press: Record.
The real win, for me: the $40 UNDER WATER HOUSING. I wanted to take it diving, I have used many of these clear housings before; Olympus and Panasonic. They rule. They tend to work well-below their rated depth, but the buttons get funky. I’ve never had one leak, but I have seen MANY people flood them on dive trips. Be careful.
I was too stuffed up to dive, but I did get a lot of family video with it and took it on a waterslide. Enjoy!
didn’t realize there was a housing for the flip ultra! thanks for the heads up. do you think a Pelican box would also work?
http://www.pelican.com/cases_detail.php?Case=1020
i have one of those and want to try it, but may just go ahead and get the standard flip housing.
@Chris That Pelican box will work, but you can’t press any buttons under water. Thats OK for some uses. As I rarely dive over 60 min on a single tank I am thinking of velcro strapping the case to my BC on a chest strap and just hitting record at the top of a dive. I’ll check the video when I get back up, no reason to hit stop and go over and over, why bother task loading? I’ll see what I get, the angle may take some work.
If you like playing in the water, you should check out the Olympus 1030SW. It’s a 10.1MP still camera that’s waterproof to 10 meters >>without a housing<<, freezeproof to 14 degrees, shockproof, dustproof and crushproof. It also takes QVGA and VGA video at 15 or 30 fps. Here’s a writeup:
http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews_olympus_mju_1030_sw.php
Yes, it’s a bit spendier than a Flip ($350 street), but it takes great still pictures as well as video.
Here a short video (QVGA, 15fps) that I shot with mine while on vacation this month:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEcJQVFa6cg
So does it film in widescreen like the posted video?
I was wondering if there would be an underwater housing for the Flip - Googled it & who knew?!?!?! Thanks for the info on this. Going to order it from Amazon today.
Aside: IMO, the Flip sure doesn’t seem to have gained the respect it deserves. It certainly is a great pocket camcorder!
Hi, just wanted to know if you actually tested the underwater case on a diving scenario. I just bought one (arriving tomorrow) and would use maximum for snorkeling videos. As you are up to test in an extreme condition, I was curious how well it works.
Thanks!