Lessons Learned Courtesy of the Flip Mino HD

I have been through a wide range of emotion related to my Flip Mino HD video camera over the past month. Initially, I was excited about the low cost - mine was $179 after a $20 instant rebate from Costco. The package contained a small tripod and carrying pouch, but did not include the wall charger. The form factor is brilliant; it allows me to carry a 720p HD video camera in my pocket. The camera weighs very little and I forget it’s in my pocket after the first few minutes.

My first videos were beautiful and the overall experience with the Flip was exactly what I had hoped it would be. I recorded about 25 minutes of video at a pool party and BBQ at a gorgeous house on the water in Ft. Lauderdale. The quality of the video was impressive, especially when viewed on my 52″ LCD TV. I was able to overlook the absence of in-camera image stabilization, and the lack of an optical zoom simply wasn’t a problem. Everything worked exactly as I had hoped.

Flash forward about 2 weeks. I took my Flip to San Francisco to document Cisco Live 2009, with plans to video blog during the event. I intended to shoot videos during each of my sessions and share them with the world. I created a WordPress blog at contactcenterenterprise.com, got my company to endorse the creation and use of a corporate Twitter account (our first corporate foray into both blogging and social media), set up an internal SharePoint site for the bits that I couldn’t post publicly, and set off for SF with high hopes. In the process I created a YouTube account, a private FlipShare channel, linked the contactcenterenterprise blog to Twitter via TwitterFeed.com, found the right hashtag for the event (#clsf), and engaged in “the conversation” on Twitter in the run-up to the event. I read everything I could about social media, video blogging and Twitter for corporate marketing. I followed the big names in social media, engaged in their conversations, and was even asked to guest blog for workshifting.com in the process. Everything went to plan. I had built my personal Twitter following to more than 100 and our corporate following to 80 by the time Cisco Live began. In the process, I encouraged many of my coworkers to join Twitter and generated enthusiasm about how we can collectively use social media in ways that are meaningful. And so begins the lesson:

Lesson 1: Battery life and memory capacity can make or break your entire effort. Save some for the juicy parts.

Day 1 of the conference for me was a Sunday. I got to the session early, secured a good seat and set up my laptop, Flip Mino HD, iPhone 3GS, and various accessories in preparation for the session. The session was about 2 hours long, with a reception afterward. I completely discharged the Flip’s 60 minute battery and filled its internal memory during the main session. Approximately halfway through the session I copied the video off the Flip to my laptop, and connected the camera to recharged via USB while I shot the second half of the session on the iPhone 3GS (which I kept connected to the USB throughout the session).

I was still new at using the Flip and didn’t have a sense for how closely the battery life and the memory capacity are linked. If you record enough video to fill the memory, the battery is almost certainly going to be dead (assuming you started with a fully charged battery). Recharging is slow over USB.

Lesson 2: Inexpensive video cameras, dark rooms and stage lighting are not friends.

My video from the session on day 1 is pretty bad. There weren’t any tables in the room, so I had to hold the camera just above eye level in order to shoot the video. After 60 minutes holding your arm(s) in the air, the camera no longer feels so light that you forget about it. Additionally, the lighting situation was unexpected. The stage where the presenters stood had full stage lighting and the rest of the room was dark. Neither camera could deal with this situation effectively and the faces of the presenters are essentially white blobs in the resulting video. There were two large screens that were used to present the slides and demos during the session, and neither camera could transition from the bright screen to the activity on stage and back without issues.

Lesson 3: Have a backup plan.

I was happy about the results of my Day 1 experience with the camera and looked forward to a great week of learning, blogging, tweeting, and connecting with other professionals in my field. I woke up on the morning of Day 2, created my first video blog entry and headed off to the day’s sessions. At some point during the first session, I completely drained the battery on the Flip. Just as I had on Day 1, I connected it to my laptop, copied the videos to my HDD, and allowed the camera to charge while I finished the session with the iPhone. This is when something went wrong. After a few minutes of charging, the Flip displayed a thermometer on screen and indicated that it was “too hot.” A quick check of the support site on the internet suggested that I allow the camera to cool before continued use. I disconnected the camera and used the iPhone throughout the second session.

When I returned to my hotel room later that evening, I connected the Flip to my computer to offload my recordings, update the blog and post videos to YouTube. Upon connecting the camera, I received a “USB Device not recognized” message from Windows XP. I searched the ‘net and found instructions to reset the camera, which I then followed. Unfortunately, the instructions indicated that the camera should charge overnight and may need 2-3 days before it could be used again. This presented a problem. I had big plans for the camera that week, and this meant my dreams of an HD record of every session were rapidly fading. I went to bed that evening dejected, but prepared to suffer through the conference relying on my iPhone.

Lesson 4: 60 minutes of record time isn’t nearly enough if you don’t have WiFi or 3G built in.

Day 3 at Cisco Live 2009 included a keynote address from John Chambers, CEO of Cisco. I spent the entire morning attempting to get my Flip Mino HD working again, with no luck. I performed resets. I tried every USB port on my laptop. I tried a powered USB hub. I even bought an official Flip USB travel charger from the Cisco Store at the conference. Nothing would work, and the Flip remained in my hotel room on the charger while I attended my sessions all day.

The iPhone’s storage capacity (mine is a 32GB model) is amazing, and I never even came close to filling it. In fact, I have not deleted any of the videos on the phone and I still have more than 10GB of free space - even though I have nearly 15GB of music and videos purchased from iTunes on the device. The video quality of the phone is mediocre, is not HD, and has the same issues with low light situations as the Flip. Once you set the point of focus, you cannot adjust it without stopping the recording. It also appears that the white balance is set when you press record, so transitions from projected images on a large screen to a live speaker are pretty bad. On the other hand, the audio quality of the recordings is superior to the Flip. It is much easier to hear the speaker on the iPhone videos than the Flip videos, in my opinion. On the negative side, I had no way to mount the iPhone on a tripod, so I shot much less video than I would have with the Flip on its included mini-tripod. I couldn’t type notes, tweet and hold the camera at the same time, so my Day 3 videos are less complete, my notes have gaps, and my tweet volume is somewhat reduced. On the plus side, I was able to upload video immediately from the iPhone, so my John Chambers video was live while Mr. Chambers was still speaking. This video has the most hits of any video that I shot at the conference.

I was unable to get the Flip to work for the remainder of the trip.

Lesson 5: Cut your losses.

After I returned from Cisco Live, I played around with the Flip a bit more. Miraculously it accepted a charge and my laptop would recognize it again. I off-loaded my videos and fully charged the battery. My fiancee and I arranged to meet our real estate agent to look at three houses over the weekend and I grabbed the Flip to shoot some HD video of the poperties.

I managed to get a complete video tour of both House #1 and House #2 on the Flip before it ran out of memory and battery. I also recorded “reaction videos” as we left the houses, so that we could reflect on what we saw after we were safely out of earshot of the homeowners and their agents. I did the same with House #3, but I used the iPhone to record the video.

The plan was to upload the video to YouTube and mark it private. This is when I figured out that the built-in upload feature for YouTube in the iPhone won’t let you mark videos as Public or Private at upload time. So, I waited until we got home to upload along with the video from the Flip, so that my parents who live out of town could share in our home shopping experience.

The Flip failed, again. I am still unable to copy the videos and although I have a slim hope that I’ll get lucky and recover them in a few days, indications so far are not good. My parents loved the video from the iPhone at House #3 and are anxiously awaiting video from the other two homes for comparison.

A support ticket to the folks at theFlip.com yielded a response that mirrors what I already found online, and ignores the fact that I detailed the steps I had taken already in the case submission. I have not completed their “post-support satisfaction survey” and will withhold my comments until I find out if I can recover my house videos. Here is an excerpt from their emailed response to my support case:

We suggest trying to reset your camcorder, and then attempt to charge it again. To reset, simply take a pin and insert it into the reset hole within the camera’s tripod mount, wait five seconds before powering on, and then power on without touching any of the buttons on the back of the camcorder for an additional five seconds.

This should complete the reset process.

I had already done this, but I tried it again, per the instructions.

Next, please connect the USB arm to a high-powered USB port on your computer, and ensure your computer is powered on. You may see no activity on the camcorder - neither lights nor indication that the camcorder is charging - for the first 30 minutes. Once the initial 30 minutes has concluded, you should see some indication that the camcorder is charging and be able to power the camcorder on. Continue charging for the full amount of time (we suggest three hours) to ensure that the battery is completely charged before recording again.

I had done this too, but again I followed instructions.

If after 30 minutes, you continue to see no activity from the camcorder, please leave it connected to your computer overnight, but ensure that the computer does not hibernate nor power off during the entire period of time the camcorder is connected.

Still no luck. I have been through the process several times now.

I am hoping that I will be able to RMA the Flip for a replacement. At this point I am outside the window to return it to the store for a refund. I may see if American Express will refund my money under their buyer protection program.

As I reflect on this experience, several things come to mind.

1. I let a failure in my selected technologies derailed my efforts. I should have shifted gears and relied on tweeting and blogging of the content rather than video to communicate my message. I allowed the failed camera and my frustration to distract me.
2. Live-blogging and live-tweeting are a team sport.  In the future, I will bring three things to a conference when I plan to record complete session videos and tweet or blog in-session. A high-quality video camera, a tripod and a friend. You need all three to be effective.
3. I’ll test my technology under conditions similar to those I intend to be under when it’s crunch time. My 25 minutes of 2 minute videos at the BBQ, on a sunny day, in full natural lighting didn’t reveal the weaknesses of the Flip or allow me to properly evaluate its utility for video blogging a conference.
4. Your selection of theme in WordPress is critical. Some themes simply do not lend themselves to rapid-fire blogging with attached video and image files.
5. Don’t count on WiFi at a conference. I had heard horror stories about WiFi at other conferences, but I incorrectly assumed that this was ineptitude on the part of the conference organizers. As it turns out, supplying WiFi to 7K-10K power users in a venue is hard, even for Cisco.
6. Don’t count on 3G either. There were several times when I simply couldn’t get a signal or my iPhone was running on the AT&T EDGE network. Again, supplying broadband internet connection speeds to a highly concentrated cluster of users hasn’t reached maturity - even in downtown San Francisco at a Cisco convention about networking and collaboration.

I hope that these lessons help you if/when you embark on similar endeavors.

UPDATE 8/4/2009: After nearly two weeks of sitting untouched with a dead battery, I was able to charge and recover video from my Flip Mino HD.