When the Flip Ultra camcorder came out a few years ago, I made a comment that it was a good tool with great potential, but it needed one more feature. Flip has pushed out a few more generations of the camera, getting better with each revision, but not really pushing the envelope on what it could become.

A few months ago, Kodak (KODAK!) did what Flip should have done – they added a mic jack to the side of their version. They also added a few other things (removable memory cards, four video resolutions and even the ability to shoot a 5 megapixel still).  It took me a while, but yesterday a loaner showed up from Big Yellow up north so I could figure out if this is the teaching camera I’ve been lusting after for an intro to multimedia class we desperately need.

There’s a lot of testing to be done, but I popped off a few stills on the way to the car. Will this rival a 5D Mark II or a D3s? Uh, no. But it also costs less than 1/15th of the cheaper of those options.

And having been raised on Kodachrome and Tri-X, there’s a certain warmth to opening a Big Yellow box again.

More to come …

Kodak Zi8, 6.3 mm, ISO 50, 1/320, f/2.8

Kodak Zi8, 6.3 mm, ISO 50, 1/213, f/2.8