Best mini camcorders

Iffy image quality, but small, light and fun

Pocket camcorders are designed to be portable and easy to use. Most people use them to shoot YouTube or blog videos. Cheap, tiny and so simple a child can use it, the Pure Digital Flip Mino (*Est. $130) has users -- and some experts -- thoroughly smitten. "The reason for its success is simple: The thing just works," concludes David Kender at CamcorderInfo.com.

About the size of an iPod classic, the Mino strips away almost every feature that is not absolutely essential. There's no light, no mic jack, no manual focus. It's strictly point and shoot. And many people like it that way: When we checked, the HD versions of the tiny Flips were the best-selling camcorders at Amazon.com, followed closely by the cheaper standard-definition Flips.

The Mino makes putting your video on the Internet basically foolproof, reviews say. Plug the Mino's USB jack into your computer, and its internal software takes over. You can upload directly to YouTube, MySpace or AOL Video. "Pure Digital is certainly not the only manufacturer trying to convince you theirs is the perfect match for YouTube, but it is the closest to the truth," Kender writes at CamcorderInfo.com.

Experts acknowledge that the Mino's video quality is mediocre at best -- but several like the Mino anyway. "If you're mainly concerned with capturing those moments when you don't have time to find a 'real' camcorder (and, for most of us, that's nearly all the time) ... the Mino could easily be for you," concludes Macworld senior editor Christopher Breen.

Reviews recommend the Mino more often than the Pure Digital Flip Ultra (*Est. $130), although the two are much alike. The Mino shaves 40 percent off the size of the already diminutive Ultra. The Ultra runs on rechargeable, replaceable AA batteries, instead of the Mino's built-in rechargeable battery (a pro to some reviewers, and a con to others).

Testers say the Flip camcorders' footage looks better than the Creative Vado's (*Est. $90), the other main competitor for the mini-camcorder crown. The Mino and the Vado are identical in many ways: Both are iPod-sized and rechargeable. Both offer 2x digital zoom -- although testers say the zoom makes for a shaky picture on both -- but both can be mounted on a tripod to overcome that problem. Both will post video directly to YouTube (the Vado adds PhotoBucket, while the Flip camcorders add MySpace).

But there are major differences. Feature-wise, Vado's software is even more stripped down than the Flip Mino's, critics note. "Some will appreciate how simple and rudimentary Vado Central is, but we think it's a bit too basic compared with what you get with the Flip Video camcorders," writes David Carnoy in a review for CNET. You can't string video clips together, or grab a frame from a video to serve as a photo, as you can with a Flip.

Note that if your digital still camera can shoot video, reviews say that footage will probably look as good, if not better, than a pocket camcorder's footage. Or, for a slightly higher price -- about $160 to $230 -- you can get an HD version of each of these pocket camcorders that shoots noticeably better video (see our report on HD camcorders).

Shooting video with iPhone and iPod nano

Even super-cheap camcorders shoot better video than most cell phones, but reviews say the Apple iPhone 3GS (*Est. $200 to $300) can shoot and share standard-definition video just as well as a Flip camcorder.

The main selling point of pocket camcorders over video-ready cell phones has always been their simplicity -- just hit one button to record, then plug the camcorder into your computer's USB jack to upload to YouTube. But reviews say the latest iPhone omits the computer step entirely.

"You can edit, email or upload your clips to YouTube or MobileMe right from the iPhone itself," writes Tim Moynihan at PC World. "The only thing more convenient than uploading clips via a flip-out USB connector is being able to do so without any hardware connection whatsoever."

As for video quality, the rigorous tests at CamcorderInfo.com find it's "at least as good as the standard-definition Flip Mino," and experts there recommend the Apple iPhone 3GS more highly than any regular pocket camcorder.

The fifth-generation Apple iPod nano (*Est. $140) has added a video camera to its wafer-thin music/video/game player, which is not much bigger than a stick of gum. Testers say shooting and sharing video is typically Apple-easy.

A few sources say the iPod nano's footage looks as good as a Flip's, or close enough. But most say the nano's video can't measure up to a pocket camcorder's, or even to the iPhone 3GS's. It especially flunks low-light tests, where footage winds up looking noisy, washed out or off-color. However, many also say that might not be a big deal when you consider the spur-of-the-moment videos people shoot with pocket camcorders anyway.