So I walk into Costco over the weekend to buy diapers and soccer snacks. I walk out with this—the Flip Mino HD.

I had read the reviews and with Costco’s lenient return policy, I figured I’d try it out. I embedded a few videos to show you the quality. With it connected to a tri-pod (which is included in the package) I’m sure the quality would be much better. However, I only had my hands and the excitement of watching my son play soccer—the combination may make you sea sick. The Flip is also exctremely light. I’d prefer a little lead in this to give it a more stable feel.

From the tiny screen you can be fooled that you’re getting a jitter-free recording. Blow it up on your computer and that’s not the case. With that said, I’m pretty impressed with this thing. For convenient, amateur videoshooting I don’t think it can be beat.

The camcorder also only has a digital zoom so you lose a bit of quality as you try to get closer.

For my next test, I’m going to try to attach it near the front fender of my motorcycle. If I never post video of that you’ll know it wasn’t a good idea.