A new Flip UltraHD arrived in the mailbox yesterday, sent by Pure Digital Technologies/Cisco for my review.  (They just found out about the site.)  I took it out of the over-sized carboard box and bubble wrap that it arrived in, but resisted further unwrapping.  I, of course, need to do the obligatory unboxing ceremony on camera.  That means I need to clear a spot on the train wreck of a table behind me, and set up my Canon HF10 for the shot.

Now, I suppose I could shoot this with the Flip MinoHD, but as much as I like it, and even though it has a tripod mount (can I qualify this sentence in any other way?) I feel a little more secure with the Canon for this kind of shoot.  So, I'll be doing that as soon as I tidy up.  Until then, I won't even know whether I got the black or white model. It could be months.

Nominally, the Flip UltraHD is very much like the MinoHD.  Here are the feature differences:

Note that MSRP is $199.99 for either model.  (At Amazon, the price in the shopping cart for either is $169.99, today.) The obvious trade-off is between size and capacity/features. Before taking it out of the box, and ignoring all I have read about the UltraHD, I have these questions:

• Is the larger LCD screen on the Ultra significantly more useable?
• Does the different video compression engine make a noticeable difference to the picture quality?
• Does the mono vs. stereo mic matter?
• How much do I care about the HDMI out, increased capacity and battery life on the UltraHD?
• In general, why would someone by one, rather than the other?

I expect some of the answers to show up in a video, some in an article, and other observations to show up in this blog.  Stay tuned.