I must say I am pretty frustrated at the moment.
Over the last week I was getting really excited about buying one of the new Flip Mino HD video cameras- one of the fancy customized ones! This is the design I decided on:
I was only planning on getting the normal Flip Mino, however when I was on their website I found out that they made a HD (High Definition) version for $50 more so I was then keep to get that!
The whole customisation process was fun and I finally decided on the design to the left. Volunteering and helping underpriviliged children in the most poverised areas of Africa has always been a dream of mine and I was planning on using this as inspiration to keep the dream alive ever time I used the Flip Mino.
The ‘I will Speak Up!’ and the ‘Proverbs 31:8-9′ happen to be my favourite passage from the bible and something that also has been my motivation to visit africa. It says:
“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
for the rights of all who are destitute.Speak up and judge fairly,
defend the rights of the poor and needy.”
THE PROBLEMS
Everything started to go all wrong when I decided to place my order for my Flip Mino HD on their website only to find that they only post to the United States! I was pretty cut!
After talking with a few people, I decided to scrap the customised version, and try and buy a plain black Flip Mino HD from one of the few suppliers online in America. GUESS WHAT? They won’t ship it to me either!
So I decided there was only one thing left to do and that was to contact the nice people at Pure Digital and ask them what’s going on!
Here is my email:
Hi!
I am really keen to buy a new flip mino HD, but I live in Australia and it seems nowhere will ship your product over here. I even tried amazons and they said they cant for your product.
Is there a reason we are not allowed them over here? because the only thing i can think of doing is putting the postage address of someone in the united states and getting them to post it over to me, but i dont know anyone there so i cant.
I was so excited when i saw the customisable mino HD’s and I REALLY want one, is there anything i can do?
Thanks for your help,
Tom
One thing I must say is that their support is amazingly quick! I went to bed last night and just woke up 4 hours later and there was an email back from them already. However, sadly this is their reply:
Dear Thomas,
Our international product distribution is currently limited to the Flip Video Ultra being available in the US, the UK, and Canada (outside of Quebec), and the Flip Video Mino being available for purchase in the US and UK. Outside of these countries, our products cannot be shipped internationally due to licensing agreements. We do not have an ETA of when our products will be available for general retail distribution.
To purchase the UK version of the Ultra and the Mino, please visit our website at www.flipvideo.co.uk. For Ultra purchases in Canada, please visit your local Wal-Mart stores and watch for us at other major electronics retailers.
Thank you for your interest in Flip Video.
So there we go, it looks like the dream is over! I have done a quick search of small HD cameras that I can get over here and so far it looks like the best is this one:
Ebay only seems to have ‘no-name’ ones and this one seems to be a great price being $239.95 – although the Flip HD was US$243, this one is much cheaper when you take into consideration how bad our exchange rate is at the moment!
Here are a few of the cameras stats:
- 5.0 Megapixel digital video recorder
- 6.4cm (2.5″) LCD Colour screen
- 8x Digital zoom
- Storage media: Built-in memory, SD/MMC card slot support
- Movie resolution (30 fps): 1280 x 720 (HD); 720 x 480 (D1); 640 x 480 (VGA); 320 x 240 (QVGA)
- Operation modes: Movie record, picture record, voice record, MP3 player
- Multi-snap: Take up to five continuous pictures at one time
- Dimensions: (L) 6cm x (W) 3cm x (H) 11cm
So it looks like a decent set up!
Well, I will have to make a decision soon because I have something amazing coming for you all in December and I will need one before then to get things starts.
December Will Be ‘VLOGING MONTH’ on StandOutBlogger, and I will look at a heap of aspects of video blogging and how you can benefit, AND
I have something that will be a whole lot of fun for you all that is in the planning, thats lets just say it should be very funny and hopefully I can get some decent sponsors and have some fantastic prizes to give away!
Until them, click on the banner under the header of this blog and bid on my AdSpots! They are still ridiculously low!
Thats so sad :(
5 MP won’t be good.. in India we get good cams for that Budget :D If I go out shopping for that Budget, umm.. I can get a 7-8 MP CAM. + $10 for a 2 GB Mini SD Card.. So makes my budget around $350 ! :D
Good Luck!
Montys last blog post..Can you’ll hear me people?!!
If I were you, I would save more money to buy a good cam.
Check CNet for reviews. They tend to be pretty accurate.
Quality over quantity!
Wow, you’re serious?
Maybe a new case study is in order: ‘How not to be successful’ = don’t have worldwide shipping capabilities!
Monty – I understand what you mean but I am only looking to use it for video blogging so it should be good enough, and you would be talking US$350 which is about AUD$500-550 – cause our exchange rate sucks (but its good for commission checks :P)
Trever – True, but once again, Im not planning on making a cinema movie with it. But I’ll check CNET.
Printer – haha…the thing is they are successful, supposedly its the highest selling low priced HD camera on the american market.
Tom,the flip mino you are interested in buying is new I guess.But i hope you get it soon.
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lol, great story and finally a happy ending..
Looking forward for vblogging episodes :D
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Hey Tom, it’s fellow blogger Mark Cuda from Monkeyblogger. And I wanna help you out! If you just cover whatever shipping costs I have, I will send it to you no problem. I’m more then willing to help a fellow friend out. :)
Mark Cudas last blog post..2.0 Slightly delayed
Couldn’t you ask someone in the US / UK to buy one and ship it mate?
I’ve been meaning to get one too, forgot about it. Will look into it again, it really is a slick tool. :)
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Mark – Thanks for the offer, I’ll let you know.
Jason – I had thought of that but thought what if something went wrong, what if it got lost? And Since finding this new camera it is way cheaper for pretty much the same…So Ill probably get that.
You know what, the cheaper “no name” ones would actually work better for you at this time. At the rate of the technology moving so quick, you could settle for a good cheap $50 one and change it every year. In even just a year, that Flip HD would be obsolete because things would be even BETTER.
-Mike
p.s. Pure Digital even makes disposable digi-cams…for like $30..
Could you try purchasing it on eBay? Many sellers will accept international sales. They might even do you one better and upload that design for you if you ask them. I’d try that out, I’ve seen plenty of listings that accept sales to Australia.
@ Tom – For receiving money, India Rocks! If you wanna send money or buy something online.. it sucks ! =) Nuff said.. x.x
Monty – Sensonize.coms last blog post..Rishab Sood? Who? Let me tell you..
That’s kinda strange that you wouldn’t be able to get one sent to you directly. However, I guess you could try to get around it by having it sent to someone else and then they can ship it to you.
That one you picked out as a second choice looks like it’s got pretty good specs though! Perhaps as nice as if not nicer than the flip.
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Nick – that was my other option, but i decided against it. I didn’t end up getting the toshiba either, I went with a Sanyo CG9 – much better specs!
I had the exact same problem.
So disappointing, really looking forward to purchasing one of the Flip MinoHD’s myself.
I just read the review that said the sanyo is crap. So what did you end up buying?
Andrew – I ended up with the Sanyo. It has been fantastic and takes great pictures and the videos are quite good as well. The only thing I dont like is that it doesn’t do so well in poor light.
Its frustrating to wait for something! Being an international buyer myself I had so many road blocks from these sites who dont ship you stuff to your country. One of my room mate suggested Iuse a parcel forwarding co called Shipito. It wasn;t my first choice but after I read tons of great reviews about them and used them I totally vouch for them. The amazon guys sent my stuff to Shipito’s california warehouse and then the shipito guys sent it to me in India! Look into something like this you might end up liking it!
I agree that you should save some monies and buy a better one, dont get me wrong these are great although there are better ones on the market !!!
At that rate(say $300) you can get better ones now in the market. Hope you got one now. Thanks for sharing the post.
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