minoHD & wages

Yesterday I picked up a new gadget, a Flip minoHD pocket camcorder. It's pretty slick! 1280x720p at 30fps progressive. It's got great picture quality for a flash based camcorder the size of cell phone! One of the biggest drawbacks is the CMOS sensor. It has the same problem that the ATC-1000 had when I reviewed it a couple of years ago. While the sensor in this is VERY MUCH improved, it still retains some the signature skewing on quick pans and jumps. I'm very sensitive to this sort of sensor, I don't think the general public will pick up on it unless you're really looking for it. However, it is definitely not as bad as the skewing on the ATC-1000 from 2005. I uploaded a 9 minute Youtube video, check it out if you have a spare 9 minutes to watch my commute to work (yes, my commute is around 9 minutes, with stops for traffic lights). Unfortunately, I don't know how to upload HD into youtube (or I did and it's not selectable), I thought it would automatically recognize 720p footage, but alas, no such luck. So I'm uploading a shorter version to Vimeo, that might show what's going on better.

Pros
-1280x720 resolution
-30fps progressive capture
-Very easy UI
-records H.264 for video and AAC for audio
-easy software to use for trimming, uploading and sharing videos

Cons
-CMOS sensor
-digital zoom (up to 2x)
-non upgradable flash RAM (4GB) records up to 60mins of video

Here's an Ars Technica review of the camcorder, much lengthier and in-depth, with HD videos.

VFXWages is still in a holding pattern right now. We're hoping to release at least the live version of the site to our current private beta members for feedback, and for them to get excited about it again. As of right now, we have a little over 1100 registered users, but definitely not as many wages from those users. The new update to the site will contain more directions and descriptions on how to use the site, so I hope we'll see more data entered. The company has now been formed as of January 22,2009 in the State of California as Industry Wages Incorporated, dba VFXWages. We've still got some paperwork to go through, signing corporate election forms, setting up bank accounts, and so forth. It's a lot of work to do while I'm still working 14 hours a day in my regular job.