If Ellen is using a Flip UltraHD to film her show, what do we need?

Ellen DeGeneres at People's Choice with old videocam 2006 and Flip UltraHD 2009 (right), do you like her old hair or new? photo:Geeksugar

You know Ellen DeGeneres, well she’s all gaga over the new Flip UltraHD vidcam. In June she said they were going to shoot Season 7 on those little $199 cameras.

Then Panasonic dropped the price on their  AG-HMC40 Camcorder professional video camcorder from $3,300 to $1,999. Things are getting cheaper and better for video.

If you’re not shooting videos and posting them on YouTube, what’s your problem? It’s easy. It’s fun.

I love Ellen. She’s the gal that made us forget if people were gay. Remember the stir when she “came out”. Now who cares. She’s has a fun show.

She can’t dance but does it all the time. It justifies all the rest of us who are not “Dancing with the Stars.”  

I’m not admitting I watch the show everyday, but I did see the June 10th, 2009 one where she was flashing the Flip UltraHD. She said they were going to skip using million dollar studio cameras in the fall and shoot the whole thing on Flips.

Why not? I’m going to get one because my last years Canon HV20 has to go back for repairs. The audio is 12 frames slower than the video and it drives me crazy.

We’re going to Toronto in the Prius to test the mileage again and not having a camcorder could be fatal.

Panasonic AG-HMC40 Pro Camcorder

Panasonic AG-HMC40 Professional Camcorder SD at $1,999 and 2 lbs.

I was intrigued when Panasonic dropped the price on their pro-HD AG-HMC40 camcorder due September 1, 2009. Now only $1,999 US the Panasonic Professional AG-HMC40 AVCHD Camcorder is a steal in features compared to last years $4,000 pro models.

I’m always torn between gadgets that are cool and small and totally every feature in a big package. Maybe I should get a professional camcorder and take better videos.

This is not really my problem. My block is getting everything I shoot edited. I have tons of hours that need editing if someone wants to volunteer.

A pro camcorder would take better quality HD videos – but who cares on YouTube right. It would also give me better microphone connections instead of the mini-pins that are flaky.

The beauty not only delivers a 3 chip professional camera with 12x optical zoom. It only weighs 2 lbs. The AVCHD compression on an SD card might not appeal to the super pro but the system works well and most editing software handles it. It does take a quad processor for editing so no laptops need apply.

The reviews of last years model have been glowing. It will be interesting to see if a sub-$2,000 professional camera can wow the industry.