It was only a matter of time before eager manufacturers jumped into the cheap mini camcorder market established by the Flip and formed a lineup of capable clones. Here's the first to take a swing: DXG's 567V mini.
The DXG-567V looks like an iPod and features a UI that is supposed to alleviate one of the main problems we found with the Flip camera: Unintuitive and over-sensitive buttons leading to unwanted recording choices.
In addition, the cam will have 32GB of internal flash memory, and you can add a 8GB SD card for another memory boost.
Just like the popular Flip Ultra and Mino camcorders, this mini cam (should we call them cammies?), is also built to upload quickly to video sharing sites like YouTube, and has a slightly better resolution cap: HD at 1280x720/30 frames per second, d1 at 720x480/30fps, and CIF at 320X240 (versus the Flips' 640 x 480/30 fps).
One weird caveat: The DXG 567v will only work for Windows Vista and XP
operating systems. The Flip camera’s videos are easily managed with a
Mac OSX.
Aside: It's clear that the Flip is ready to become the popular format of the moment, the Eee PC of the camcorder world, but something about this bother us (ok, just me)
about it. The Eee PC deserves its popularity because it's an inexpensive, high-quality item that can replace the most simple and most used functions of regular laptops -- no need to buy a $1500 rig if you're only browsing Facebook and checking email. But cameras are different because they are all about the video quality.
Slightly older cameras not that different in price from the Flip's are available and can produce similar or superior video, and the mini's easy-sharing functionality is not that much better that the user should sacrifice quality for it.
Sometimes, saving a couple of steps isn't worth it.
As we noted in our review of the Flip Mino, you'd be better off with a decent 7MP Canon Elph camera with 3x optical zoom with video capability.
