Flip Video Flip UltraHD

Low Light Sensitivity (9.04)

The Flip UltraHD did very well with our low light sensitivity test. The camcorder needed only 7 lux of light to reach 50 IRE on our waveform monitor. This is the same score we recorded for the Flip MinoHD in our testing last year. The big issue to note here is that the Sony MHS-CM1 has horrible low light sensitivity. It required 27 lux (nearly 4 times what the Flip camcorders needed) to reach 50 IRE. The Kodak Zi6 was slightly better than the two Flip models, needing only 6 lux of light to reach the same levels. More on how we test low light sensitivity.

The huge disparity between the low light sensitivities of the Flip camcorders and the Sony MHS-CM1 is probably a result of auto gain control settings on the camcorders. It seems the Flip models boost gain more in low light situations in order to produce a brighter image. Interestingly, however, the Flip UltraHD and MinoHD do not show increased low light noise levels compared to the MHS-CM1.

Low Light Noise (11.34)

Just like the Flip MinoHD before it, the Flip UltraHD had rather low noise levels in low light. The camcorder averaged 0.8125% noise in our low light testing, which is lower than most traditional consumer camcorders measure. We’re consistently surprised to see such low noise levels on cheap toy-camcorders, but low amounts of noise doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting a pristine image. Check out the crops below to get a better idea of the actual low light video quality of these camcorders. More on how we test low light noise.

Pure Digital Flip UltraHD Low Light Noise Comparisons
Pure Digital Flip UltraHD 100% Crop	Sony MHS-CM1 100% Crop Pure Digital Flip MinoHD 100% Crop Kodak Zi6 100% Crop More...

Notice how much discoloration and artifacting is present on the Flip UltraHD’s 100% crops above. All the camcorders above have these problems, but they appear to be present more on the UltraHD. Both the Sony MHS-CM1 and Kodak Zi6 have higher noise levels than the two Flip camcorders, but none of the camcorders in this comparative set have horrible levels of noise at low light. It’s tough to pick a sharpest image from the set above, but the Flip UltraHD looks to have the most detail. The Sony MHS-CM1 and Flip MinoHD also captured a good amount of detail, while the Kodak Zi6 has a very fuzzy, blurred image at low light.

Low Light Color (7.32)

The Flip UltraHD had slightly more accurate colors in low light than it did with bright light. This is a fairly common occurrence with cheap consumer camcorders, as they have difficulty white balancing correctly under strong, bright light. The UltraHD measured a low light color error of 4.99 with a saturation level of 110.89% in our testing. The Flip MinoHD did a bit better in this test, posting a color error of only 2.9. More on how we test low light color.

Low Light Color Accuracy Performance
	Color Error Map
	The map on the left is a diagram of the color error. The length and direction of each line indicates how the camera processed each particular color while capturing video. The Pure Digital Flip UltraHD produced a color error of and a saturation level of in our bright light color testing.

In the color error map above, you can see that light blue colors gave the Flip UltraHD the most trouble, as well as some purple tones. The camcorder was very accurate with reds and browns in low light. Below, you can see that each camcorder did a decent job capturing colors in low light. The Sony MHS-CM1 produced a significantly darker image than the rest of the models, but its colors were still strong in our low light testing.