![using a flip video camera using a flip video camera](https://i1.wp.com/9to5google.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/07/flip_video_camera_1.jpg)
![using a flip video camera using a flip video camera](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/9IAAAOSwUdVhCuOF/s-l300.jpg)
Using a cell phone with a good video camera works essentially the same. The point of the back-story is that I was recently asked to do a workshop on using Flip Video cameras for the Texas Center for Community Journalism. It was a novelty back then (not quite the old days, but 2007 does seem like a distant memory sometimes). We won two Advanced Media Emmy Awards for our breaking news coverage in the process.
![using a flip video camera using a flip video camera](https://9to5google.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/07/flip_video_camera_1.jpg)
We had success with this during severe weather, a gas tank explosion, elections and a terrorism trial. The quality was good enough for on-air in the country’s fifth largest media market and for our website when getting video on fast mattered much more than the quality. When I began using a Samsung Blackjack more than three years ago at WFAA-TV in Dallas we were unsure if the video quality was good enough for a major broadcast station, even though we were planning to use the video only in breaking news situations. The quality of the video is improving, making it more acceptable for use in journalism. These small devices allow us to capture news as it happens, allows novices to get acquainted with shooting basic video and allows citizens to contribute, too. More of us, which means more journalists and more of our audience, are able to shoot video almost anytime and anywhere. If you have a cell phone – and I highly doubt you are reading this if you don’t – you can probably shoot video with it and, if you’re into gadgets or have young children, you may have a Flip Video camera.