I was a big fan of the Flip cam. But during the NFPW board meeting, I realized its limitations. We wanted to make a short video, but we had to worry about sound. And when someone else pulled out their smart phone with built-invideo capabilities, I wondered why I still carried the Flip cam with me.

So it was no surprise when I read yesterday that Cisco announced it was ending its Flip camera business.

Still, the Flip served a purpose. The Flip became a key communications tool. Easy to carry and easy to use, suddenly every communications division could produce a video and share it on YouTube. Newspaper reporters became videographers, posting breaking news stories to the newspapers’ websites before footage could air on broadcast stations.

The Flip cam may cease to exist, but video isn’t going to go away. Smart phones and digital video recorders that are more powerful and with more features and costing about as much as a Flip cam will continue to grow.

How do you shoot video?