As far as camcorders go, the YouTube generation is less worried about image quality, manual features and editing tools than the average person. They’re far too preoccupied with over-sharing personal issues with hundreds of thousands of strangers online. That’s precisely why the Flip range of cameras has taken off so impressively quickly.

They’re cheap, simple to use and come with software to automatically upload clips to YouTube and other popular video-networking sites. In fact, it’s so simple to record and share clips that you’ll have hundreds of hits before you even get a chance to regret uploading that whiny, self-important and ill-informed rant about the latest internet-meme or talentless “celebrity’s” personal crisis.

The more intuitive of you may have picked up a slight hint that I’m not a fan of the majority of YouTube uploaders. I am, however, a huge fan of this latest Flip camera, the Mino. For just $150 you get a device that takes 640 by 480 footage, which is perfectly adequate for YouTube, at 30 frames per second, and lets you easily get it online. It also has rechargeable batteries that top-up while it’s plugged in to your USB port.

It really is ridiculously easy. I took this short clip of the Pro office, plugged the camera into my PC and uploaded it with just a few clicks. OK, it’s not going to win me my Warholian 15 minutes, but at least it only took a couple of minutes.

There is a slight problem, though. Instead of a direct $ to £ conversion, which would make the Mino just £84, we are instead being asked for £120. Suddenly it doesn’t seem quite so cheap. Suddenly it seems that this money would be better spent elsewhere; the comparable Creative Vado, which can be had for around £70, perhaps, or the Sanyo HD700, which is only £80 more than the Flip, but offers vastly superior footage.

The Flip may have taken the US by storm, but it’s going to have to try a lot harder to break the UK.