I’ve got just a few days left before I head off to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), so I figured I’d take time out from trying to cram 5 days of work into 2 and cover a few points:

1) I recently picked up both a Flip ultraHD and a Kodak Zi8 to see which one I liked better.  I’ve only played with them for a few minutes each, and I think they each have their pros and cons. I love the fact that Flip now has a battery pack that can be swapped out for 2 AA batteries and I love the larger size and screen of the Kodak (miniaturization isn’t great for those of us with big hands). I’m taking both to CES to do some on-the-floor filming, so I’ll have more of an opinion later in the week. I’ll try to shoot some side by side videos too and post them next week.

2) I requested an invite to the “It Won’t Stay in Vegas” party on January 8th at CES – I’ve read that it’s a great event for bloggers to get together and exchange war stories and notes. There are a few attendees who I follow regularly, so I’m sure it will be a surreal experience meeting them ‘offline’. I’m definitely going to try and meet the legendary Robert Scoble and hopefully Jason Toon as well – the product descriptions at Woot.com always make me laugh.

3) Any advice or suggestions for a decent powered microphone for my Kodak Zi8? I wanted a unidirectional one to supplement the built-in mike, but couldn’t find one at Best Buy (my go-to store) or other local electronics stores. I have a hard time justifying buying a $600 microphone for a $180 camcorder, so an entry-level microphone would be preferred.

Finally, I’ll leave you with a couple of interesting .tv sites covering CES:

Ustream.tv will be broadcasting live from CES

Boxee.tv talks about going to CES

Like Boxee, I also recommend reading Jeremy Toeman’s guidelines for working CES . I had the pleasure of meeting Jeremy in 2009 and he’s a great guy – although I’m probably biased because at one point we were finishing each other’s jokes.