As I look into my crystal ball, I see every business with an entertaining, educational, well-produced show. Eventually, all these shows will wind up on our own “business” YouTube where we don’t have to compete with Lady Gaga videos. As such, I’d like to help you get ready on the “well-produced” part.
And that starts with your camera. You gotta have one. You might as well make an educated choice.
The answer to this question will determine the camera you pick. Are you running around the office, grabbing co-workers for branding videos? Do you want to put on an ongoing show? Do you spend lots of time at after parties in bars? How much fiddling to want to be able to do with your new toy?
If you’re not technical and just want to grab shots while the getting’s good you may want to stick with an UltraHD Flip. For $199.00 you can get a lot done.
However, bear in mind that the Flip gives you no control over audio levels, white balance, aperture, shutter speed, gamma, etc. If you don’t know what most of those terms mean and don’t have the time or the inclination to learn about them, a Flip may be a good option for you.
If you’d like to do something other than point and shoot, then consider a larger camcorder with more features.
Anyone who has spent time with video knows that the real work begins in post-production (editing).
Before you select your camera think about these things:
Do you need to archive your footage? Flash based systems like the Flip are great unless you need to store your original footage. In order to store flash media you’ll either need to have lots of memory sticks or you’ll have to import the footage and then burn it to a DVD.
Tape makes archiving easier because it’s cheap and can be shelved, but it does take longer to get into your machine. You’ll also need a Firewire port on your laptop if you choose tape.
How much editing do you plan to do? If you plan on making small quick cuts, you can use something like the software that comes with the Flip or Nano. Alternatively, you could choose from a host of cheap/free editing programs that are available like Pinnacle and VideoSpin. These come out all the time and are always jockeying to be the best service by adding more and more editing functionality. Just search “online video editing reviews” to get more information on the latest offerings.
If you want to get into titling, transitions and audio changes, Mac owners will have to move up to a program like Final Cut Express, Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere.
PC owners will want Adobe Premiere or Sony Vegas. These programs are incredibly powerful. However, they are not cheap and have a considerably steeper learning curve. Editing is an art, though the basics are easy to learn. Most of the best editors spend their entire careers honing their craft.
Will your software support the codec? Remember that cameras like the Flip are designed for easy distribution to YouTube so they compress immediately to H.264. This is good for small cuts, but if you’re going to scale up to more sophisticated editing, you’ll have to transcode to a different codec which takes time away from your computer and your life.
There’s not much to say here.
There’s no reason not to shoot HDV these days. The picture quality is superb. And you can get into HDV well under $200.00.
The Samsontech Q3
The only exception may be the recently released Zoom Q3 which records far superior audio to any other flip on the market. It doesn’t have HD, but if you’re just shooting for YouTube, that’s not really a concern.
The microphones that come on cameras generally pick up everything but the subject of your video. Often the mic is on top of the camera and as such it picks up the interviewer and the air conditioning system better than the interviewee. You wind up with footage that sounds like God has stepped in to do a little production work for the day.
Ideally, you want a camera that has audio-in jacks so you can plug in a shotgun mic or a lavalier. A lavalier is a small clip-on mic that the speaker wears. A shotgun mike is a long highly directional microphone. It’s the one you see on the end of a stick on film sets. If you’re going to stick with on-camera, try to go with one that has the microphone in the front. Like the Zoom Q3.
Without getting too technical, the general rule is that a bigger sensor is better because a bigger sensor means better resolution. But it’s not always true. Before you dive in, check out something like www.camcorderinfo.com to see how your camera rates for resolution.
In general, an optical zoom is always better than a digital zoom. This is because digital really doesn’t “zoom.” It blows up the image which causes loss of resolution until you eventually lose clarity around your subject altogether.
HDV cameras shoot in 1440×1080 resolution, but even HD video for the web is cut down to 1280×720. This means that you have a lot of room to zoom into your footage while you’re sitting in front of your computer. Again, this may test your limits as a videophile.
Video craves light. Things are a lot better than they used to be but you still need to be aware that cameras in the sub $600 range are all going to have about the same quality low light performance. Unless you’re working with a specialty camera you’ll find the ratings to be roughly the same.
When looking at camera specs to determine how a camera will perform in lowlight, what you need to know is that light performance is measured in lux. Lux measures the apparent intensity of light hitting a surface. Cameras that require lower lux perform better in low light conditions.
A couple of good rules of thumb about light:
• Fluorescent lights are bad.
• Sunlight is good.
• In the daytime, always be on the lookout for a window next to which you can shoot your subject.
Take 30 seconds to look around your shooting environment think about where the lighting is best before you start shooting your interview. Don’t be shy about asking your subject to move to get into better light. Most people are happy to do it when you explain that it will make them look better.
These few seconds of thought can often be the difference between capturing footage that is unusable and footage that is beautiful. This is true regardless of how fancy your camera is and even in less than ideal shooting locations, i.e. all of them.
There are many more things to think about when you’re choosing your camera for the office- from stabilization, to still pics, to lens quality – the options are legion. Ultimately, think about what you really plan on doing with your camera and once you purchase it, learn its limits. Mistakes made in production can sometimes be fixed in post, but don’t count on it.
Do further research into your camcorder. A great place to start is with www.camcorderinfo.com. They cover most camcorders and rate them across a variety of metrics.
If you’re in the Flip camcorder market, go ahead and get the best deal you can from an online retailer. Before you buy, go to www.resellerratings.com to verify that you’re working with a reputable store. There are a lot of charlatans who make wild claims about pricing that are too good to be true.
Finally, if you’re going to make a larger investment, buy from a store where you can build a relationship with the team there. It will cost a little more, but they will more than make up for it as a resource to help your with questions or problems you may have with your camera after you purchase it.
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Our friends at Phurnace Software asked us to help them create a show that highlights their ability to automate java application deployments. Phurnace builds software to help companies automate the deployment of J2EE applications and configuration of WebSphere, WebLogic, JBoss or WebSphere Portal.
Shot on a Canon HV30 and performed by Larry Warnock and Jessica Gass [...]
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We are gearing up for a great [...]
We put together a book trailer for the book “Smoke Screen” by Sandra Brown.
Ms. Brown isn’t a customer of ours, but we felt like playing around a little with graphic animation, and intrigue. You can find out more about the book and the author over at Barnes and Noble.
The Pink Slip Festival in Austin, Texas provided free live music, family fun, cheap beer and hotdogs for Austin’s unemployed families. Dan Dillard of Amplify Financial created the Pink Slip Festival as an Austin styled response at to the down economy. The Pink Slip Festival was held at the Spider House coffee shop and featured [...]
It’s no big secret that @bigmanweston and I like to eat.
My wife is a killer cook and Weston’s culinary paramour, @girlblake, can make a mean Sunny Side Up-Cake.
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This is a promo piece that we shot for our friends at Amplify Federal Credit Union.
The 30 second commercial aired in Austin captures Rob Harbison’s testimonial about Amplify’s new “Free All ATMs” campaign. That’s right. All your ATM transactions are free with Amplify.
Go Amplify!