Tag Archives: HF100

Camcorder extras

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I would love to have the same camera as my son, a Sony EX1 but there was no way that my funds would run to that sort of money. For the most part what I have, the Canon Vixia HF100 does what I need anyway. The lens is good enough although I have just bought a cheap wide angle lens to put on the front of it and while it didn’t make a huge difference it did help some. I felt I needed it for a documentary style video I will be producing starting this month. I will not have a lot of space to step back and get in all of what I want to shoot in a lot of places.

The other addition is for the audio. While I was in Liverpool before Christmas there was a friend there with a similar camera to mine and he had a converter cable to go from the 3.5mm mic jack on the camera to an XLR cable with a Shure SM58 microphone on the end of that. It worked pretty good and so I have got the same. The guy from Shure was suggesting a cable that they sell costing about 60  but I found one much less than that. Maybe it will work right and maybe it won’t. At least worth a try anyway.

I had tried to use a wired lavalier mic but while it works connected to my Zoom H2 recorder it did not work in the Canon Vixia camera. To have the EX1 would be great seeing as it has XLR inputs already. I can record the audio separate with the H2 and I might still use that method for some shooting. It is just that it takes time to marry the audio back up with the video afterwards. I think I had better start saving to get a better camera.

I have just set up a Video20Q Newsletter. I will only be sending infrequently because usually if I have something to say I will put it in a blog or post onto Twitter. But after seeing a video by IzzyVideo about running a site like this he was saying that he wished he had set up something like that much earlier than he did. Here is the place to get the video from Israel Hyman. Also do check out his Video site that shows how to use FinalCut Express. which is a series of very good video tutorials.

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Spondicious video

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Since I got the Cintiq I have used it a fair bit but mostly in the first week. I love it for drawing with but it has been useful as an extra screen too. Would be great to have another 24 inch screen as extra space though, or even the extra of the larger Cintiq.

After the first week I had to spend a good deal of time doing podcasting work due to the Podcamp Barcelona which I attended and gave a talk about podcasting for beginners. Since then I have been doing more blogging and podcasting and not had much time for the drawing. Shame really because I has a 90 trial running of Corel Painter X, so there are days wasting there.

What I should be doing is working on a few christmas images although when I do get back to doing more drawing with the Cintiq I will have to first get the London bus design finished first.

Today I have made a decision about what camcorder to get for the video podcasting and although I was interested in getting one of the prosumer models, I was looking at the Sony FX1E which is a super looking camera, I am going with a higher quality comsumer camera for a few reasons. The price is important for a start, with all the financial turmoil I thought prudence with spending might be a good idea. So I will have to forego the delights of looking more professional by having a big pro camera and instead go for the more practical considerations of lightness to carry and being able to record direct to SD cards. It will still be Hi Def HD recording but on to solid state media.

Going for the solid state is good too because I think that these Prosumer cameras I have been lusting after only record to MiniDV tape in the HDV format. There are benefits with using tapes in terms of storage but the camera compaines are heading towards non tape based Prosumer cameras anyway, or at the very least heading to hybrid cameras that will do both.

So how is this interesting to Spondicious Photography and Illustration then ?? well on iStockPhoto they sell video clips. I have had a look at what they have on offer and I reckon I could do it too. So the plan will be to be while I am out doing some shooting of photos I can also take some video clips too. Sometimes I expect the situation will favour the video rather than the still shots and sometimes the opposite. No problem.

So I now have a plan made to expand myself in terms of what I can offer the microstock sites.

I have to tell you still what camera I have decided to go with. It is the Canon HF100 or the HF10 the only difference being that one has built in memory. I will probably get the one with out as it is cheaper to buy the memory afterwards. I will be able to stick in 8GB cards and maybe even 16GB cards.