Seeing how awful my videos look, and knowing that the Kodak Zi8 can produce some very nice videos using its HD capabilities, as well as its macro capabilities, I thought I would start exploring how to make videos more interesting, more effective, and certainly better lit.
If you are not familiar with the Flip or other small video cameras, these critters are about the size of an iPhone – very small, can be held in the hand, and have the potential to do some very nice things without a lot of bulk and hassle. What attracted me to the Zi8 was its potential for HD, as well as the fact it has a jack for a line-in microphone. Yesterday, when I was shooting my first video, I used the sound to have streaming music as a background for the non-verbal video. Sound was fine – music was fairly clear. So was the clicking of my clock! You can hear it in tomorrow’s video if you listen to it.
Kodak Zi8
The Zi8 made its debut to techies in late July 2009, as a direct descendant of the Zi6. From a review by Gizmodo, they write the following:
Kodak’s . . . product tease was indeed a new pocket cam, potentially their best yet. Launching with an MSRP of $180, it will overpower the Flip Ultra HD with 1080p recording, an electronic image stabilizer, SDHC card slot and other enhancements.
The list of improvements continues: The Zi8 has an external mic jack, and it’ll shoot 5-megapixel stills, track faces of subjects and, according to Kodak, “see more details and accurate colors in low light.” Now that’s something we’re looking forward to, especially since low light seems to be the biggest bane of these Flip-class cameras.
There are also a number of videos (what else?) showing some of the capabilities of the Zi8. This is one of my favorites – the colors are so brilliant. It was shot with the macro lens.
For $10.00 on the Kodak web page, a remote control can be bought for the Zi8. I probably will buy one – it was really inconvenient to reach up to turn things off, even though I was out of the camera’s eye when I did it.
Also, switching from regular viewing to macro, there is a very audible click when you make that shift – it’s a mechanical movement from one lens to the other. But, the results can be good.
If you are interested in a more detailed video, here is one with information about the controls.
For a small price, a fun toy. Of course, now I am researching information about how to make decent learning videos. Lighting, framing, sound (need to buy a mike), structure, and of course post-editing. Something else to distract me . . .
Ink, Yarn & Beer 