In my comparison of the Sony HDR-MV1 to the Zoom Q4 I noted that the Zoom comes with wind protection in the form of a rather effective hairy windsock. This feature gives the Zoom a clear win over the Sony for outdoor recordings using the built-in mics. (more…)
The digital camera market is so vigorous that it seems like every niche gets exploited. There are even video cameras aimed at musicians of all people. I call them “music cameras” and the basic idea is a small, light, simple camera with fairly high quality stereo audio. (more…)
Talk about an unfair fight, this seems to be just that, based on price alone. The GH3 currently costs around $850 (Ooops, today it’s $1000 – camera prices have become highly variable it seems) for the body only, the original price was about $1300 with a kit zoom lens. The Q4 at $299 is a lot easier to fit into most budgets. And we’re talking about a very specific niche here, the “music camera,” in this category the audio quality is right up there in importance with the video. (more…)
I started shooting video with a low end SD tape camcorder and the results were mediocre at best. I spent a lot of energy trying to get better quality with that system, but my videos were still pretty homely until I got my hands on a Flip Mino, which brought HD video to a camera that fit in the shirt pocket and cost about $100. But with the pace of technology the Flip and similar products were soon overwhelmed by the smart phone revolution and it seemed like nearly everyone had an HD video camera in their pocket. The market for dedicated pocket HD video cameras dried up overnight.
The folks at Zoom figured out a niche product, though, that let them charge a premium for a little plastic lens camera – they put good microphones and clean audio processing in the package and marketed it to their existing customers, musicians. (more…)
I’ve been using my Panasonic Lumix GH3 as my main video cam for the last year or so and it’s a terrific tool. The articulated display, live HDMI out, high bitrate codecs, WIFI connectivity, and luscious image quality have made it my favorite shooter. But I’ve avoided using camera audio even though the GH3 does have some intriguing audio features. (more…)
I’m continually learning about the importance of volume/loudness/level in recording and video. Our listeners expect a “normal” level similar to commercial recordings, but through the vagaries of technological and commercial development, normal recording levels are just not as loud as normal delivery levels. Our recordings will sound wimpy and unimpressive if we deliver them at the level we used to capture them. (more…)
In a previous entry discussing YouTube audio I mentioned that Google/YouTube changes the details of their upload formats, transcoding, and streams without much fanfare. Happily all the changes I’ve seen so far have been toward higher quality, and lately they’ve upgraded the audio streams again. (more…)
In the guitar world we often talk about a phenomenon we call GAS – it stands for Guitar Acquisition Syndrome and it’s obviously an addiction that afflicts a lot of us. It’s common to see forum signatures with more than a half-dozen instruments listed, sometimes all very similar. I’ve certainly suffered from the ailment myself, but it’s been a few years since I bought a guitar. These days I have CAS – Camera Acquisition Syndrome, and it’s no less of a disease. (more…)