Now that I’ve done it, though, I’m pondering uses for all these gadgets. One that I’ve been playing with for a while is a “guitar cam” – a camera mounted directly on the guitar and giving an unusual view of the performance. With all these cams hanging around and Lynnie out of town I went to work.

The choice of guitar was pretty easy. The Epiphones have scattered, so the sacrificial guitar around the house these days is stage guitar #1, the Composite Acoustics OX. It’s really ideal for this project because my main tool is double stick tape, and the “raw” finish of the makes it unlikely to suffer damage.

Past Experiments

I’ve already tried out various mounting techniques for a peghead cam. I’ve used my smallest Gorillapod, but that proved too shakey. A mount that vibrates makes for a sea-sick viewing experience. One of my favorite engineering materials is packing foam of various kinds, but once again these efforts were lacking in stability, especially when I mounted the largish Zoom Q3HD on the peghead. I wound up with a stick of wood, a 1/4-20 bolt, some plastic, and lots of double stick tape, and came up with this.

Double stick tape, a 1/4-20 bolt, and a piece of wood

Success At Last

This mount was stable and gave a good view of the guitar neck. Here it is mounted.

Double stick tape attaches the device to the guitar

Adjustability could be better, but it works. Heavy duty (gray) 3M double stick tape holds a stack of plastic chunks together, guiding the 1/4-20 bolt at an angle to the stick. Then lighter duty (clear) 3M double stick tape holds the stick to the back of the guitar peghead.

But We Have More Cameras

Once I had a couple of decent test shots from the peghead mounted Q3HD, I started thinking about mounting additional cameras. First, one looking straight up from the bottom of the guitar, to get the fingers plucking, and my beautiful face!! Well, that didn’t work so well. The plucking was out of focus and at he wrong angle, and my face just isn’t that lovely, or interesting.

OK, let’s put one on the front, looking at the picking hand alone. Hey, and the Kodak Zi8 has a macro setting that I almost never use. Now all we need is one looking at the fretting hand from my view. The small and light Creative Vado 2nd Gen (or third, or however many) looks like a good candidate. Sure enough these cams were easy to mount with just a bit of clear double stick tape.

Kodak Zi8 mounted in the cutaway of the CA OX Raw

3M double stick tape holds the Vado easily

Three video cams mounted on CA OX

Lights, Cameras, Action

With the cameras mounted I scouted a location. With my sweetie out of town for a few days I had the whole house for my stage, and I found just the spot. Ordinarily I would never try to record in the close in space of a bathroom or shower, due to the strong early reflections. But for a guitar cam shoot I needed simple uncluttered monotone on both sides and this little hallway was perfect.

This little hallway provides two simple backgrounds

The back light would make it tough to get good video shooting down this hall, but the guitar cam(s) will be viewing side to side so they won’t get splashed. The Zoom H2 was nicely positioned by putting it on top of the hamper, and we were ready to shoot.

I barely had room for the guitar in this narrow space, but I was pretty happy with the shots I got. I spent a while shooting in another location, but when I looked at clips these were the winners.

Out of Rotation

When I pulled the clips into Edius Neo 2.5, my video editing software, I was dismayed to find that I didn’t have a way to rotate the clips. With the cameras mounted the easy way the resulting image has the guitar laying on its back, parallel to the floor.

The guitar is laying down on the job

Guitar still laying down on the job

I had expected to pull these into my Edius software, rotate them, crop and resize them, and build my composition with these images showing the guitar in a normal orientation. But it turns out that my Neo 2.5 version, the previous version entry level package, doesn’t have this capability. I would have to upgrade to the full commercial package to be able to rotate these clips. Time to rethink.

My first effort was a new layout for the clip, using the odd orientation for its impact. I cut a rough version but wasn’t too impressed. Next, do it the right way, change the camera orientation with a new mounting system. That took a day and wound up too awkward and shaky. Without re-engineering the whole project I needed to work with the clips I had.

Avidemux to the Rescue

I’ve done tutorials on Avidemux in the past, it’s a powerful bit of free software that continues to grow in its ability to manipulate video. The latest versions handle these H.264 based file formats easily and with a bit of tweaking and fiddling I was able to create rotated versions of my clips with minimal loss of quality.

Clip from Q3HD rotated in Avidemux

In order to create a standard 720P HD video file (1280×720) that Edius would accept I first rotated the image, giving a 720×1280 layout. I resized that to 405×720 in order to create the proper vertical dimension. Then I filled out the frame to 1280 pixels wide with black as you see in the still (this image is reduced to 680×360, half size).

And Here’s the Result

The song I chose is a sprightly version of an old Hawaiian royalty piece, Moani Ke `Ala, written by Prince William Pitt Leleiohoku in the late 1800s. Gabby Pahinui recorded this piece, as did his son Cyril, and both were a great source of inspiration.

As I’m listening to the clip just after it was uploaded, I’m appalled at the sound quality. There’s a background noise that is far greater than any on the original clip. I’ve been disappointed in the past but this one is really annoying. I wonder if I’ll see any improvement from a later, more leisurely transcode by Google.

Another thing missing on both these cams and many others below the professional ($2000 and way up) level is the lack of metering and monitoring. There’s not a way to tell if the audio is being recorded well until playing back the clip, when it’s too late to make any corrections. Even when I’ve done multiple test shots I’ve always considered myself very fortunate if I manage to capture some useful audio with this kind of gear.

The Q3HD Arrives

A couple of years ago, Zoom introduced the Q3, a pocket video recorder that emphasized the audio quality. It included stereo directional mics in an X-Y configuration and didn’t inflict excess processing on the audio. Unfortunately, they released this SD format camera just when HD video took off. YouTube switched to HD format, Flip put out the MinoHD, HD video recording began to appear in phones, HD was everywhere except in the Q3. But earlier this year Zoom announced the new Q3HD, which addressed the format issue, offered improved low light performance, added special settings for difficult lighting conditions like concerts, and added a Line Input for stereo audio. In the past, new products from Zoom have arrived long after their planned date, so I was expecting to see the Q3HD sometime in 2011, but happily the first shipments have arrived in the US and are available from a number of retailers. I bought one from BSW and it arrived the day after Thanksgiving.

My initial impressions are really positive. The build quality seems a bit better than my venerable H2, and it’s noticeably more solid feeling than the Kodak Zi8. The menu system is easy to manage, there’s audio metering and monitoring during recording, it even comes with a 2 GB memory card and a set of AA batteries.

Three Way Comparison

I mentioned the other cams that I purchased because they had audio input and some degree of manual control. It seemed reasonable to use them in a comparison with the Q3HD. So I setup in Digital Duck studio (also known as the spare room upstairs) and shot some video, first using camera mics then external mics.

I chose 720p for the video format for all three cams. The Zi8 and Sanyo don’t offer control over the audio format, but on the Zoom I selected CD quality PCM (44.1 khz and 16 bit word length).

For the external mic shots I connected an Audio Technica AT822 to the Zi8, a Rode NT4 to the Xacti HD2000, and a pair of Shure KSM141s through an M-Audio DMP3 to the Q3HD. Here’s the video that resulted:

When I listen to the clips on my “junk reference” computer speakers, the difference in audio quality isn’t that great, but as soon as I put on headphones or turn on the good monitors, the audio from the older cams sounds dreadful in comparison to the Q3HD. My Zi8 sounds worse than I remember, so perhaps it’s dying, but even the HD2000 features burbling noises in the quiet moments and an odd tonal balance. I also feel that the video quality of the Q3HD was noticeably better than that of the Zi8. Looks like the Kodak is going in the drawer.

My First YouTube Clip from the Q3HD

The Q3HD has minimal built-in editing, just “Divide” and “Trim” – minimal but sufficient to create a clip for YouTube, so I figured I should put up something straight from the camera. I chose the Rode NT4 stereo mic just to simplify the setup, and fed the mic into the M-Audio DMP3 preamp. From there an adapter chain converted two 1/4″ outputs to a single stereo cable ending in a 1/8″ stereo plug, which went into the Q3HD Line In jack. I took advantage of the meters on the Q3HD to check my levels, aiming for average levels around -20 dBFS and peaks around -6 to -8 dBFS.

With that set I chose the highest resolution video, 1080p format. I chose PCM (uncompressed WAV) audio, but stayed with the basic 44.1 Khz sample rate and 16 bit word length. After a few test shots to get the framing right I recorded a few takes of an old R. Alex Anderson song, Haole Hula. With a little scrolling around in the playback, I was able to trim the clip down to the performance I chose.

Based on my experience with other camera software, I didn’t load the Handyshare package that comes with the Q3HD. I simply removed the memory card, stuck it in my card reader, and copied it to my hard disk. From there I uploaded to my YouTube account. Here’s the result:

Since I was determined to use only in-camera editing, my clip has no title, no fades, no credits, but I feel that it presents the song in fine fashion anyway.

Framing Changes with Format

One thing I stumbled on while shooting my clip – changing the video format also changes the framing of the shot. I framed the image then decided to switch from 720p to 1080p. I made the format change and shot a clip, and when I played it back my head was gone! Here are a couple of snapshots that illustrate the difference:

Framing at 1080p

Framing at 720p

As you can see, the change is pretty dramatic. So be sure you check your framing whenever you change the video format, or you might lose your head.

Not Quite Perfect, But Pretty Darned Good

On the frown side, I’m a bit annoyed that I have to buy the AC adapter separately. My brief attempts to shoot in lower light were not a big success. And while I was really pleased when I learned that Zoom added a Line In jack on this new camera, I’m already wishing it had a 1/8″ stereo mic input as well. With that extra feature the NT4 and the Q3HD would make a fantastic package for portable recording. As it is, I’m shopping for a battery powered two channel preamp with P48 phantom power that won’t bust the budget … and I’m not having a lot of luck.

On the smile side, I expect to have a lot of fun with this little camcorder. The video quality is reasonable in good light and the audio sets a new standard for a consumer cam. It’s nicely made, easy to use, an all around fun toy.

By separating the mic from the camera, I should be able to position the mic for optimum sound while placing the camera for the visual effect I want. Of course, I can do this wihout an audio input on the camera by a technique called parallel recording, that is, recording on a separate audio system of some kind. The familiar clack of the slate at the start of a movie sequence is used to make it easy to synchronize the picture and sound, and this technique works very well for my homebrewed videos as well. Still it’s very tempting to think that recording directly to the camera is an easier way out, with camera audio every take and every edit lining up without any extra effort.

I’ve been interested in the range of options for attaching a mic to the Zi8, and back in December I went on a little mic shopping binge. Between my storage drawer, Ebay, and Sound Professionals I gathered a collection of mics in a range of prices. But I was struck with a glitch in my Zi8 audio, which required several round trips to attempt repair at the East Coast contract repair depot. Eventually Kodak agreed to replace my camera, but by then I was on a lovely trip to Hawai`i.

Test Design

Now that I’m back I’m ready to offer up some test clips. At first I planned to video a number of brief samples of guitar and vocal, which was very troubling to me. I strongly believe that audio sampling should be done with a single performance and carefully volume matched, in order to reduce the number of variables in the sample. As much as we think otherwise, humans just cannot judge subtle (or even not-so-subtle) differences without careful controls. My aha moment came when I realized that I was only testing audio, not video, so I could use a recorded source to get a repeatable performance. Focusing on audio only also allowed me to upload the much smaller audio clips, so the comparison will be quicker and easier.

For level matching I decided to take the easy way out and simply normalize the files. Normalizing raises the peak of a file to a given level, in this case I chose -3 dBFS. I adjusted levels like this so our ears won’t be fooled by level differences, but these samples hide the differences in the real recording you’ll get if you use one of these mics. So I’m including the original sample as well. Remember that I adjusted the sensitivity of the Zi8 for each mic, so the volume levels are affected by that even in the original, un-normalized samples.

I first created a test recording in Reaper, some slack key guitar naturally. I recorded in mono with an Audio Technica AT4050 in cardioid pattern. Then I added a bit of narration. All camera mics I know about, and many accessory mics as well, are omnidirectional. There are plenty of reasons why an omni is a good choice, but real trickery is required to get a good stereo image with omnis. So I threw in a bit of movement in the stereo field to evaluate channel separation. I arranged the narration and the stereo test ahead of the music and adjusted levels.

I placed all the mics very close to my normal listening position and played back the test recording through my normal monitoring chaing – Echo Audiofire 8, Hafler P3000, Dynaudio BM6p. A Radio Shack SPL meter showed 74 db C weighted at the mic position.

As I mentioned, I adjusted the sensitivity of the Zi8 for each mic. In each case I adjusted the sensitivity to the highest level that did not show any red. I label the default sensitivity as 0, lower sensitivity goes from -1 to -5 and higher goes from +1 to +5. I wound up using the whole range in this comparison.

Test Clips

Here’s the reference recording. It won’t get any cleaner than this.
ref.mp3
or download ref.mp3

I used the Zoom H2 as the mic in my first experiments with the Zi8, so I included it in this comparison. It’s also handy because we can record with the H2 and the Zi8 at the same time. Even though the signal in the Zoom was very low and pumped up with a lot of digital gain in the normalization process, it is quite a bit cleaner than the Zi8. I set the Zoom to M Mic Gain because tests have shown that the H setting adds noise. This still resulted in a rather low level, so raising it also raised the noise as well.
h2p.mp3
or download h2p.mp3

Original versions, no normalization:
oh2p.mp3
or download oh2p.mp3

I used the rear mics on the H2 so I could operate the controls on the front of the unit. As a result the stereo left and right are backwards in both the parallel clip and the Zi8 clip. Here’s the output of the H2 headphone jack recorded on the Zi8 with sensitivity set to -3.
h2v.mp3
or download h2v.mp3

Original versions, no normalization:
oh2v.mp3
or download oh2v.mp3

If you’re like me you’ve been fooling with recorders for a while, maybe going back to cassette tapes. Perhaps, like me, you have some kind of little mic in a drawer somewhere. My drawer mic is labeled www.reactivesounds.com but the web site is a dead end now. I bought this to use with my minidisc recorder a few years ago. The mic is omni, no cable (requires a female to male extension), and has been repaired with superglue. I used -2 sensitivity for this mic.
drawer.mp3
or download drawer.mp3

Original versions, no normalization:
odrawer.mp3
or download odrawer.mp3

I’ve used Sound Professionals http://www.soundprofessionals.com/ for these kinds of recording gear for years. I used one of their T-mics for years with my minidisc, but somehow lost it. They still sell a mic with the same model number, SPSM-1, but it doesn’t look much like the mic I remember. I set the Zi8 to -3 sensitivity for this mic.
spsm-1.mp3
or download spsm-1.mp3

Original versions, no normalization:
ospsm-1.mp3
or download ospsm-1.mp3

The SPSM-15 is the least expensive single point stereo mic sold by Sound Professionals. It appears to have a higher low frequency cutoff than the SPSM-1, and/or lower sensitivity. As a result I set the Zi8 sensitivity to -2.
spsm-15.mp3
or download spsm-15.mp3

Original versions, no normalization:
ospsm-15.mp3
or download ospsm-15.mp3

The AudioTechnica AT825 has been a popular single point stereo mic for many years, but was recently discontinued. The replacements are much higher in price, so it might be worth watching for used examples of the AT825 on Ebay or Craigslist. It seemed perfectly matched to the Zi8 and worked well at the default sensitivity setting.
at825.mp3
or download at825.mp3

Original versions, no normalization:
oat825.mp3
or download oat825.mp3

I was impressed with the performance of the AT825. I was very disappointed in the AudioTechnica Pro 24. Although it looks much more impressive than the T-mics from Sound Professionals, it was very low in output, requiring that I set the Zi8 to the maximum +5 sensitivity.
atpro24.mp3
or download atpro24.mp3

Original versions, no normalization:
oatpro24.mp3
or download oatpro24.mp3

Let’s Look at the Video

Let’s finish off with some actual video. Be careful with comparisons, but perhaps there will be some blatant differences we can take away. When I framed the shot to include the whole guitar the camera wound up about 5 feet from the instrument. I adjusted the Zi8 sensitivity for each mic using my normal procedure – the highest setting that did not show any red squares.

I had a little fun with my new Edius Neo 2.5 software putting together a compilation of the mic demonstrations.

All these mics sound better here than in the audio test with the recording, but they still show their basic characteristics. The camera mic picks up a lot more room, as it must at that distance. And since the room is a boxy little thing, the recording sounds small and boxy.

The H2 in this clip is very slightly overdriving the Zi8, to my ears. The slightly dark voice of the H2 comes through as well. The Sound Professionals SPSM-15 does a pretty decent job for very small bucks. I failed to mention in the video that the sensitivity on the Zi8 is down to -3. This means the SPSM-15 is quite sensitive, so it might be a problem if your source is loud. To my ear the AT825 is the winner. I like the clear presentation. I’m sorry I didn’t do a better job of balancing the channels.

I hope these comparisons are useful. I plan to try these mics with a different camera in a future post.

* * * Correction on 12/03/2010 * * *

The mic I keep calling an AT825 is actually and AT822, the unbalanced version. Sorry for the brain fog.

I’m pretty pleased with this new camcorder. Let’s look at the pros and cons:

It’s Pocketable

It’s compact. It’s right on the edge of being too big for a pocket camcorder, but I’d say it still works. Here’s a shot of the Zi8 next to a Motorola Razr:

Zi8 and Razr Side by Side

I’m embarrassed that I shipped my Flip Mino HD off to a friend before I did this comparison so I can’t show them side by side or show comparison videos.

Another factor that makes a good pocket cam is a low price, and the Zi8 does fine on that score. And while the user interface is a bit more complicated than the Flip or Vado cams, the Kodak has a bit more flexibility as well. The options are easily accessible with the control layout. It takes decent stills along with several video formats.

It’s Expandable

Compact Flash memory continues to ride the price curve down, down, down, so the ability of the Zi8 to use accessory cards lets the user take advantage of bargains when they appear. I often shoot a set of music that continues for an hour or longer. A 16 Gbyte SDHC card combined with the included AC adapter makes the Zi8 a great tool for my kind of shooting. For places where AC isn’t available, the battery in the Zi8 can be replaced with a fully charged spare.

The other big feature for my use is the stereo microphone input. When I shoot my solo guitar performance videos I usually record the sound separately, then synchronize the audio and video in post production. Recently I’ve been using a Sanyo Xacti HD2000 camcorder that has many great features including an audio input, so I’ve been able to record direct to the camera using high quality mics. The HD2000 is a just a little too bulky to be a true pocket cam, and it busts out of the “disposable” price range by quite a bit as well. Now with the Zi8 I have an affordable shooter that I can feed audio into.

The reason for needing an external mic is simple physics – the camera has to be some distance from the subject, but the microphone needs to be close to the subject, at least for the kind of stuff I do, recording solo acoustic guitar in less than optimal rooms.

Here’s a picture that gives an idea of the problem:

Zoom H2 audio into the Kodak Zi8 camcorder

The room in this picture is a screened lanai, or porch, in Kailua. Beautiful Kailua beach is about 50 yards away, so the surf is always audible in the background. The trade winds are usually blowing through the surrounding trees, and a fairly busy street goes by the back door. There’s no soundproofing or room treatment of any kind, so getting a decent sound is a challenge. Notice how far the camera is positioned from the guitar – 5 to 6 feet away. At this distance, the guitar is not very loud, while the surrounding waves, wind, and cars are quite obtrusive. But with the audio input in the Zi8, I can use the Zoom H2 as a stereo microphone, and place it about 1 foot from the guitar. Here the signal to noise ratio is much better.

But It’s Not Perfect

Naturally, the Zi8 has flaws, some minor, some a bit more troubling. I never thought about the flat bottom of the Flip Mino HD until I tried to position the Zi8 on a table without a stand. Oooopss. The Zi8 has a rounded bottom that requires some kind of support for any placement.

The feel of the Kodak is a bit flimsy compared to the Flip, but those flimsy bits give access to a replaceable battery and various connectors. The zoom capability seems like a bit of a joke to me, it works in digital mode so it impacts picture quality, and it operates in discrete steps that would be very distracting during a shot. The bundled Media Impressions software has a number of issues, judging by the discussions at the support forum but I was able to title and trim one clip with it.

**EDIT Nov 19, 2009**The italicized comment that follows talks about my problems with the AGC on the audio input, but I’ve since learned that there is no AGC. Ooops!! I must have been overloading the input pretty heavily. I plan to continue to explore the audio input in a future post.**End of EDIT**

The biggest negative issue for me is the AGC, automatic gain control, on the audio input. This function raises the gain when sounds are low, which raises the background noise. It also makes level setting more difficult. I don’t know if it’s possible, but I’m hoping for a firmware upgrade someday to turn off the AGC. In the meantime, I’ve come up with a setting that seems to get the job done, by setting the Zoom H2 to low sensitivity and turning down the audio sensitivity on the Zi8.

So How’s the Video?

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post I mentioned that I’ve done two video clips with the Zi8. Here’s the first one, shot in indoors daylight, an original composition I call Kui Lima:

and here’s one demonstrating the low light performance of the Zi8, an old song called Kalena Kai:

So that’s the story as I see it. For my particular application, shooting solo performer music videos, this little cam seems like a pretty good tool for the job. And like always in the fast moving world of consumer technology, we can look forward to the response this cam generates among competitors.