[videoblogging] Re: external hard drives for editing?
Couple of comments... If you are going to do actual editing on an external drive you will probably need to go with Firewire800 and or SATA. USB will unlikely be fast enough. Also get a fast drive, 7200RPM or faster. Some people don't like Lacie or OWC or whoever, neither of whom actually make hard drives. If you have a drive failure and it wasn't the power supply or the controller then it wasn't Lacie's or OWC fault. I use dozens of Lacie Quadra drives at my office, I use them exclusively and have not had one fail in almost three years. Of course your mileage may vary. For editing on my MacBook Pro I use this http://www.pcconnection.com/IPA/Shop/Product/Detail.htm?sku=10055890cac=Result It is awesome, triple interface (USB FW400, FW800), 7200RPM, bus powered. It is great because it is portable and fast. I don't need an extra power supply when I am on the move. When I am home I can daisy chain a FW400 drive off the back when needed. There are several different versions of this, just make sure to find the 7200RPM one. - C. Thomas
[videoblogging] Re: Check week at blip.tv
Just wanted to comment with some real world numbers. I'm sure there are shows on blip that make a $100K a year but mine isn't one of them. I suspect my show is a little more real world for this list. I do a weekly news program of about 10 to 15 mins each week. The news is pretty focused in one market segment, Internet Security. We get about 1000 views per episode. And that has been slowly rising. We have been producing shows now for about a year. This last quarter we received a blip.tv payment for $59.02. That's with both pre and post roll ads. It is better than nothing but it barely covers our website hosting. The best thing about blip is the 'free' video hosting (We pay $8 a month for a pro account) and they distribute to iTunes and other venues automatically. iTunes is about 30% of our viewership right now. - C. Thomas
[videoblogging] RE: Lighting
I struggled with lighting for a long time. Like you I had a poorly lit room with an open window. and I had to break it down after each shoot. I tried a Workplace halogen from Home Depot but even when trying to diffuse it I had waay to much light. Simple household incandescents never provided enough light. I ended up buying to umbrella style light setups from eBay and used an LED mounted on top of the camera like the one you linked to. I get nice, even consistent lighting with every shot now. - C. Thomas
[videoblogging] Re: Non-XLR hand held Microphone
You can fix that with a mono to stereo adapter: http://www.radiosha ck.com/product/ index.jsp? productId= 2102690 It just feeds the same mono signal into both stereo inputs, so no post-processing required. Wow! I must have spent an hour searching the Rat Shack site for one of those. I figured they didn't exist. Thanks! - C. Thomas
[videoblogging] Small Battery Powered Lighting
So my microphone situation seems to be solved but I discovered this weekend that I really need some sort of lighting solution. I was doing impromptue interviews in Hotel lobby's, conference rooms and hallways. Obviously not the best lighting situtation. I ended up trying to stand underneath some of the spotlights in the ceiling and most of the shots came out OK but they would have been much better with a light. Ideally I am looking for something battery powered, small, and that can be attached to my camera or tripod. I have a cold shoe attachment but it is occupied by my microphone. I am using a Panasonic HDC-TM300 if that matters. Any suggestions? Thanks! - C. Thomas [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[videoblogging] Re: Non-XLR hand held Microphone
Just to follow up on my original microphone questions... I ended up going with two Mics. A Rode Video Mic that attaches to the cold shoe and inputs dual channel audio (I don't know if it is really stereo or not, probably not). All of the reviews I read on this Mic said it was awesome so I expected about half of that, but I was wrong. It is awesome, especially at the price. I did one interview with the camera and mic on a tripod about three feet away while I and the interviewee sat on a couch in a noisy hotel lobby, The mic got minimal background noise and both of our voices are very clear. I am very impressed. As a bonus for me anyway, since it is larger than my camera, it makes the camera look a little more professional and people don't look at me like I am just some dweeb with a camera. As for the original question about hand held Mics I was in a hurry and didn't have much budget so I opted for the Radio Shack $25 Mic with the build in 1/4 cable. I added an 1/8 adapter and plugged it into the camera. I covered the mic with a $5 pop filter and did my interviews that way. All of them came out great, even when I didn't have the mic very close to the interviewees mouth the sound was still more than acceptable. It only records in mono but I was able to copy the left channel to the right side without to much trouble in FCE. I'm sure you audiophiles are aghast that I used a RatShack microphone instead of some $200 thing but it works for me with what I'm doing. I'm happy with it. I made a home made Mic flag for it that came out pretty well. So between the MIc flag, the Rode Mic and the tripod I think I made quite the impression. I had a few people ask me what TV station I was recording for! I did discover that I need a lighting solution, but I'll make new post for that question. Thanks everyone for your input! This is a great list! - C. Thomas [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[videoblogging] Re: Non-XLR hand held Microphone
Your right, the camera has a 1/8 jack not a 1/4. I always get confused on the sizes. The bhp link for the XLR-1/8 adapter cable would work for the physical connection but don't I also need to supply power for the Mic? The H4n looks like a really cool device, but it is also bigger than my whole camera, doesn't really have the news reporter look and at $300 is a bit out of my budget. I'm just doing video blogs here, not remaking the Blair Witch Project. Someone linked to the AudioTechnica website but I'm not sure what they were exactly trying to link to. Ideally I would just like a handheld mic that plugs directly into my Panasonic TM300 that provides acceptable sound. - C. Thomas [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[videoblogging] Non-XLR hand held Microphone
I am looking for a traditional hand held microphone to use for man-on-the-street news interviews. Everything I can find is either an XLR mic or a toy. I have a Panasonic TM300 which is a nice small camera but has a traditional 1/4 microphone jack. I know there are XLR converters which would be fine but all the ones I have seen are super huge and bulky, which kind of defeats the purpose of the small camera. So can anyone suggest a decent microphone with the right connector or a small XLR converter? Thanks. - C. Thomas [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
