David's BLOG

This is my impromptu blog area, where I will muse when I feel it is warranted (or not) on all things video and associated subjects or whinge accordingly. I invite - and even insist - on comment, argument, dissention, applause or whatever takes your fancy. You have right of reply!

Tim's Tech Blog

In the past few months I've found myself having fairly strong opinions on some of the newest and emerging technology entering the market so I thought that it would be best that I shared what I know. So here it is! A blog by me from me that will let you into my mind and about my take on some of the newest tech. I will also include some of my own personal endeavours with the technology I encounter and take you on some of my own technological journeys.  I hope you all enjoy!

Steve Turner's Blog

Going Mobile

 The world has gone totally mobile and the phone is the mobile tool of choice. New gen smartphones are so clever that the phone bit is almost incidental. The new iPhone 4 is a good example of an all round device that can cover a huge range of tasks. It’s HD video camera is one example.

 Now we can…

A couple of years ago I got a mobile phone that, for the first time, could do decent photos. “Cool” I thought, now I could use the phone when my still camera wasn’t attached to me – rare that though is. The idea of shooting video was laughable. As an experienced video snob I would rather have nothing than shite lo-res youtube rubbish. I don’t care how funny it is, I want it to look good.

So along comes the new gen phones and HD is an option. The large storage also makes shooting a possibility. Rochelle got her iPhone 4 and after a few days I went from sceptic to convert – mainly for the amazing number of applications that can be really useful.

Inevitably I tested the HD video and it’s not bad. It’s also not great. Where it’ll be good is when the video camera is not to hand. For the first time I would actually use the phone to grab a moment.

The video is NTSC 1268 x 720 and is very nice except for one small thing. The phone is not pretending to be a video camera and has no stabiliser. Suddenly you realise how far we have come in the world of stabilisers! The shake is bad because the phone/camera is so light. There’s already a healthy after market in small tripods! Let’s not go too crazy.

One thing I do like came as a surprise. A while back I raved about Canon’s HFS21 and its ability to set focus/exposure by tapping the LCD. Blow me away the iPhone does it too. Tap the screen and there you go. You can even do a primitive focus pull. You can set exposure the same way too.

The files are NTSC 29fps .mov and I converted them in Cineform’s NeosceneHD to 10bit 4:2:2 PAL .avi files and edited in Premiere. Easy.

Have a look here at the 40secs I’ve uploaded to youtube. Let the HD version load.

This demonstrates the depth of field/focus pull and most importantly the camera shake. This is a useful tool that can fill in when you need it. I give it 8 out of 10 for cleverness and 6 out of 10 for quality. Ohh and do not use the zoom! Try and you’ll see why.