richard mackney |
my photoblog and scrapbook
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I've found a 3G signal with 1.67Mbps upload speed so thought I'd take advantage of that and upload a HQ video straight from the iPhone using the PixelPipe app. It's about 60mb and it uploaded in about 7mins. It's a 360° video of Croyde Beach on August Bank Holiday Monday.
I had the chance to get my hands on a Canon EOS 7D for a quick test. I'm mainly interested in seeing it's video capabilities and have uploaded a raw file direct from the camera as an example.
The camera was fitted with a 18-135mm lens and the file below was a 1920x1080 (1080p) 134MB .MOV file.
The first thing that was quickly apparent was the need to focus manually. You can autofocus before shooting but not while filming - I can appreciate that professional cameras work like this and that's why top end filming is done on the shoulder with a hand free for manual focusing. However, I have been using my low cost HV564E HD SD Video Camera and although autofocus is very slow, it's a real benifit when shoting from the hip.
Secondly, this is not a light piece of kit and will get heavier depending on the lens fitted, so while it's great for photography and maybe tripod mounted filming, it's not going to take the place of a seperate 'handy cam' and 'DSLR for me.
As for the quality, I can't fault it. It's solid, takes amazing pictures and produces amazing video and the built in mic seems great too (also has a slot for an external mic). Having the ability to change lenses can only enhance the video capabilities and with the 18-135mm that I tested it with allows for amazing DOF in your video - giving some nice blockbuster styleee scenes.
The following photo is a .JPG straight from camera using 18-135mm lens. The original .JPG was 5184x3456 7.9MB.
Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length:135 mm
ISO Speed: 1600
If anyone has had any experience with this camera, I'd love to hear below ...
As mentioned in the video above, this is an AA or AAA battery charger from Energizer. It comes with an AC adaptor but also a solar panel to recharge your batteries. The pack also includes 2 x 2000mAh rechargeable Energizer batteries and feels quite solid with a rubberised finish. It claims to be weather resistant, so the solar panel can be left outside on a table unlike many of the cheaper panels. It has built in smart charging technology to avoid battery damage and also has a built in LED torch.
I was quite impressed with this solar charger today, I had two flat AA batteries and left it on the windowsill from about 9am until 4pm and in those seven hours the charge status on the device now reports full. I need to do a full test with the batteries to check they do have a full charge, but I don't see why this would be reporting wrong. It was quite a bright day today (with all the snow) and the unit was not in direct sun for all of those seven hours.
Important note: the USB out socket did not charge my iPhone, however, once the batteries are charged I will use my Energizer AA battery emergency iPhone charger or my iGo PowerXtender for iPhone
If you are thinking of getting one of these solar chargers, make sure you have a really good hunt around. I have seen some ridiculous prices listed for these devices (up to £70!) but you should be able to pick one up in Maplin for £34 with free delivery (if you are quick).
Product Features (from their website)
Charge times:
| Mode | 900mA | 1300mA | 2000mA | 2450mA |
| AC mains | 3 | 5 | 8 | 10 |
| Solar | 9 | 14 | 21 | 26 |
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We had a bit of fun over Christmas, my son is now the age where he can appreciate Star Wars ... and who am I to stop his fun :)
This video features:
This year I've done the timelapse on the iPhone using an app called TimeLapse (currently £1.19) taking a pic every 5 mins. Quality isn't as good as the video last year, but it was much faster and easer to produce.
I attempted to use ReelDirector on the iPhone (currently £2.99 on special offer) to pull all the images together, but it seems to do a pan and zoom effect to each picture rather than letting you just flick to the next shot. This is a shame because the shooting, editing, uploading and writing of this post could of been done so easily on just the iPhone alone.
I dropped all the shots onto the desktop and dragged them into Adobe Premier Elements to create the following video (music is added with YouTube's AudioSwap).
Last years Christmas Tree TimeLapse video is in HD resolution as I used my SLR camera on a tripod with a slow shutter to get the blur.
Oh, yes, it's the same tree and decorations ... recycle, recycle, recycle!
Update:
I've just tested iTimeLapse Pro iPhone app (£1.79) It even renders the video & music! here is my sample: http://j.mp/5jCXZN
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We spent this afternoon making a robot costume from cardboard!
Slight change of format tonight ... a bit of a vlog. Don’t worry it’s not going to happen very often, at the moment I prefer photo’s, text and a bit of video when it’s required to capture something not involving me. It was quite nice however, to set up the iPhone 3GS on a tripod, hit record, talk, hit stop and send to YouTube direct from the phone without much fuss.
Anyway, onto the subject ... Innis and Gunn IPA and The Perfect Pour. Well as you can see, I’m not sure it was anywhere near perfect. I did however follow their instructions and was slightly worried about the vigour or the pour, usually we are always taught to tilt the glass ... at least I was when I worked behind the bar in Progress at the Warehouse in ’91 (although to be fair, most clubbers wanted a can of Red Stripe).
This post follows on from a couple of recent others ... Innis and Gunn Gift Box and Rum Cask and I’m quite impressed with this IPA, it certainly has its own unique character and if it was available on it’s own, I would stock up on it.
I don’t confess to know loads about beer (yet), I’ll just tell you what I think and may get the terminology or history wrong, however, please feel free to correct me in any comments below. I won’t actually type what I thought about the IPA, you will have to watch the video for that. One day, Google will translate the audio into text for us so that it is searchable, but until then, just watch it.
How this was made:
Video recorded and uploaded raw to YouTube using PixelPipe, YouTube URL grabbed and inserted into an email with an iPhone photo already attached and all sent to Posterous using nothing but the Phone.
Here is a video created by BEERreviews.co.uk and the inspiration for my Perfect Pour ...
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· Rum Cask
I am the Creative Director at Fish Media. Luckily I own the company so I can invent the title. My photoblog features beer, tech and caravans.
