Technical Know How
General tips and tricks
Sharing video on the internet YouTube – Step by Step
Jun 7th
Everybody does it, from kids and vacation travelers to pros. It is fun and it’s easy.
Here are some quick tips to getting started.
Putting Your Video Online
- Sign Up
Go to www.youtube.com and click the Sign Up button at the very top of the screen.
When you are done, you will get an email asking you to confirm your registration, and then you are in. - Preparing Your Video
YouTube will accept most popular video formats: AVI, MOV, MPG and WMV. - Uploading Your Video
After you have logged into YouTube, click on My Account at the top of the screen and then select Videos. From there, click on the button that says Upload Videos and enter a description for your video (Standard accounts are limited to 10 minutes or 100MB). This description will help people decide whether or not they want to see your video, so be as descriptive as possible.
Here you can also select options to make your video public or private and to allow people to comment, make video responses, rate your video, embed your video on web pages and blogs. Click next and use the browse button to find the video on your computer. YouTube takes your uploaded video and converts it automatically to a flash animation – this may take several hours or just a few minutes.
When your video is on the YouTube servers, you will see URLs you can send to people, so they can see your video directly. You will also find the HTML code necessary to embed your video on a web page or blog.
Sharing and Watching Your Video
There you go. Clicking on My Videos will take you to your collection of online videos. You can email the URL to all the people in your Address Book, you can embed the video into a web page and you can share, save and re-watch favourite videos of your own.
HDD and Flash-memory Video to DVD – The easy way!
Jun 7th
This method is ideal, when you need to produce a DVD quickly without a computer.
First of all use the camera features to delete scenes you don’t want and put the ones you like to keep in order. If your camera has a feature to shave off the beginning and the end of a scene, do so. Of course you can connect your camera via fire-wire or USB to the computer, open moviemaker or your favorite editing program, start importing your footage and you are ready to go. However, if you don’t want to do too much editing, the fastest and easiest way is to use a standalone DVD recorder hooked up to a TV monitor.
First generation copies are not too critical, so you can connect the camera with the AV cables instead of the digital connection. Set the recording settings in the menu of the DVD recorder for best quality and you are ready. Simply press playback on your camera and record on the DVD recorder.
Summary
For multiple DVD copies record the tape onto the HDD of your DVD recorder first and use the fast copy feature to burn multiple DVD’s. Additional copies are produced in a fraction of the time!
Once you have completed the DVD and you are happy with the result, you can go ahead and delete the scenes on the camera to make room for new recordings.
Camera Check & Maintenance – Camera Technician Advice
Jun 7th
There is no maintenance as such with cameras. Even tape – or disc camcorders, which use moving parts in the media compartment, are usually maintenance free.
However, do the following when you want to get the most out of your camera or haven’t used it for a long time. Do it before an important shoot, holidays or testing a 2nd Hand camera.
General advice:
1) Do not overuse head cleaning tapes, as the can be abrasive to the video heads.
2) Use quality Tapes – I recommend camera manufacturer tapes.
- Try to use the same brand only
- Discard damaged tapes
3) Have at least 2 batteries. Battery test. Run batteries fully flat before recharge. You have to
know how long batteries last for proper shoot planning. If batteries behave odd or don’t last
very long, repeat a discharging and charging procedure a few times.
Even though modern batteries supposedly don’t develop a memory, I did resurrect some
batteries with this procedure.
Camera check:
Tape cameras
1) Fast forward and rewind a whole tape.
2) Play back a pre-recorded at the beginning and at the end of the tape.
3) Perform a test recording by constantly panning and zooming the camera in and out. Here you
look for distortion and pixilation in playback of the recording. If it does show up, you may
have an issue with the video head drum or tape path. A remedy can be a cleaning tape, if
unsuccessful, see a repairer.
4) Do this recording test in SP (Standard Play) and LP (Long Play)! A tape-path or video head
issue is much more obvious in LP.
Disc cameras
Do the test recording and playback procedure as described above for tape cameras.
If you do have any issues with the recordings, you may clean the laser lens. If unsuccessful, see a repairer. Repairs can be expensive, as in most cases the whole disc drive needs to be replaced. This drives are a lot dearer compared to computer disc drives!
HDD and Flash Memory cameras
Test record and playback. There is nothing else to do.
Lens check
- Test the iris by checking scenes on a bright sunny day outdoors and indoors under low light conditions.
- Check the optical zoom for smooth zooming from wide angle to full zoom in. Do this in both directions and observe the auto focus tracking.
- Sensor check, DSLR Cameras: Try to take a photo of a blue sky and look out for little dark spots in the picture on playback. Do this by zooming in on different sections of the picture. Any dark spots indicate dust and dirt on the sensor.
Fire-wire port This is an important issue, particular when buying a 2nd Hand camera. Make sure the camera is recognised by the computer. If not, there are in the most cases only two things which can go wrong. When you are lucky, it is the socket itself with broken pins or much worse the computer on the main circuit board. These circuit boards are none serviceable items and need to be replaced, which is extremely expensive.
How to choose a camcorder – technician advice
Jun 7th
First of all think about your filming habits
- Do you just need a camera to film the kids, holidays etc?
- Do you do computer editing and upload footage onto the internet?
- Do you do recordings, where sound is critical important?
- Do you need broadcast quality?
Keep the answers to these questions in mind, when you choose your camera.
- Which Type? HDD, Flash Memory, Tape, Disc
If you are not into computers, definitely stay with a disc or tape camera. This way you don’t have to worry too much about achieving your footage. Secondly let me tell you, that the picture quality of most camera types in the same price bracket is very similar. - Which features
- 3 chip cameras in combination with a quality lens will give you a better overall picture geometry, contrast and colour impression.
- HD cameras give you a higher resolution, which results into more clarity and picture detail.
There is a set back to it though. Editing demands a lot more Computer power, more storage capacity for larger files and longer upload times to the internet. - To get the sound right, you want to have external connectors for microphone and head phones.
- Which Brand (From a repairer’s point of view)
I have seen expensive and cheap cameras broken down just after the warranty period. Spare part prices are high for almost every brand. Just some brands supply parts quicker than others.
So if you go for a basic camera, I wouldn’t care about the brand. Just follow the trend – if it breaks down, replace it. - Budget There are cheap and expensive cameras available of any type. The special features make it more or less expensive. Once you know what type of camera you want, based on the comments above, type in the camera model in an internet search engine and find the best prices. Once you located the cheapest supplier on the internet print out the page, and go to a local shop. If they have this model, have a play with the camera to see, if you like it. And while you are at the shop, ask to match the price or give a discount.
2ndHand. When you go for this option, definitely go through the camera check procedure as described in a previous article,
Camera check and maintenance Since cameras can have intermittent faults, which can be heat related, expand recording and playback times to an hour or longer.
Any Tapes to DVD – fast and easy!
May 19th
Allcam/eStudy camera courses and film making tips and tricks. The technical aspects of film and television.
The big advantage of DVD’s is, you can access certain content fast and direct.
When you watch your old wedding video or holiday memories, you can navigate to your favorite spots fast.
Of course you can connect your camera via fire-wire or USB to the computer, open moviemaker or your favorite editing program, start importing your footage and you are ready to go.
However, if you don’t want to do too much editing, the fastest and easiest way is to use a standalone DVD recorder hooked up to a TV monitor.
First generation copies are not too critical, so you can connect the camera with the AV cables instead of the digital connection. Set the recording settings in the menu of the DVD recorder for best quality and you are ready.
If you like to put the scenes on the camera in a different order or skip some, press the pause button on the DVD Recorder while cueing the tape to the desired spot.
Summary -Tip
For multiple DVD copies record the tape onto the HDD of your DVD recorder first and use the fast copy feature to burn the DVD’s. Additional copies are produced in a fraction of the time!
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