I have known since I did my first quick vidcast that I enjoyed the format much more than audio only podcasts. Being that I am a big fan of Diggnation (I wear my Diggnation shirt proudly!), The Totally Rad Show and everything that Wil Harris is doing over at Channelflip.com, I just had to get my feet wet in Video.
The first attempt led me to an el cheapo JVC MiniDV camcorder. Capturing the video was a breeze and editing it together into something usable quickly was a simple task in iMovie. If you know me at all, you also know that that wouldn’t last very long.
It all began with the painstakingly difficult (Just ask Dawngrrl) task of choosing the right camera for me. After weeks of research I had narrowed down to 3 cameras and 1 deciding factor. The big question was do I need HD or not?
Now the short and simple answer is no, I don’t need HD. So that led me to choose between:
- Used Canon XL1 MiniDV Camcorder – The beast, workhorse, pro quality, used to make the first 28 Days Later movie. Also clocking in at a cool $1,800 used.
- Used Canon GL1 MiniDV Camcorder – This is the baby beast, another workhorse, high quality prosumer and has made many a commercial you have probably seen.
- New Canon HV20 MiniDV HD Camcorder – The “Guerilla Filmmaker” camera of choice.
I had literally gotten to the point where I was making arrangements to meet the guy with the Canon XL1 to go pick it up. When I realized that Craigslist had geographically mismatched me a tad and he was nearly two hours away, I decided to punt. My back up decision was to go to Circuit City, get the HV20, and if I didn’t like it over the weekend, take it back and pick up the Canon XL1 this week.
This way I had my bases covered, if the camera delivers the quality I want, and boy does it, then HD is kind of icing on the cake so to speak.
I built a quick a dirty AV rack to house a compressor/gate and some wireless mic receivers, picked up a Beachtek DXA-2s XLR adapter and a Rode Video Mic to finish off the kit. I got started playing and learned two important things.
- HD Video is freaking huge, we are talking 4 GB for 5-6 minutes.
- HD Video takes forever to compress/upload, even after h.264 shrinks it to 150 MB, Vimeo does’t seem to take it faster than 25 k/s.
The result is some nice sharp video. You can’t really tell in the clip below, but this baby delivers top notch color too. My office is kind of drab, something I will have to work out.
So next on the plate is building a green-screen in the garage and choosing the wireless mic kit for Dawn and I to use when we are out and about. I am really enjoying this and hope to do more with it.
Tomorrow I have to look into the policies of carrying a video camera to work so I can find out about doing some interviews and such. More to come, so keep posted!
The Philocast HD – Episode Two: The Rode VideoMic Test from Jason Burns on Vimeo.
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