Another Vlog. This took longer than I had planned, mostly because I planned to do some crazy stupid graphics animation, which I decided was nowhere near necessary for a vlog. The first version I did I tried to do some motion tracking, but the software I was using wasn’t liking the long video. So after a few days of frustration, I was at work and decided to go into an empty room and film. the above is the result. Now I still tried to make the one shot above too complicated too, but I think for a long, talky video it’s about as complicated as it should be.
I’ve been shooting all my recent videos, except the Low Light test shot on the Kiss X4, on my old point-and-shoot, a Canon PowerShot SD960 IS. It’s a tiny camera, but I think it does better 720p video than almost all the vlogging cameras on the market. It was a gift, though. I wouldn’t buy one just for video. But it also takes some amazing pictures as well. I’d be hard pressed to get rid of it either way. My next vlogging camera will be the new HD Sanyo waterproof Xacti. I still love my SD Xacti, but I haven’t used it since I went full HD. I haven’t shot with my iSight either, which is what I did most of my old vlogs on. Hey Apple, when IS the 720p or 1080p iSight coming out? This should be a priority…. I want to get a new computer soon and I’d love to have a new iSight on it. I will be getting an iPhone 4 when they’re back in stock here in Japan (I think), but I’m not too sure if I’ll be using it for vlogging yet. I’ll have to do a side by side test with my little Canon.
Anyway, this is the first shoutout video. I will be making more. I don’t leave people out in these videos, I promote who is on my mind and who I have time to talk about. If I had my way I’d do hour long videos talking about how great my friends, subscribers, and the people I watch are. Anyway, here’s the list of links for the people in this video…
Lastly, I’m having a lot of fun working on music lately. I’m going to try and have original music on every video. Though I will contact some artists for permission to use their stuff for future projects, I like making quick stuff that sounds decent. If you have access to Garageband, you have no excuse not to have copyright-free, original music on your videos. I’m mostly using the banks of loops that come with Garageband and a few 3rd party plugins and expansion packs, but I eventually want to get back into creating 100% original stuff again. This is great practice, if anything.
Not sure what I’m going to do next. I filmed all my stuff for the “Life in a Day” movie project on Youtube yesterday. I have a lot of editing to do, as I recorded a lot of my sound in surround on my Zoom H2. One of the best recorders for the money, I highly recommend it.
These were all shot on the Canon 50 mm f/1.8 II except the next to last shot, which was shot on the kit 18-55 mm. The sun had just set and I decided to see what the camera and lens combo could do in low light. All of these were shot in ISO 100 except the last shot of the spider which was ISO 400, I think. I don’t know about you, but I think the results are amazing. Absolutely no grain with very little light source. The spider shot has a tiny bit of grain in the render, but the raw has none. Also, that white circle is the crescent moon out of focus. There was no color correction or filters used in this video.
All the sound was recorded on my Zoom H2 in surround sound mode. Yes, the rice fields are PACKED with frogs and they are THAT loud, sometimes more. Usually the Shinkansen is the loudest thing in the area, but they almost drown it out. The song playing in the background plays every day at noon, 5 PM, and 9 PM throughout the entire city. It’s called “Nocturne for Kitakami”.
My original goal that night was to attempt to film or photograph the bats that were flying like crazy around my apartment the night before, but that night they weren’t flying in too much of a group. My goal is to somehow get a good picture of a bat before I move from this place.
So here’s a quick unboxing and a few test pics. I am working on some more serious tests this week and will have them up soon. So far I’m very pleased! Some of the photos are a td blurry as I was a bit to excited. Enjoy.
That’s right! It finally came in! Photos were taken for the unboxing, but I will post them tomorrow. Battery is charging now. Hopefully I’ll go out and do some shooting tomorrow! Keep watching my Flickr for photo updates! The image above was taken with my current camera, a Canon Powershot SD960 IS. I put the new camera on a black t-shirt next to an cracked open door and lit the side with a photo on my iPhone. A 3 second exposure, I think.
So I finally decided to wait and buy the new Canon. Once I was sure I wanted a video DSLR I had planned on getting either the Pentax K-x or the popular Panasonic GH-1. I was just about to put in my order for the Panasonic when one of my buddies showed me the announcement for the new Canon. After a few days of agonizing over the thought of waiting weeks to get a new camera and starting on my planned projects I decided that the T2i was worth the wait. Now, I live in Japan so it took me awhile to find the name for this thing here. From here on out, I’m going to refer to all three models of the camera when I can, as they are the same thing. I will have the Japanese version, the Canon EOS Kiss X4. But trust me, it’s going to be exactly the same as your T2i or 550D.
My goal is to review the hell out of this camera.
I have a background in video but I love taking photos as well. I have never owned a DSLR, but I have had many SLRs in my life. I’ve shot with almost every pro and prosumer video camera there is, but I’m interested and excited about the new video DSLR revolution.
I’m going to document this entire process on this site. From the unboxing, testing, reviews, real world opinions, and my experience of owning my first DSLR. Tell me what you want to see or know and I’ll give it to ya!
