New Media Gear 018: Canon VIXIA HF R400 HD 53x Image Stabilized Optical Zoom Camcorder and 3.0 Touch LCD
I produce a number of blogs and video series/podcasts, so I had been looking to upgrade my current video cameras to something with a few more features and better ease of use. While my micro-four-thirds SLR camera did well with video, it was limited to how long it could record as one video clip and also lacked a reversible viewfinder so I could shoot videos without a camera operator.
Recently, I also had several New Media production opportunities come my way and an upgrade to full 1080p video quality was needed. I asked for recommendations from my social media followers and one of the first recommendations was this Canon camera. I found it for purchase locally and after trying it out, I decided to buy.
This camera has several features that I was looking for in a new camera:
Reversible viewfinder for single person shooting
SD Card video storage with the ability to record 1 hour + presentations as one clip
External mic input for lavaliere and shotgun microphones
1080p/60fps recording
MP4 recording, as well as AVHCD
This camera has all of these features, along with decent quality in low light situations and ease of use. I have now used it in 2 projects, as well as my weekly podcasts, and I find it to be capable and produce good quality video. Sure, you could spend a lot more money for a much better camera, but for my own needs and finances, this camera has proven to be an excellent choice. You can see some examples of the camera at work on my YouTube Channel.
Genuine Canon HD Video Lens with 53x Advanced Zoom and SuperRange Optical Image Stabilization
Canon 3.28 Megapixel Full HD CMOS Image Sensor and new DIGIC DV 4 Image Processor capture videos at 1920 x 1080 resolution and provide exceptional imaging performance
Record Full HD video directly to a removable SD memory card (SDHC/SDXC compatible) for fast and easy sharing of your memories.
1080/60p recording in MP4 (35 Mbps) and AVCHD Progressive (28 Mbps) for high quality capture of moving subjects
Houzz.com is one of my main sources for new thoughts on home and garden these days. I originally thought of it only as a way of finding home furnishing and design ideas, but I quickly discovered it also contains a huge amount of gardening and landscaping content, too. If you follow my social media accounts, you will find I am often sharing articles from Houzz.com. Sometimes these articles are about the design of a garden — both landscape and hardscape. At other times, there are great review articles of a particular type of plant or plants for specific uses and locations. This is one of the few sites where I subscribe to both the RSS feed and the Houzz.com Email Newsletter so I am sure to never miss a great article.
Houzz.com also has companion iPhone/iPad and Android apps for your mobile devices.
What are some of your favorite Subscriptions? Share them here in the comments!
Subscribed is a Careers in New Media series highlighting the Podcasts, YouTube Channels and Blogs that I follow on a daily basis. Check out this entry, and past entries, for some great New Media Content — Douglas
In my New Media Consulting business, I am often asked, “How do I get started? What should I blog about? When should I do it?” With most clients, the first place to start in developing some sort of editorial calendar for a blog begins with their very own personal calendar. The milestones in your calendar — those important events — are the beginning of any great blog.
While most people see their calendar as a reminder of upcoming events, each item on your calendar can and should drive various new media activities, as well. There are blog posts to be written and published weeks or even months ahead of the event itself. With such a ready supply of “content” for your blog, why not start here?
Both readers and search engines love a regular flow of content from blogs, podcasts and YouTube Channels. It will make them return again and again. It will lead them to subscribe to your mailing lists, RSS Feeds and Channels. When they do this, they are giving you permission to enter into their lives whenever you have something interesting to say. Do not abuse this permission, but also do not ignore their desire for new information, new content, new videos, etc.
The Calendar Blog Process
If you want to get started with your blog — or add more content to an existing blog — here is a process I use. It all begins with my calendar.
Find the next immediate event on your calendar that you want to share with others. For this event, and subsequent events, do most or all of these steps.
Look back 1 month, 1 week and 1 day before the event and place calendar reminders to post event information to your blog on these days.
Create blog posts noting these events. Included further information as it becomes available closer to the event
If possible, pre-write your blog posts and schedule them to automatically post on the appropriate day.
If the event is a ticketed/RSVP event, note when ticket sales and registration begin
It is as important to post this information, at this time, as the information/date of the actual event, as people may need to purchase tickets/RSVP quickly.
Create a blog post describing the event and linking to the Ticket/RSVP page
Post (or schedule the post) to appear on your blog 1 day before tickets go on sale or the RSVP list opens. (Watch this blog for an upcoming video on how to schedule posts for WordPress and Blogger blogs)
If your event is not ticketed, publish your first post about the event at least 1 month ahead or sooner if possible.
Typically this post is in the form of a “Save the Date” post with as many details as you can provide ahead of time.
Share photos, video and links from previous similar events, if you attended in the past
Remember to collect as much content as possible during each event, so that you have plenty of content to include for subsequent occurrences
Repeat this for every event in your calendar, creating a constant schedule of calendar items to drive regular posts on your blog and promote your activities.
Make a point of including these blog posting dates (1 month, 1 week, 1 day before) for each event as you add it to your calendar.
“Working in Reverse” will insure that you do not “forget” to promote your events in the future.
Schedule Followup Posts
Add an event to your calendar NO MORE THAN 1 WEEK, after. Post photos, videos and a recap of the event for those that could not attend.
General Rule: The longer photos and video stay in your camera, the LESS LIKELY you will be to post them
Followup recaps are, in some ways, even more important than the pre-event announcements, as they contain information and content for those who could not attend the actual event, as well as reminders of the information for those that did.
Recaps allow attendees to easily share your content with their audience. This allows you to effect an even wider audience.
Further Notes:
A badly promoted event is a waste of time for you and everyone involved
This is especially true if you are not being paid for the event. In these cases, promotion of yourself and your work may be the only payment you receive. Don’t squander this opportunity by failing to promote well.
Sometimes you may need to do the majority of the promotion if the event organizers do not promote it fully. It is in your own best interest to do so, even though it is extra work. Don’t rely on organizers.
Promote your events and activities — even if the public cannot attend — so that your blog readers can at least see and hear about your work
Post photos, video and notes about these events/share as much as you can
Give your readers a look “behind the scenes” whenever you can. This is very popular content for most readers.
Promote your colleagues and friends events using these methods and ask them to do the same with yours
When someone shares your content, they are willingly providing you access to their entire network. This often includes people who are unfamiliar with your work.
Everyone involved with an event should make a point to promote everyone else involved in that event. It greatly expands the audience exposed to your promotion.
Create pre-written blog posts, social media messages that people can cut and paste, ReTweet or Share. Reducing the work/friction involved in sharing makes it more likely that people will share your message.
It should be obvious that events are time sensitive. Do not miss the opportunity to fully promote your events. Put your promotion milestones in your calendar with as much importance as the event itself. Otherwise you may find yourself putting out great effort for very little reward.
It seems I am bouncing between my food subscriptions and my gaming subscriptions lately in this series. I guess that shows where my viewing preferences lie. The two categories are almost diametrically opposed and yet I enjoy them both deeply.
Total Biscuit lives up to his nickname of ” The Cynical Brit” in his reviews, let’s play videos and commentary. I think I like him so much because he is not afraid to be honest, sometimes brutally so. Of course, the British accent helps to make the, sometimes harsh, medicine go down. He engages in such honesty, though, to help make sure gamers have the best experiences possible with the games they buy, avoid the lousy ones and tell you when even a highly reviewed game is lacking in a few areas (witness his recent review of Bioshock Infinite.
Total Biscuit has a variety of regularly scheduled shows including the WTF is… series, which introduces you to new games on the market, The Content Patch, with gaming news and information. his lifestreams and his Starcraft II commentary of professional and amateur matches of that online game.
As always, my son introduced me to Total Biscuit and after watching a few episodes I subscribed on YouTube so all his shows appear in my daily newsfeed.
Subscribed is a Careers in New Media series highlighting the Podcasts, YouTube Channels and Blogs that I follow on a daily basis. Check out this entry, and past entries, for some great New Media Content — Douglas
I first discovered Michael Ruhlman via his book, “The Making of a Chef” where he details his journey through the program at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA). I never had a desire to be a chef but his story was so compelling that I actually checked out the textbooks used at the school to learn more about cooking — both food and technique. A short time later, I found his book, Wooden Boats: In Pursuit of the Perfect Craft at an American Boatyard, which immersed me in the world of boat making and the people who made their living there. I have found all his books compelling reads and it is amazing to see how his career has progressed over the intervening years. Finally, Ruhlman’s book, Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking opens an entirely new world of cooking where learning a few simple rations between ingredients can allow you to experiment widely in your own kitchen.
With my appreciation of his books, it only makes sense to follow Michael online, as well. Ruhlman.com has regular posts about a wide variety of food-related topics and I always appreciate seeing a new post appear in my feed reader. I am sure that that the fact that he is a fellow Ohio boy doesn’t hurt either. (SMILE)
From Ruhlman.com...
The best things in life happen when you get carried away. I went into a cooking school to write about what it means to be a chef, and instead I became a cook, got a job line cooking, lucked into one of the great restaurants of the world to work with the chef on his book, and I kept on writing about food. I got carried away, and it’s made all the difference.
What are some of your favorite Subscriptions? Share them here in the comments!
Subscribed is a Careers in New Media series highlighting the Podcasts, YouTube Channels and Blogs that I follow on a daily basis. Check out this entry, and past entries, for some great New Media Content — Douglas
I posted this to Facebook and Twitter earlier, but wanted to include it here on the blog, too.
Camera Rec: Looking for HD cam with external mic input that records to SD Card. High consumer to low prosumer. Any thoughts?
I have some upcoming projects that call for an upgrade in my video camera equipment (and lights and microphones, etc), so I wanted to reach out to all of you to see what recommendations you might have. One of my main needs is some sort of external audio input for lavaliere and shotgun mics.
So far, I have received one recommendation over on Faceboook. I will add others as they come in. Be sure to chime in on the other recommendations if you have some further information or comments.
Here is a quick tip on how to revert to a previous version of a WordPress Post or Page. You won’t need this option very often, but when you need it, it will be critical. This tip works with both WordPress.com and self-hosted installs of WordPress.
Another great source of recipes for my never-ending desire for great cookie recipes — along with other recipes I can put to use in my own life. Joy the Baker always turns of a regular supply. I recently shared this Joy the Baker recipe for Honey Chamomile Soda that I came across a week or so ago. I am planning on trying to make a sparkling version of it when I have a few moments.
Here’s how Joy describes herself…
“I’m Joy. I’m a baker. Had you guessed as much?
I’m currently hurtling into my thirties, trying to show the world, and my kitchen, what’s what.
I’m a self taught/ family taught/ taste buds taught baker.
I grew up in the kitchen in between my father, who makes a mean Sweet Potato Pie, and my mother, who makes a really weird purple hot dog casserole… don’t ask. Between my kitchen loving parents, the clinking cake pans, and the flying flour, it became clear that baking is in my blood.
I live in Los Angeles, by the beach. That’s where I do a majority of my living, working, eating, cocktailing and related horsing around.”
Check out Joy the Baker. Add it to your favorite feed reader. I think you will find some very interesting stuff there.
What are some of your favorite Subscriptions? Share them here in the comments!
Subscribed is a Careers in New Media series highlighting the Podcasts, YouTube Channels and Blogs that I follow on a daily basis. Check out this entry, and past entries, for some great New Media Content — Douglas
I am not a big player of first person shooter (FPS) games, but many games these days have excellent story lines and watching an excellent player work their way through the game can take on some aspects of watching a television or movie drama. Frankie takes this to a new level with both a critical eye towards the games themselves and excellent commentary that actually adds something to the game itself. His video quality is also top notch and looks great on our new HD LCD tv.
One of Frankie’s latest play through is the new game BioShock: Infinite. This game looks absolutely gorgeous in its art design and the game play, while a bit gory, is excellent too. It is a pleasure to watch Frankie’s play though of this and absorb the story through his actions.
Frankie also does a lot of videos of DayZ, a zombie scenario FPS based mod for the ARMA II engine. In these playthroughs he engages in a bit of role play and storyline which adds a lot to the videos.
If you are wondering what the state of the art is in gaming today, Frankie’s videos are a great place to start.
What are some of your favorite Subscriptions? Share them here in the comments!
Subscribed is a Careers in New Media series highlighting the Podcasts, YouTube Channels and Blogs that I follow on a daily basis. Check out this entry, and past entries, for some great New Media Content — Douglas
This recording from BarCampLA-3 is a great introduction to podcasting, so I wanted to re-release it for those who may have missed it when it first appeared. I talk about recording, web hosting and podcast hosting, RSS feeds and more.
I saw an announcement today from Flipboard, that their latest version for iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) now allowed users to curate their own magazines and make them available for other Flipboard users. This is accomplished through the a new content curation and search system in the app or via a web bookmarklet.
A complete description of this new feature can be found in this blog post on the Flipboard site:
To test out the new features, I created magazines for each of my blogs and loaded the last several posts into them. Here are some screenshots from the iPhone version of the Flipboard app.
To use the Flipboard +FlipIt (Add to Magazine) bookmarklet, you first drag the bookmarklet to your Bookmark Bar. Then load up the blog post or web page you wish to add to the magazine and click the bookmarklet. The screen below then allows you to create a new magazine, select an existing magazine and also share it to various social media sites.
One complaint on the publisher side is that Flipboard users cannot easily discover and add these new magazines to their Flipboard. They must do a search on the name or author of the magazine and then add it from there. I think a one-touch solution would be better for both the publisher and the end user.
New Media Gear 017: Blue Microphones Icicle XLR to USB Mic Converter/Mic Preamp
This is another piece of podcasting and audio recording gear that I have seen mentioned numerous times. It has been around for a while but could still be an interesting piece of gear for new podcasters.
The Blue Icicle allows you to convert any standard XLR connected microphone into a USB microphone that can be plugged directly into your computer. This a great way of providing some flexibility in where and how you use your microphones. It also allows you to start off with the more standard XLR mics so that you don’t have to upgrade from a USB only mic as your podcasting work grows.
“In computing, a web widget is a software widget for the web. It’s a small application with limited functionality that can be installed and executed within a web page by an end user. A widget has the role of a transient or auxiliary application, meaning that it just occupies a portion of a webpage and does something useful with information fetched from other websites and displayed in place. Other terms used to describe web widgets include:[citation needed] portlet, web part, gadget, badge, module, webjit, capsule, snippet, mini and flake. Widgets are typically created in DHTML, JavaScript, or Adobe Flash.
Widgets often take the form of on-screen device (clocks, event countdowns, auction-tickers, stock market tickers, flight arrival information, daily weather etc.).” — Wikipedia.org
Widgets are an important part of any web site these days. Myself alone I use widgets of some sort on nearly any page of my blogs or web site. I use them to link to Amazon books, cookbooks from Cookbook Cafe, show off my Twitter follower, Facebook or Google+ follower numbers and much more. Widgets allow anyone, regardless of their prowess with HTML, include high-end (and very useful features) on their web sites without having to write their own programs.
YouTube videos which are embedded in blogs and web sites are another great use for a “widget.” Bloggers need only copy the provided code from YouTube and then paste that code into their pages or blog post. These “embeds” allow the easy spreading of content while still rewarding the original content creator.
When sharing YouTube videos, we often just link to the entire video and let people decide what they want to watch. While this is fine for short videos, sometimes we would rather refer people to just a specific portion of a much longer video. Perhaps we are highlighting a quote, tip or idea.
YouTube provides some basic tools for specifying a start time when linking or embedding a video, but with the addition of a few parameters to the video URL, you can direct viewers to a very specific segment.
For example, if you are linking or embedding a video, you will see these options on the YouTube page:
If you check the checkbox, you can either enter in a time, or the time will be taken from the point where you are currently viewing in the video.
This results in a URL in the form of: http://youtu.be/E-GekEZOwLQ?t=11m54s . The video will start playing at this point and continue unit the end.
If you want want to specify both a start and end time, then you will need to add a few different parameters to the YouTube URL.
This could link people to the appropriate video, launch it full screen and start playing at the appropriate spot when they click Play.
To embed a video in your blog or web page which does the same thing, you can include the start and end parameters in the standard YouTube iframe embed code.
First, copy the standard embed code from the YouTube video page:
Then add the start and end parameters, so that the code looks like this:
While making these embeds of specific video section does require adding a little information to the standard embed, it should be straightforward enough for anyone to accomplish.
Do you have further questions about YouTube linking and embedding? Add your questions and comments below and I will add additional information.
New Media Gear 016: Peter Lythgoe of Zzipp and Co. Podcast from Weymouth, UK (Part 3 of 3)
Peter is the producer and host of the Zzipp and Co. Podcast and uses a variety of equipment in producing his shows. He was kind enough to break out his equipment in 3 parts, including hist audio studio equipment, his video interview equipment and the equipment for the video studio he is currently building. Since her has so much equipment to share, I will present his New Media Gear in 3 parts, too. This posts details Peter’s studio equipment.
New Media Gear 015: Audio-Technica ATR2100-USB Cardioid Dynamic USB/XLR Microphone
I first heard about this microphone from Richard Cleveland over at Naked Ape Productions during one of his Podcast U panel discussions. I mentioned this microphone to my personal friend, Michael Lawshe, who is an expert in all things audio (and multi-Emmy Award winner) and he happened to drop one by when we met for dinner last night.
The microphone package include the mic itself, a mic clip and small plastic mic stand, an XLR microphone cable and a USB cable. As you might notice from the cables included, the ATR2100-USB, has a special feature which I have not seen in many other microphones. Instead of being a USB-only mic like the Blue Snowball or Rode Podcaster, the ATR2100 includes connections and electronics so it can be used either as a USB microphone connected directly to your computer with out a mixing board or as a standard dynamic microphone connected via XLR to a mixer.
This dual connectivity makes this a great mic for those who are just getting started in podcasting or other audio recording and yet allows them to step up to a mixing board and other equipment while still using the same microphone. Additionally, when recording with USB-only microphones, real time monitoring of your recording can be a problem due to the USB induced processing delay. The ATR2100-USB works around this issue by including a headphone jack directly on the microphone itself, so you can easily monitor in real time even when connected via USB. Other USB microphones have included this much needed feature in the past, such as the Rode Podcaster, and it is great to see other manufacturers alleviating the monitoring issue with their designs. I know for myself that it is very important to be able to monitor myself as I record. It helps me to catch mumbled words, overly fast speech and poor pronunciations which I might not notice otherwise.
As a demonstration, I have recorded this blog post as an audio podcast, too, so you can hear the microphone in a real world situation using both the USB and XLR modes.
Everything up to here has been recored using the USB connection on the ATR2100. Now I will switch to the XLR connection using my small mixing board.
As with any handheld mic, shock isolation js important. You don’t want to pick up any noise from your hand on the microphone itself. This is often where many less expensive microphones and recorders with built-in mic fail greatly. As you can hear, I am moving the microphone around in my hand and while it is picking up a bit of noise, if you hold the mic firmly you might not notice it at all. The included plastic mic clip and tabletop mic stand is enough for most beginners to get started, although most would probably want to move up to a more robust, metal, stand fairly quickly.
Unfortunately, the headphone level form the microphone was at a very low level for my own personal tastes. I would prefer much more volume when recording and playing back what I have recorded. The mic has a headphone volume control, but it did not seem to the effect the output volume much at all. Instead the volume control seemed to be trying to change the overall volume on my Macintosh.
The recording level was quite good even when placed on a desktop at some distance from my mouth. If you want more input level, of course, you can move closer to the mic although then you would want to use a pop filter cut down on the popping sounds of consonants and plosives like P’s and B’s. In this podcast I have used the mic at a fairly close proximity and included the use of a pop filter.
Based on my short time with the microphone, and recommendations from others, I would consider this a great microphone for its price. Amazon currently lists it for around $40 US. I have been impressed with the overall recording quality even here in this rough demonstration. I haven’t taken any time to really adjust the microphone in any way, but simply plugged it in, adjusted the recording level and made this recording using Apple’s GarageBand software.
If you’d like more information on the ATR2100-USB, you can find links not the web site as part of this blog post. Visit DouglasEWelch.com/newmedia/ to find them.
Handheld dynamic microphone with USB digital output and XLR analog output
USB output connects to your computer for digital recording, while the XLR output connects with your sound system conventional microphone input for use in live performance
Smooth, extended frequency response ideally suited for podcasting, home studio recording, field recording, voiceover, and on-stage use
Built-in headphone jack allows you to directly monitor your microphone output without audible delay
Cardioid polar pattern reduces pickup of unwanted sounds from the sides and rear
Dynamic Microphone With Usb Digital Output & Xlr Analog Output
Usb Output Connects To Computer For Digital Recording, While The Xlr Output Connects With Sound System’S Conventional Microphone Input For Use In Live Performance
Built-In Headphone Jack With Volume Control
If you have any questions about Peter’s podcasting equipment, please drop them in the comments or in the Facebook Podcasting Community.