So I am going to try to do some video logging, VLOGGING, video blogging, whatever the heck it is called
Having spoken at some length with Will Crockett, a consummate video blogger / logger, I think I am ready to give it a try. My first foray is nothing particularly interesting, more of a rambling experiment with audio and video in very low light. That is, in a room lit by my two monitors and nothing else.
The video feed comes from the Panasonic Lumix G5 with the Sigma 19mm 2.8 prime lens on it. A truly delicious setup for video blogging. The secondary feed is a terribly out of focus Logitech 200 web camera, somehow put totally out of focus just as I started shooting. I only cut to it once, just to show how bad the video looks (my fault, not Logitech’s.)
The audio comes from a mix of the web cam, the camera and a TASCAM DR-05 personal audio recorder. All three together sound quite expansive, but the small micro SDHC card on the TASCAM fills up about 1/3 the way through and the audio feed fails, taking (inexplicably) the web cam audio with it. This leaves the G5 audio only, which I clean up with equalizer and reverb in Vegas. Sounds great after that.
All in all, a fun little project. I plan to do some shorter and more pointed future blogs that show some of my projects, including the concert shooting in bars and shooting Mary’s crazy cats in a living room with very little light. Available light is where it’s at, because most of us have neither the time nor the inclination to professionally light our videos. We just want to point the camera and get something nice out of it.
Recommendations I make in this vide include:
- Use a tripod if you are blogging or shooting an interview as it looks much better
- Use a fast prime lens if you are shooting in lower light, the results will amaze you
Enjoy … or not, as you wish
