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This Week in Digital Imaging: New cameras from Samsung and Olympus
This week brought us four new cameras and an update to Adobe's Photoshop CS4.
After last week's avalanche of 26 new digital cameras, and with PMA set to start in just a few days, this week was comparatively light for new digital camera announcements. Samsung did announce three unique consumer cameras, and Olympus announced a new digital SLR.
Here's a rundown of all the new cameras and news for the week. As always, if you're interested in a particular camera model, click on the link beside it to see to a full product page and description.
Starting Monday we'll have updates on all the new cameras announced at the PMA conference, so be sure to check back for all camera goodness than you can possibly handle.
Profile pages: HDMI, Megapixel, Samsung, LCD, 720p, MP3, Digital SLR Camera, Adobe, AMOLED, Olympus, Olympus E-series, Samsung TL series, Optical Zoom, Samsung TL320, Samsung HZ15W, Olympus E-620, Samsung CL5
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10 tips for shooting fabulous home videos
Tips and tricks on everything from lighting to sound to make your home videos look their best.
You've finally bought yourself a camcorder and are ready to record any and every family event possible. Before you become the official family videographer, here are some tips to make sure every video you shoot is of the finest caliber.
1. Read the Manual
We get it, you don't read instruction books. You can put together puzzles without ever looking at the picture on the box. You "never" read the manual for your Blu-ray player, digital camera, or television and those work perfectly why should you start reading the manual for something as simple as your camcorder?
Camcorder manuals can give you a lot of insight on how your camcorder works. That actually will come handy when it comes time to use it. Sure, you can just press the
record button and shoot videos, but those videos will probably look a whole lot better if you know how to white balance your camcorder properly and what kind of scene settings and manual options are available to you. You don't have to read the whole thing, but at least skimming through the features section (and maybe keeping the manual in your camcorder bag for reference) can improve the quality of your videos.2. Take it out for a test run
Remember those manual options and scene settings we were just talking about? The ones you're going to read about in your manual? It's always a good idea to try all of those out (and watch the results) before you pull your camcorder out to shoot something important. For instance, you don't want your daughter's high school graduation to be the first time you use the indoor setting. Take a few minutes and record some video inside your house in normal lighting, with the lights off, and outside to get a feel for what the video if going to look like, and what you can do to improve it.
3. Buy a TripodEven if you're the stillest person on the planet, you still move up and down ever so slightly when you breathe, and if you're holding a camcorder in your hand chances are your hand is also going to move up and down a little bit as well.
While a little shaking when you're shooting a short event can be fine, when it comes to recording longer things like basketball games, graduations, and band concerts they can start to look a bit like a roller coaster ride if you're trying to record everything handheld, and can be nauseating for an audience to watch come playback time. Buying a tripod, and more importantly using it can make your videos look dramatically better.
When you're recording something like a school play or concert try to get to the event early and secure a place in the rear or off to the side where you'll be able to set up your tripod and not obstruct the view of others. Shooting from a tripod can also allow you to take a set and enjoy the event while the recording is going on. Watchable video and you get to sit down? Sounds like a win-win situation for everyone!
4. Keep Your Zooming to a Minimum
Much like shooting a video handheld for too long, zooming in and out excessively while recording a video can make the entire experience nauseating for your viewers. Since no one likes it when grandma vomits in the livingroom, if you need to zoom in on a particular action try to do so sparingly.
For things like sports, where the action is constantly changing it's often better to go for a medium shot that has a few players at a time rather than zoom in on an individual or a ball that will very quickly move out of the frame. The same rule can also apply for school plays, concerts and the like. If the action is always changing, then you want to frame your shot in such a way that you'll always catch everything that is going on. If you're zoomed in on an actor on the left hand side of the stage then you'll miss another's fantastic entrance from the right. In the case of video, bigger shots are often better ones.
5. Let There Be LightOne of the biggest problems consumer camcorders have is poor low-light performance. If you're recording something indoors doing something as simple as turning on your overhead lights could make for a huge improvement in your video quality.
If you don't have an overhead light available try opening the curtains on the windows, or turning on nearby lamps. Your video will thank you for it, we promise.
6. Pass on Special Effects
Most camcorders have options built-in that allow you to record video in black and white, pastels, or sepia tone. Some camcorders even have options where you can add fades in-between shots or even type out sweet messages like "Happy Graduation" on the screen.
The best thing to do with all these fabulous special effects options is to forget they're even there and save all the special effects for the video editing program on your computer.
The biggest reason for waiting to do all the effects later is you can undo them in a video editing program if you don't like them. While shooting the school play in black and white may sound like a great idea at the time, it might not turn out the way you'd like. If you have a color original then you can do anything with the video; if you shoot something in crazy colors then you're going to lock yourself into that look forever.
7. Keep Rolling
Speaking of editing — if you plan on editing your video after you shoot it then the longer you can make your shots the better. Some camcorders are going to take a second from when you press the record button to when they actually start recording so it can be good to at least give yourself a few seconds from when you press record to when what you want to capture actually begins. Having a little pad at the end of the action can make it much easier to add transitions and cut the video down when it comes time to edit it. If you start recording too late, or stop to early you risk missing something you wanted to capture. It's almost always better to keep things safe and shoot a little longer.
8. Use a Microphone
While the built-in microphones in some camcorders can be pretty decent, nothing can beat the sound of using an external microphone for your sound. If you think you're going to record things like interviews or other one-on-one activities then a moderately priced microphone can be an excellent investment. There are quite a few reasonably priced lavaliere microphones available now that can transmit sound to your camcorder wirelessly and that are small enough they probably won't be noticeable in your shots.
If you don't want to buy a microphone (or in situations where you simply can't mic everything going on) try to cut out as much ambient noise as possible. That might mean turning down or turning off nearby music, unplugging the fan or air conditioner for a second, or even moving your shot to a quieter location. Even the smallest sounds can turn into big ones when you're using your built-in microphone. The more you can cut out around you, the better your audience will be able to hear and focus on what you're actually trying to record.9. Go Behind the Scenes
Instead of shooting static video of an event, try talking to people about what's going on. Sure it'll be great to have video of your kids opening Christmas presents on Christmas morning, but it would be even better to have video of dad trying to put together the trampoline at three in the morning, or have an interview the night before with the kids on what they're hoping to find under the tree in the morning.
Interviews can go a long way in home movies. No one wants to watch a 45-minute video of a birthday party, but everyone will be interested to hear what the party guests had to say. Filming what goes on before the party gets started and what people's thoughts and anticipations are about the event can make your videos much more memorable.
10. Don't Get Stuck Behind the Camera
Home videos are great, but they're no substitution for actually participating in an event — and no one likes to have a camera shoved in his or her face paparazzi style at every family function. Try to limit your video camera time, and pass the camera around to different family members. That way everyone gets a chance to be part of the action and you get to see things from a different perspective.
Profile pages: Blu-ray, Digital zoom, Zoom lens, Optical Zoom
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Apple deletes non-customer reviews from the App Store
The company has finally deleted old app reviews written by people who had never downloaded or used the apps in question.
Apple has finally deleted all the reviews in the App Store that were written by people who never downloaded the applications.Back in the beginning, the Apple App Store's review system allowed anyone and everyone to write a review for any available application regardless of whether or not that person had actually bought or used it. The result: quite a few negative reviews being placed on some applications by people who for all intents and purposes didn't know what they were talking about.
In September Apple caught on, and made it a requirement that you actually download an application before leaving any sort of comment about it. However, they failed to remove any of the reviews that had already been posted by non-customers until yesterday. SEGA's Super Money Ball saw its number or reviews drop from 4197 to 3710 — that's a pretty huge drop.
That means if you read a review of an application in the store now you stand a much better chance of reading something written by someone who has actually used and has some knowledge of the application rather than something by a commenter who may have no clue what the app even is. While much lighter, the review system is more accurate now and overall a better tool for shoppers.
What's your favorite application for the iPhone or iPod Touch? Have you reviewed it in the App Store?
Around the web: MacRumors : Mac News and Rumors (3 comments)
, theappleblog.com (8 comments) , iLounge Profile pages: Apple iPhone, Apple iPhone 3G, Apple, Apple iTunes, Apple iPod touch, iPhone apps, Apple App Store
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Digg working on its own toolbar
The new toolbar would work similarly to toolbars created by StumbleUpon and TinyURL.
Digg is reportedly looking to make its way onto your web browser through a new Digg-branded toolbar. The toolbar has been under Digg's super-secret development, but like most things here on the interwebs has finally leaked out to the public by a beta tester.
According to the tester, the new toolbar will allow you to instantly "Digg" or "Bury" a page you're looking at as well as show you how many Diggs the page might have already received. The toolbar has a link to show you pages related to the one you're looking at, and has a "Random" button for when you're feeling adventurous and want to check out something new, much like to StumpleUpon.
If you stumble upon something you want to share with the masses Digg has added functionality for sharing links via Twitter, Facebook, and email with all shared links coming up as http://digg.com plus a six character code that's similar to a TinyURL, rather than the actual original URL.
Around the web: TechCrunch (12 comments)
, news.cnet.com (1 comment) , pulse2.com Profile pages: web browser, Facebook, Digg Inc., Twitter, digg, StumbleUpon
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Facebook shares insight on user behavior
According to Facebook, even users with 500 friends still only talk to a few people on a regular basis.
In a recent interview with The Economist, Cameron Marlow, a research scientist at Facebook, gave out a lot of interesting facts about the social behavior of people who use Facebook.One of the biggest things Marlow pointed out was that while quite a few people have hundreds of friends on their Facebook list they're typically only communicating with a select few of them on a regular basis. In most cases people are only talking to 10% or less of their Facebook friends and simply broadcasting their lives to the other 90%.
It makes an interesting observation about how we all interact with others on social networking sites. In many ways our long friends lists are meant as either status symbols to prove how popular we are, or are made up primarily of people who were essentially stalk on the internet without ever interacting with.
You can check out some more of Marlow's findings after the break, summarized by Inside Facebook.
Around the web: Inside Facebook
, Waxy.org Links , arnoldit.com Profile pages: Social networking, Facebook, Facebook
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Google Street View adds user photos
Now you can look at user-submitted photos of popular locations in addition to the existing Google Street View pictures.
Starting today you'll be able to get an even closer look at locations using Google Street View. The service has added a new option that allows you to look at not only the Google Street View photos but also user-submitted photos of popular areas that have been uploaded to the Google-owned site photo site Panoramio.
The pictures have been precisely-matched to the existing Street View images of the locations so when you're looking at an existing image you can click on the user submitted photos to take you a bit closer, or to look at an area from a different perspective. Right now the service is limited to exceptionally popular places such as Times Square and the Eiffel Tower where Panarimo had a great deal of pictures, but it would be great to see it extend elsewhere long-term.
You can check out a video showing how the new user photo option works after the break.
Around the web: googlesystem.blogspot.com (1 comment)
Profile pages: Google, Google Maps, Google Maps
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Barack Obama ditches Twitter
Although very active on the site before the election, the president hasn't used Twitter once since he was inaugurated.
Since the early days of his campaign Barack Obama has always had a pretty solid online presence. The president pretty actively used Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter throughout his campaign to speak to voters, and now has Recovery.gov to help the public understand where all the stimulus money is going.
Before the election Obama's Twitter account had over 300,000 followers and over 264 updates. His tweets typically talked about where he was holding rallies, where you could check out live feeds of events, and encouraged people to get out an vote. Since he was inaugurated however, Obama hasn't used Twitter at all. His last tweet was on January 19th and encouraged people to volunteer in their area to honor Dr. Martin Luther King.
You would expect a president who does a weekly YouTube address to be able to keep up with typing 140 characters to the general public every now and then. Looking at his past tweets, they were more than likely all written by an intern or someone working with the campaign rather than Obama himself, but what happened to that person?
Twitter is growing in popularity everyday, in fact some people are referring to it as the "new YouTube" and perhaps long-term a rival for Google. It seems like it would be a great place to keep the public informed about what's going on in government, so it's interesting that Obama has suddenly gone silent.
Are you one of the 300,000 following Barack Obama on Twitter? Do you miss his tweets?
Around the web: Gadgetwise
, The Blog Herald , John Battelle's Searchblog (3 comments) Profile pages: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Twitter, Inc., tweet
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iTunes launches an indie music store
The new section features music and videos by independent artists as well as a free weekly podcast.
Apple has launched a new "Indie Spotlight" section of the iTunes store. The new section is still in its "soft launch" phase, and has a section for "New & Noteworthy" artists, videos, and tracks from bands that are currently on tour within the indie rock community.
One especially useful section of the page if you're an indie music fan is the "Podcast Gems" section. iTunes has launched its own free weekly podcast specifically for the "Indie Spotlight" which promotes tracks by its featured artists of the week. Unfortunately, unlike some music podcasts that play an entire track for you, the Indie Spotlight (at least the singer/songwriter one) only plays small snippets of the songs, which can get confusing and annoying in a pretty short period of time.
However, the podcast section does link to several other decent podcasts that are well worth listening to and which offer some insight into the world of indie music as opposed to just a mashup of 20-second clips from a pile of albums iTunes is trying to push.
Just poking around in the Indie Spotlight section for a few minutes you're bound to find someone new you've never heard of, and might even like. It will be interesting to see what iTunes decides to do with the section long-term. Most of the artists are currently listed under different genres of music, so it seems like the page is going to just be an additional place their music is located within iTunes. What sorts of features would you like to see iTunes add to the section?
Around the web: prefixmag.com (9 comments)
, arstechnica.com Profile pages: Apple, Apple iTunes, Podcast, Apple iTunes
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Blu-ray prices could see a drop with a new joint-licensing agreement
A "one-stop-shop license" deal between Panasonic, Philips, and Sony could help lower the cost of Blu-ray.
Panasonic, Philips, and Sony have announced plans to establish a "one-stop-shop license" for Blu-ray products as well as DVDs and CDs. The new system is expected to be launched later this year and will provide companies a single point of contact for obtaining licenses for content.That's all well and good, but what does all it mean for you? The idea is that if companies can simplify and reduce the cost of licensing products then they'll be able to not only produce more products, but be able to pass some of those savings along to the consumer as well.
The new system is expected to make the current rate of licensing Blu-ray discs 40% lower than the current cumulative royalty rates for individual Blu-ray, DVD, and CD format licenses. Long-term that could mean you see a better selection of more affordable movies and music at the store.
Around the web: CrunchGear (101 comments)
, japancorp.net -
Gmail users get attacked by a phishing scam
A new scam asks you to give up your Gmail logon credentials so it can ask all your friends to do the same.
Shortly after suffering a three-hour service outage yesterday morning, Gmail users then became the target of a phishing scam.In typical phishing form, the phishers send you a link to the site ViddyHo that asks you to enter your login credentials for Gmail. Once you give them your Gmail credentials they then use your account to send the same message out to all your friends. If your friends click on the link and provide their credentials then you eventually end up with a pretty elaborate mess of people, all of whom have passed out their info to good old ViddyHo.
It goes without saying, but you should never give out your Gmail logon and password to any site you don't know and trust, and especially not a site you are taken to through a peculiar IM.
If you've already fallen victim to ViddyHo (or another service for that matter) your best plan of action is to change your password as soon as you can, otherwise there's no telling what else ViddyHo plans on doing while its posing as you.
Around the web: Mashable! (11 comments)
, ReadWriteWeb , venturebeat.com , GottaBeMobile.com , Bits (48 comments)
Sony PS3 Slim image gallery
