Video on the agenda

I do not have a photo to brighten this blog today because I have been busy with the video editing computer and with different video cameras. My latest treasure (had since Christmas) is a tiny little video camera the size of a mobile phone that takes full hi-definition video in NTSC format. I live in an area that is within the PAL system of TV so it does seem a little strange that I should have a video camera that is for a different system. The reason is that I bought (sorry, was given!) the camera for a specific purpose. That purpose is for taking short video snapshots to share on Youtube.
I have also found that this little camera is adequate for taking shots of my little granddaughters and putting the footage on DVD for them to play back over and over and over! They think it is fantastic!
On Sunday I used the Nikon D90 video feature to take video of the children when we had fun on the exercise gadgets for joggers in one of the parks we visited. This video is in PAL format and to be quite honest the quality is not a patch on that from the JVC pocket cam. The picture appears to be made up of colour blocks and although is supposed to be full HD I had to check the settings to be sure I had not set it at 720p rather than 1080i - but it was on 1080i. The sound from the Nikon is better than that from the JVC pocket cam and the kids will enjoy the content regardless of what camera was used. I wont be using the Nikon again for video after seeing it rendered to DVD.
The video I have just uploaded to youtube was taken with the pocket cam - and as with any camera with no viewfinder I was not always able to see what I was getting in the screen! I had not realised that I had some bad sun flare at one point but I left that bit in the video because I happened to be talking to the camera while shooting. Here is the link to that video. (just click on the hyper-linked words!)
I managed to make three short videos today. I can recommend "Adobe Premiere 9" as a very easy program to use - you can make a video in next to no time!  (after a bit of practice!)
AJ

change of settings

Just sharing the results of changing the Settings in Steve's little Sony hd camcorder,the settings were on standard and everything was quite "woolly" even when viewed in the LCD screen, The camera is now set to High Quality and while it is still only VHS quality when viewed on a TV it is a lot better than when it was on the other setting!

This camera shoots in mpg format which is a compressed format. When any editing is done it is compressed even further. Digital video on tape is a large .avi file and is sharp, movement is smooth and the only thing better is hi-def. When digital video is edited and exported to DVD (which is the accepted format for sharing) it is converted to a compressed format - mpg and quality is lost.
The cameras are improving all the time but the better quality is lost once it is put onto DVD. By the time we can all afford blueray burners and players the shooting quality will once more be higher and the same annoyance will be there!
AJ