Camera Advice

[Charlie Cogar]

Thanks, Alf.

That is a bit pricey. I need a quick solution (which I hope will be found in the famed “bin”), as I just persuaded a spanish instructor that the Zi8 meets her needs.

I also just armed a horticultural instructor with the new Sony Bloggie. I believe its touch-screen technology gets one bound up in functions and will distract from the work at hand. The instructor was wowed by it so I’ll be interested in his experience. (The Sony Bloggie will not accept an external mic, which was the “buy” decision on the Zi8.)

Kind regards,

Charlie Cogar
Omaha, Nebraska, home of the Sharpened Snow Shovel.

[Mark Suszko]

Viewers forgive less than perfect visual quality, but they will not sit still for bad audio, at all. The Zi8 thus makes a lot of sense for having the external mic output. Even a wireless lav from Radio Shack will get better audio at twenty feet away than any built-in mic, with a better signal-to-noise ratio.

[Charlie Cogar]

YouTube has certainly lowered the bar to new heights for video quality, yet nearly everything has decent audio.

I adopted an orphaned Radio Shack model 33-3013 6′ wired lav. The price was right (free), and a new battery did the trick.

Easy solutions prepare us for hard problems!