Deven Rich » Technology

Tripple Screen Upgrade

admin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:33:37 +0000

Dual screen monitors was one of the best upgrades I have ever done. It’s a fact that they improve productivity let you have a much larger work space and are just plain cool. Recently I decided to make the plunge into triple screens. Having such a large desktop is defiantly amazing! It just may be the end to having to switch windows. Now having a triple screen pc, a laptop and an iMac all on one desk may be a little excessive.. but it definitely makes for one kick ass office.

Bootleg Snowbarding the Zi8 at BigWhite – literally!

admin — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:59:18 +0000

Today while going for a ride at Big White I decided to strap the Zi8 on to my boot/leg using some electrician tape and see what kinda shots i would get! This was shot at 720p@60fps however premiere only wanted to do 29fps so its down sampled a bit; However I don’t think you tube supports higher than 30fps so it all works out for now

This video just may be one of the more extreme tests for the Kodak Zi8′s built in image stabilization. In the near future i’m going to have to build some sort of a compact Steadicam

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxupvk8WIPs

Kodak Zi8 Test footage

admin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 03:56:22 +0000

After having the Kodak ZI8 for a while I made a few photos and while snowboaring at Big White ski resort. The video is pretty jerky and fast paced (a steady cam would of done wonders!) but it gives you a good idea of fast paced footage.

View from my room in the morning

Snowboarding above the clouds.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxwlzq00xAY

Note to self: find a steady cam!

To see the full review check out: Zi8 Review

Kodak Zi8 Review

admin — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 04:10:54 +0000

After a week or so of comparisons and watching countless demo videos I decided to take the plunge and order my new Zi8. About five days later I received it in the mail along with my 16 gig class 6 SD card. The Zi8 is extremely small for video camera standards. This may not be quite on part with full size video cameras but for its size I can’t complain.

The 16 SD card allows me to shoot about 2 hours and 50 minutes of video at 1080p or 720p @ 60fps. 720p @ 30fps allows you almost double the recoding time. After playing with multiple formats I have found 720p @ 60fps to be the ideal all around shooting mode. 1080p had a very crisp picture but I lacked the smooth playback that 60fps provided. Below is a video I shot at 720p@60fps of an original steam engine train.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOqkw7FuUMc

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGy-pvw8Pz0

The Zi8 also comes with a built in 5mp camera. Image quality on the camera is exceptional for a video camera providing you have lots of light and a steady hand. The zi8 wont exactly allow you to print out poster size pictures but it will defiantly suffice for internet or those in the moment snap shot pictures. The image below was shot of the same train on an overcast cloudy day. The originality image was 3072×1728 but was re-sized to 1200×675 for internet use.

Kettle Valley Train Steam Engine

Night videos / pictures were a little to grainy for my liking so make sure there is adequate lighting.

The image stabilization works fairly well, which is a definite plus. The Zi8 uses a digital image stabilization rather then optical which isnt the best but its better then any of the other pocket cameras I have seen. The shot below was taken zoomed in while driving down the road, its not actually crisp but not to bad considering the car I was in has extremely stiff suspensions and it was a very bumpy ride.

Zi8 Image Stabilization

The built in mic has decent quality but an external mic can make a huge difference. The older firmware (1.1-1.2) was known to have a slight high pitch sound in the back ground. This can be fixed in about 2 minuets with a simple frimware update.

All in all for 220$ cdn I am very pleased with this camera. The quality is excellent providing adequate lighting, and its perfect internet video and its small enough to have in your pocket to capture those random moments.