Video Hardware/Software Repsonses

How was your experience with the Olympus digital camera? How did it compare with other still or video cameras you have previously used? Were you able to successfully implement your Image Capturing Strategies using the features of this camera? In an ideal world, how would your still/video camera of choice function?

The Olympus camera is different from my cameras in size, medium of storage and format of images.

• Name, Megapixel, Medium of Storage, Format of Moving Image, Manual Focus
• OlympusDC, 4.0, xD-picture card, MOV, No
• Cannon DC, 3.2, CompactFlash card, MPEG,Yes
• Panasonic DV, 3.1, MiniDV tape, AVI, Yes

I have a Cannon digital still camera and a Panasonic digital video camera. The sizes of both of them are bigger than this Olympus camera. The Olympus is able to take images of higher resolution than my still camera, while it has less performance in manual mode compared to my Cannon. The Olympus records and exports moving images at MOV format, which is more suitable for transmission on the internet. My video camera records videos using MiniDV tape and the videos can be export at AVI format, which provides higher resolution of moving images than the Olympus. But the Olympus is more portable and provides enough storage space for its images, which is convenient for taking pictures at public areas for a long time. The images can be transfer to computers with USB cable in a simple way. But its batteries cannot support this camera for a long time if I keep using recording function, which is the most significant disadvantage.

It took me a couple minutes to know how to use the Olympus digital camera, but a couple weeks to know how to use it to catch ideal images. The Olympus digital camera is easy to carry and operate for general image capturing. I had no difficulty on implement my Images Capturing Strategies using the camera. I decided to capture images under artificial lights requiring no special function for general digital camera. I took some interesting pictures which have amazing visual effects that cannot be seen by human eyes.

If I need to choose a video camera for this class, my ideal camera would be a digital video camera featuring characteristics below:

• uses a hard drive for data storage
• has a similar size as a card
• enables manual focusing
• the batteries can support the camera for at least 24 hours after completed charging

Our demand on ability of image capturing for cameras can be endless. But even the finest camera would have its disadvantages. It is easier to improve the ability of artistic exploration by practice my skills at discovering beauty. So I don’t expect to discover interesting images only depending on cameras. Basically, I enjoyed using this Olympus camera to capture images for Drift_1 and Drift_2.


Discuss your choice of video-editing software and describe your history with this software. If you used this software for the first time, explain why you chose this particular application and how you think it helped you to accomplish your creative goals (or proved detrimental). Will you use this software again for future projects?

After I failed to use the video-editing software that I used before, I had to use Windows Movie Maker to edit my videos. I planned to use Ulead VideoStudio for my editing at the beginning. I used it to export videos from my digital video camera to computer and edit videos. It was simple easy to operate and functioned well in Windows XP. But When I installed Ulead in Windows Vista operation system, some problems about compatibility came out. I could not finish my editing at that condition and the software even shut down in the process of editing. I thought that there must be something wrong with Ulead software. But after I tried several video-editing programs and failed again and again, I found that it was the Windows Vista that made it impossible for editing in my laptop using them.

I had to use Vista’s Windows Movie Maker to complete the editing. The reason that I did not use Movie Maker at the beginning is that I was not familiar with it. Another reason was that it could not open and edit MOV files. So I need to convert MOV files to WMV files before editing. Movie Maker only allows me to export files in WMV format. I need to convert WMV files to MOV files to meet the requirement. Fortunately, I was able to download free converted software Prism Video Converter after I tried more than ten different ones in the internet.

Windows Movie Maker provides enough special effects and is also easy to operate. My experiment on video-editing software brings me experience. For general users, most of them are not difficult to operate and can be used to edit sophisticated videos. I had no problems on editing and converting after practice. Although the format of exported files did not meet the requirement exactly, they can be opened and played with Firefox and IE. I tried to fix this problem, but Prism Video Converter doesn’t provide H.264 at compression in Vista. I have only one option MPEG4 for compression.

I would like to change my operation system of my laptop if I need to edit videos. It is difficult to find compatible video-editing software that functions in Vista. I feel very frustrated that I didn’t devote more time and thoughts to editing videos because of trouble about video programs’ compatibility with operation system. Editing collected materials should be fun. But my experience on editing prepares me to face the difficulties in filmmaking in the future.

Technique-Person in Technical period

Software Response

Discuss your experiences with building your microphones. Was this process more or less what you thought it would be? How did your microphone rig work on your Drift walks? Were you able to capture both overall ambiance and extreme closeups? Describe your ideal microphone and recorder setup, with unlimited time and money.


I am pretty excited to report my experience with the building my microphones. Honestly, I have not done soldering before either for academy or entertainment purpose. At the beginning, I thought it is complicated and was worried that I would cut the metal wires inside. But at last I think it was not difficult at all and just need to be very carefully when you are working at the plastic clothes of the wires. I did the soldering correctly thanks to Glenn’s detailed protocol and Joe’s patience. I enjoyed the microphone building very much.


So far, my dear microphones have not been reported any problem with the recording. It so happens that two field recordings in my Drift_1 blog are ambient and extreme closeup sounds, respectably. I think the quality of these two pieces of recording proves that my microphones function greatly.


In my opinion, it is not money matters that how great the microphones would be. Although I understand that for different conditions, we need microphones which are able to catch one or several aspects specifically regarding the elements of sound. For instance, I have dreamed of that I own a recording studio which equipped with microphones recording sounds without the loss of low-pitched sound as possible as it can be. But for that case, I would probably have to find a sponsor in that the price of the microphone is very high. When it comes to setup, I would definitely refuse to operate a one-step-setup recorder. As we know that the sounds are vibrations of the sound resource which detected by the ears or microphones. Because of the loss in transmission, it is impossible for us to detect the vibration in one hundred percent. The most critical part in operation of recording is to adjust the recorder manually, so that we would not lose the interesting part and avoid the unwanted base. Without this selection, the sound would be probably not so attractive to us. It is also the reason that sometimes it is not the money matters but only a person who is observant for the recording.


How was your experience with operating the MiniDisc recorder? How does this recorder compare to other audio equipment you've used? In an ideal world, how would your recorder of choice function?


Maybe I am not experienced in recording, but I think that it is a little bit complicated in operation for a portable recorder. In detail, to record sounds is not hard, but to play the sound after recording is confused. And I am glad that the time for writing date is long enough for me to take a break in Soundwalk. After practice, I have no problem with either recording or processing of the files. As a matter of fact, to require the software for the converting guarantees the quality of exported files. Apparently, this recorder is much better than my mp3 player if it can be seen as a recorder. The files collected by mp3 are highly compressed for saving the storage space. When I was very young, I had tried the cassette recorder. It was good for that period only that we didn’t have outside microphones.


In an ideal world, I would pretty bear the writing speed and the operation of recording and playing, even though I have to convert the files before playing. My requirement would be the writing into the disc completely and the safe of the date. I hope that my ideal recorder could not only transfer the sound which microphones detect to the date completely, but also back up the date automatically.


Discuss the audio-editing software you chose and your history with this application. If you used this software for the first time, explain why you chose this particular application and how you think it helped you to accomplish your creative goals (or proved detrimental). Will you use this software again for future projects?


I use Audacity for the editing which is new for me in audio-editing. I used to cut the parts of my mp3 or wav files and join them together, so that I can listen to the best part of each song without changing the playlist. It is very simple to operate which you just select the parts and paste them to the soundtrack. That software is not professional enough in audio-editing. I also used a software named Cool edit which I can’t remember I what else I did except recoding sounds in computer.


It is Glenn’s recommendation and I think it is great as a free software. I have no idea why I need additional files to export my files in mp3 format. But usually the software which performs processing in advanced level need to do so. The audacity enables me to detect the sound files in a very graphic way, which means I can see how the sound is in extreme short time duration. To paste various pieces of sound is easy to operate. I can use the cross fade in and cross fade out to smooth the sounds. Basically, I can also edit the piece of sound in this duration freely. These functions allow me to compose my field recording. But right now, I am not familiar that how to reduce the base for the sound.


I would use audacity for future project because I am getting familiar with it. But I would consider other options which are more professional if I can afford to buy one.