Video
Fun Booth 2 Review
Aug 22nd
If there’s one feature of the Mac where my friends and family are concerned that is a huge hit, it’s Photo Booth using my built-in iSight. Even those who are the most camera shy can’t wait to sit down infront of the webcam and have their faces distorted. I’m always amazed at how well received it is.
I came across Fun Booth 2 some weeks ago which, rather than distorting your face like the built-in Photo Booth effects, gives you a whole heap of props to throw on to your head and face. The most interesting part of this is the advanced face detection so rather than placing a pair of sunglasses onto the screen and you having to adjust your position to make them look like they’re sitting on your nose, the software does that for you and if you move around, the glasses will stay where they should on your face which makes it ideal for video chatting – and for the kids who won’t stay still!
As you can see from the interface above, it’s very much like Photo Booth. The Inspector window contains all the props such as eyewear, facial hair, headwear, masks and objects. You can choose to wear one prop at a time, or combine props so you could be wearing glasses, a beard and a hat all at the same time.
When you have taken silly photos of yourself you can browse through them through the built-in Photo and Video Library which is beautifully designed and send them via e-mail, right within the application itself, aswell as send to iPhoto, Flickr or via FTP.
If you record video of yourself wearing the props then you can upload that directly to YouTube, once again right within the app.
You can even use the props in realtime when video chatting in iChat.
As yet my friends and family haven’t had the opportunity to enjoy Fun Booth 2, otherwise you’d be seeing them in the screenshots instead of the yellow guy – and believe me, face detection works much better on a human face. But, I know they are going to love it as the Fun Booth iPhone/iPod touch app was very well received when I downloaded it 7 days ago. Like it’s big OS X brother, the iPhone app has face detection and gets it spot on. From within the app you can then e-mail your photos, assign to a contact or upload it to Twitter and Flickr.
Fun Booth 2 for Mac OS X costs $19.99 but a free trial before you buy is available.
Fun Booth for iPhone/iPod touch costs $0.99/59p – iTunes link.
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Loading ...Wondershare Video to iPhone Giveaway
Aug 20th
Passing on an interesting retweet today (see, they do happen occasionally) for free video to iPhone conversion software. The offer is valid between August 10th and September 10th 2009.
Wondershare Video to iPhone Converter for Mac is an ideal tool that can convert various video formats including MPEG1, MPEG2, MP4, 3GP, FLV, AVI, WMV, AVCHD (MKV, TS, MTS, M2TS, TP, TRP, MOD, TOD), etc. to iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPhone OS 3.0 on Mac. The output files also can be played on iPod and Apple TV.
You can grab this giveaway, here.
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Quick Look: iMovie ‘09
Jan 28th
Probably one of the things I was least excited about in the iLife ‘09 suite was iMovie. I sold my HD camcorder last year which was becoming a dust collector, but mostly it was due to my dissatisfaction with the over-sensitive microphone. So, with no videos to edit I wasn’t too interested in what was new to iMovie.
Late last night I opened it up to have a look around to see the new features. The UI is pretty much the same as ‘08. I think there are a few cosmetic differences mostly on buttons and also the new Project Library pane which is hidden until you click it’s button and it slides out.
When you create a new project you are given the opportunity to have a theme. You can choose from None, Photo Album, Bulletin Board, Comic Book, Scrapbook and Filmstrip. I created a very quick demo video using the Comic Book theme.
Apart from adding a few titles to videos I created last year, I haven’t spent any extensive time in iMovie ‘08 but found that it was quite a basic program. One of the first things I noticed in iMovie ‘09 were the newly added animated titles, aswell as Maps and Backgrounds. These are a lot of fun. I put together a very quick transitions demo video after 2am this morning to show just some of the new features added. The globe blows me away and will be great for holiday/travel videos!
I’m now considering buying a Kodak Zi6 HD Camcorder in the months ahead just to give me a good excuse to waste more time in iMovie ‘09. If you enjoy shooting video then I think you’ll enjoy the improvements in this. A few people have asked me to compare ‘09 to ‘06 and all I can say is I don’t know as I never knew ‘06. I downloaded it free from the Apple site last year, but it never wanted to work for me.
Despite my disappointment over the Flickr integration in iPhoto ‘09 yesterday, I have to say that iMovie ‘09 has restored my faith in the iLife ‘09 suite and if anyone asks I’d say yes, it’s well worth the upgrade.
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Looking for an affordable High Definition Camcorder?
Jun 22nd
In March I bought an Aiptek AHD200 720p High Definition Camcorder from QVCUK for less than £110. It’s an excellent quality camcorder that feels like it should be twice the price. But now there’s an even higher spec Aiptek for £175 at QVCUK.com which will be available only up until 12 midnight tonight (Sunday 22nd) on 3 easy payments of £58.40. It’s the Aiptek AHD Z500 1080p HD camcorder.
Looks like the big brother to my AHD200 has finally arrived and as you can see in this review here the recommended price for this model is £250, so it looks like QVC have a fabulous deal on today.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Chaos in the Office
Jun 2nd
This is how chaotic things get in the Fruit Bytes HQ some days.
Created with iStopMotion 2 which is very addictive and a lot of fun. This is the first time-lapse video I created a couple of days ago.
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Aiptek AHD200
Apr 17th
Last month I bought the Aiptek AHD200 High Definition Digital Camcorder. I was ill at the time of receiving my new toy so didn’t get any proper time with it to give my thoughts. I have been playing with it over recent weeks and yesterday I was in various environments which meant I could test out how it copes with going from light conditions to dark and vice versa.
Specification
- Digital video camcorder (video resolution): HD 720p (1280 x 720 pixels) / up to 30fps, 16:9 ratio
- Digital still camera: 8M (3200 x 2400 pixels)
- Sensor resolution: 5 mega pixels
- File format: MOV (AVC MPEG4) / JPEG / WAV
- Internal memory: 6MB for storage
- External memory: SD card (Min. 256MB up to 32GB SDHC)
- LCD Display: 2.4″ TFT panel
- Digital Zoom 4X
- HDTV (Component out) / NTSC/PAL colour system supported
- Voice Recorder
- Built-in microphone and speaker
Video and Audio Quality
For a camera that cost me £109 (usually around £150 on Amazon.co.uk) I am blown away by the video quality. Of course, the demonstrations I’d watched before purchase were the very reason I went for this as it was so unlike regular camcorder footage. Going from a dark spot in a room to a light one didn’t give this any trouble in adjusting. This is one of the stills from the footage I took. This image was captured in iMovie by freezing the frame and taking a screengrab.
The audio is fine although I do find that the microphone can be quite sensitive at times. I took some video in my relatively quiet home office and there was a bit of a hum which I couldn’t identify. With most of the videos I take and plan to take, I will almost always be taking the original sound out and putting music over the top, so that aspect doesn’t really worry me too much. But, in some environments the sound is absolutely fine.
Samples
I put five videos onto Vimeo last night. I didn’t fiddle with them too much as I didn’t have the time, but I have been asked by a few people to show them some examples as they are interested in picking one of these up. So, I’ll let these speak for themselves…
The Noisy Purple Room (3s) Original audio.
The Baltic Art Centre (54s) Original audio.
Chavs on Macs (13s)
Outside the Baltic (14s)
Newcastle upon Tyne (1m 10s)
Final thoughts
I was never going to be in line for a top-of-the-range HD camcorder simply because I don’t take any serious video. I am definitely more of a still photography girl and I was having to juggle the two yesterday. This particular camcorder is very easy to use and that’s one of the things I like about it most. Just simply pull out the screen and it switches on so you’re ready to shoot in an instant. I am more than happy with the results of the Aiptek AHD200.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Time Lapsing
Apr 15th
Usually I’d put a shout out like this on Twitter as there’s a lot of knowledgeable folk on there who no doubt would be able to point me in the right direction. But since this would go way beyond 140 characters I think the best place to ask is here.
Does anyone know of a way to speed up a video I’ve captured – to make it look like a time lapse thing? The video will be captured on my high definition camcorder and not via iSight, so that rules out the likes of Gawker which was used by my mate Nathan when he created this bit of marvel.
I edit movies in iMovie 08. I have had a look through the help files and I don’t think that speeding up a clip is something that can be done in there. How about Final Cut Express 4.0? If anyone can help then you’ll get a virtual hai-five!
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Video on Flickr
Apr 9th
All day I’ve been thinking about what I was going to write about Flickr and it’s brand new feature which allows it’s Pro members to upload a 90 second video clip. I think it’s a good idea and personally it’s been rather nice to see some of my overseas friends in all their animated glory as they, like me, are testing out the new feature with a quick upload to say hi. It’s not something I will use on any regular basis as I have Vimeo with their HD support for that, plus I don’t take a lot of video, but it’s good to have the option, just as those who are against the idea have the option to click or not click 
So like I said, I was going to write a lengthy one on this but I’ve just seen my feelings already expressed excellently by my Twitter and Flickr contact Michael Mistretta – and I think he’s done a better job of it than I would have 
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Preparing HD Movie for Vimeo
Mar 19th
As I mentioned in my entry yesterday, I have been uploading some High Definition video to Vimeo because unlike YouTube it supports HD 720p format. I followed the encoding settings guide on the HD FAQ page and was quite satisfied with the way it turned out, although clearly it’s not going to be as good as what I see straight off the camcorder and in iMovie 08. I did some looking around the Vimeo forums and a member there had made some suggestions on getting the most out of your HD video when uploading.
So, I decided to make a quick screencast showing the settings I used in the hope that it helps others get better results, when using iMovie 08. I uploaded an HD video of my dog this afternoon and the quality was quite satisfactory. However, after following the new settings I think it has improved upon that further so I replaced the original video with the improved one. You can see my screencast here. Finally putting to good use my Snapz Pro X which is rather fab!
Just incase you were unable to see clearly the number I typed into Key Frames it was 30, and the Data Rate set to Restrict to 5000 kbits/sec.
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