Author: David Ryder

Kodak Zi8 Review – Kodak vs Flip vs GoPro vs iPhone 4S

Gear, Multimedia, Still photography, Tech stuff, Thoughts, Video

The Kodak Zi8 is a great little tool. Here is a quick Kodak Zi8 review to help you decide if you should buy it or not.

 

 

Pros:

The Kodak Zi8 shoots 1080p HD video.

Input for external microphone.

Uses SD memory cards, not built-in memory.

Great size. Small but not too small. Kodak Zi8 is about the size of an iPhone.

 

Cons:

Not all HD is the same. The Kodak Zi8 footage quality leaves something to be desired.

Battery life is short.

Still photographs are poor quality

 

The Kodak Zi8 makes for a decent secondary camera for b-roll, detail/secondary angles for interviews, and for time lapses. It’s also great for attaching to something like bicycle handlebars without having to worry about breaking an expensive camera. I wouldn’t write a Kodak Zi8 review without saying that the battery is crap and the still images it takes are pretty useless. But that’s fine – it’s still worth buying and it’s better than a Flip camera.

Why is it better than a Flip camera? What is better – Kodak Zi8 vs Flip? Well, the Flip doesn’t use SD cards so you are limited to what the Flip’s built-in memory can hold. Also, the Flip doesn’t work with external audio. And if you know anything about good multimedia and good film making, it’s that audio is everything. That said, the Flip shots slightly better footage than does the Kodak Zi8, but everything else about the Flip camera is worse. The Flip isn’t bad, it’s just worse in comparison to the Kodak Zi8. Review it differently if you disagree, and send me your review so I can read it!

So what about the Kodak Zi8 vs Flip vs GoPro? If you’re in the market for a pocket HD digital video camera, then you are probably looking at the Kodak Zi8, the Flip camera, and the GoPro. The benefit of the GoPro is that it’s rugged and the newest version of the GoPro shoots better quality footage than both the Flip camera and the Kodak Zi8. The GoPro is, however, more expensive. So it’s really in another category, but it is similar to the Flip camera and the Kodak Zi8. So in the context of a Kodak Zi8 review, I’ll have to say that the Zi8 is the best choice, and if you have extra money or want to send a list to Santa this year, then consider the GoPro as an upgrade. But keep in mind that the GoPro has the same audio drawbacks as the Flip camera, and in the audio arena the Kodak Zi8 is the winner.

I’ll finish this Kodak Zi8 review with a little endorsement for the iPhone 4S. If you don’t care about audio, then ditch the Kodak Zi8 and pickup an iPhone 4S. It will shoot as good as all three of the pocket digital video cameras mentioned above, but it’s the only one that makes calls and tells how to get home when you’re lost … ! Good luck shopping.

UW Bothell – Wetlands Video – Cascadia Community College

Multimedia, My work, Nature, Published work, Sustainability, University of Washington, UW Bothell, Video

I recently directed a short film in partnership with producer Jim Perich-Anderson about the wetlands restoration project on the UW Bothell/Cascadia College co-located campus. The film highlights the remarkable transformation of a once heavily degraded wetland – which was essentially just a cow pasture – into an outstanding educational and environmental resource.  Have a look at the film below and check out the UWB/CCC building dashboard website, where the film is featured.

 

 

 

 

Occupy Seattle Blocks University Bridge in Rush Hour | Seattle Photographer

My work, Seattle, Still photography

Shot for ZUMA Press. If you wish to license any of these images please contact sales@zumapress.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Occupy Seattle Photos 11-15-11 | Seattle Photographer

My work, Seattle, Still photography

Shot for ZUMA Press. If you want to license these images please contact sales@zumapress.com.

November 15, 2011 – Seattle, WA – (Below) An Occupy Seattle protestor cries as she sits on the back of an ambulance after police sprayed her with pepper spray and pushed her backward with their bicycles. At least 150 Occupy Seattle protestors marched through downtown Seattle, stopped traffic, and clashed with dozens of police officers. They marched to support the Occupy Wall Street protestors who were cleared out of Zuccotti Park this morning in New York.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Occupy Portland Pictures

My work, Still photography

Shot for ZUMA Press. If you want to license these images, please contact sales@zumapress.com.

Late Saturday night and throughout Sunday, police squared off with Occupy Portland protestors while attempting to enforce Mayor Sam Adams’ 12:01 a.m. Sunday deadline for protestors to vacate the two downtown parks they have occupied since early October. Approximately 5,000 people showed up to defy the mayor’s orders, overwhelming police until Sunday afternoon when police were able to clear the parks and dismantle tents and other structures. Police arrested at least 50, used pepper spray on at least one person, but largely the protestors were nonviolent. Police, mounted on horses, charged the crowd on one occasion in an attempt to break up the thousands of people that had filled downtown streets and blocked traffic. A protestor who was later arrested threw a firework at the mounted police, startling their horses amidst the chaos and causing one officer to be lightly injured.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time Lapse – Fall Leaves | Seattle Photographer

Multimedia, My work, Nature, Sustainability, UW Bothell, Video

For an upcoming project, I filmed the gardening crew at UW Bothell doing their seasonal decoration of the big W on campus. Have a look, and stay tuned for the final project … more info coming soon. I created this with a Canon 5D mark II, 70-200 f/4 lens, tripod, and Final Cut Pro X.

 

Final Cut Pro 10.0.1 Review – Sofware Update

Gear, Multimedia, Tech stuff, Thoughts, Video

I wrote a recent review that was a pretty harsh critique of Final Cut Pro X and I do have to say that Apple took care of a lot of issues with its recent Final Cut Pro 10.0.1 software update. FCP version 10.0.1 (some people think it is FCP 10.1 but it’s not … not quite yet) is a nice revision of FCP X, which smooths a few of the rough edges of the first release of FCP X.

What we get with Final Cut Pro 10.0.1 is XML capability finally, as well as improved cross dissolve (and other) transitions without having to create a second storyline. This was an overlook in the first version and seemed weird, so I’m glad they fixed that. We also get solutions to other annoying bugs like the lower thirds malfunction that I described in an earlier post. It also feels a bit quicker. I do have to say that I upgraded to a new iMac this week, and FCP X really works slick and quick on this new machine. That hardware upgrade made me a lot happier with FCP X, but I do think that in general Apple is going in the right direction with the software and we’ll see more professionals using it soon.

I’m still on the fence as to whether or not it is the best tool out there, but I am continuing to use it more and more because I don’t have to transcode my Canon 5D mark II footage and I don’t have to wait for Final Cut Pro to render all the time, as I did with FCP 7. It is also a dream to be able to sync my separate audio and video files with one click (without buying an expensive plugin). And all of this costs $300. As the software updates from Apple continue to come, I am going to use FCP X more and more as my primary editing package.

Lomokino Camera Makes Analog Movies

Gear, Multimedia, Tech stuff

The Lomokino camera will be a pretty cool addition to my Christmas list this year …

 

 

I’m very excited about making some short films lo-fi style, with good old fashioned real film. It’s funny because so many HDSLR filmmakers using cameras like the Canon 5D mark II, they will say “shoot in 24p because it is so film-like.” But really no one is ever going to shoot with film, unlike with still photography where so many people do still shoot film. Well, I can really sense that a camera like the Lomokino might actually catch on. And even though using actual film to make moving pictures is time-intensive (and $$-intensive), it really does look rewarding and I am going to give it a go. Stay tuned for the results.

The Lomokino uses any kind of 35mm film that you select, and works by the use of a hand crank that you crank to move the film through the open shutter. Pretty awesome, huh? Does anybody remember the opening credits to The Wonder Years? With the Beatles song. That was the Beatles right? A Beatles cover, anyway.

Here are some short videos from the Lomokino site:

Sample videos:

Teaser Trailer from Lomography on Vimeo.

A Sunny Day On The Southbank – LomoKino from Lomography on Vimeo.

How to use the Lomokino:

LomoKino – Shooting, Loading and Focusing from Lomography on Vimeo.

Occupy Seattle Photos – Police and Pepper Spray | Seattle Photographer

My work, Seattle, Still photography

Shot for ZUMA Press. If you want to license these images please contact sales@zumapress.com.

 

Wednesday was a chilly and rainy November evening but hundreds of Occupy Seattle protestors showed up to show opposition to Jamie Dimon’s visit to the Seattle Sheraton hotel, where he was speaking to the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. Dimon is the CEO of JPMorgan Chase. Police showed up in force, with rubber bullets, paintballs and riot gear at the ready, but they only used pepper spray sporadically on the protestors. See some of my photographs below …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Google Maps Photojournalism | Seattle Photographer

Google Maps, Other people's work, Published work, Seattle, Still photography, Tech stuff, Thoughts

Is this the new face of photojournalism? Google Maps is certainly part of the future of photojournalism, like it or not. (Related: See my Google Maps photo essay.)

Below is a screen shot of SeattlePI.com and you can see how they have utilized a Google Maps Street View image for reporting purposes. It’s very sad that a woman was shot and in this case an actual human photographer I think would be able to cover this story quite well, but instead we have a Google Maps image taking the place of traditional photojournalism. Of course I’m sure the SeattlePI.com journalists would agree that using a human photojournalist would be ideal – and seeing Google Maps in this story probably comes down to a case of budget constraints.

I’m actually surprised that I have not seen more Google Maps images in the press, but I am wondering how the readers are responding to this. Right now there are four comments on the story but they all relate to the rather shocking content of the story, not the use of a Google Maps image. My guess is that viewers/readers do not care one bit. They probably do care that the image presented is pretty boring, but that is not necessarily because it is a Google Maps image. There are plenty of pretty and interesting Google Maps images out there, but just like traditional photojournalism it takes time, energy and expertise to find those images.

For me, I really am intrigued by the use of Google Maps images for photojournalism, reportage and photo essays, but the image below isn’t exactly a good supporting argument. Aren’t I afraid of losing my job? Not really. I actually think that the more that Google Maps images pop up, the more that media consumers will realize that their lives are constantly under surveillance. For this reason, and others, I think folks will begin to remember why they love images made by real, empathetic, human photojournalists. There is something great that people love about images made by other humans, and the screen shot below can help with understanding that. However, as a photojournalist myself I’ve found that using Google Maps can be rewarding. Part of my graduate school capstone work included a Google Maps Street View photo essay.