mediageek

Category: diy

  • Is the Best Digicam the One that’s in Your Junk Drawer? A Reassessment of the Olympus Stylus 830

    Is the Best Digicam the One that’s in Your Junk Drawer? A Reassessment of the Olympus Stylus 830

    I’ve been monitoring this apparent digicam revival, and have noted that the true connoisseurs have a particular affection for the CCD sensors these cameras contained from their invention in the late 90s through the first decade of the new century when the CMOS sensor took over. Wanting to re-check this out, I thought it might be fun…

  • To Make Sound Art You Just Need a Recorder

    To Make Sound Art You Just Need a Recorder

    Dictaphone, cassette recorder, microcassette recorder, digital voice recorder, smartphone. That’s it. Hit record, make sound. These are the fundamentals I have to remind myself of every so often, when I get too obsessed with fidelity and having really good microphones and recording with many more bits and samples. Sure, there’s nothing wrong with quality, until…

  • Blogs still rule

    After publishing my post on Network Awesome I received a nice “thank you” email from the site’s founder, Jason Forrest. Jason is an electronic musician who has also worked under the name “Donna Summer” and has held down an on-air shift at the legendary freeform station WFMU. He agreed to do an email interview with…

  • How to set manual control shortcuts on Sanyo Xacti camcorders

    This is part two of my video series demonstrating how to use manual controls on Sanyo Xacti camcorders. I used the CG10 model, which I own, but this should work for the newer HD models, too, such as the CG21, CG20 and CG100. In this video I show how you can assign a particular control…

  • How to use manual controls with the Sanyo Xacti camcorders

    This is a post I’ve been trying to get done for quite some time now. First I tried to write up instructions on how to use the manual focus, exposure, ISO and white balance controls available on the Sanyo Xacti VPC-CG10 camcorder. But it turned into quite a long, tedious experience that was difficult to…

  • Seduced by the siren call of the Sony NEX-5 camera

    After hemming and hawing for about six months I finally took the plunge and bought a Sony NEX-5 interchangeable lens compact camera. As I wrote when the camera debuted, I was concerned about a few apparent drawbacks: a new lens mount and the lack of in-body image stabilization. You see, the reason I made the…

  • Zoom finally adds HD video to a portable audio recorder, but still no mic input

    I’m always complaining about how most consumer-level camcorders don’t feature microphone inputs, or even decent mics. My Sanyo Xacti VPC-CG10 has pretty good mics for camcorder of it’s size and price. But because the mics are on the camera and there’s no input to add an external mic, they’re still inappropriate for interviews or any…

  • People’s Radio in Rogers Park

    I’m a little bummed that I didn’t know about this project that happened in my Chicago neighborhood this past weekend – People’s Radio at Mess Hall: People’s Radio will be a fully functioning radio station aimed at promoting alternative and local points of view, non-mainstream music, creating a dialogue about the “Commons”, and to demystify…

  • Interesting new Sanyo flip-style camcorder

    Sanyo just announced a new Xacti camcorder that looks interesting due to the way it breaks from the company’s typical pistol-grip style camcorders and due to its lens. The VPC-PD2BK has a form-factor more like the Flip-style cams, but with a 3x zoom lens that looks like it came from a compact still digicam, therefore…

  • Putting the Xacti VPC-CG10 camcorder to work DIY style

    As I’ve blogged before, I’m having a blast using my Sanyo Xacti VPC-CG10 palm-sized HD camcorder. I’m starting to hear about other videographers who appreciate the CG10 not just for its cost, size and HD, but also for its manual control over exposure and focus. I just read a quick post at the Frugal Filmmaker…