The Kodak Zi8

The Kodak Zi8 HD Pocket Video Camera

As some of you may be aware, we bought ourselves a Kodak Zi8 pocket camcorder for Christmas.  We decided that we really ought to have a cheap and cheerful camcorder so that we can document our daughter’s development and send videos of her back to Spain for my in-laws to see.  After reading a whole host of reviews of both the Flip range and the latest Kodak, we decided to plump for the Kodak.  It seemed to tick all the boxes.  Compact, reasonably priced and easy to use.   So far, we have not been disappointed.

The Kodak Zi8 is a neat little package.  The USB connection is in-built so you don’t have to add yet another cable to the growing collection (I’m amazed I manage to keep track of all my cables!).  Also, there is no CD-ROM packaged with the camera. The editing software is built into the camera and downloads to your PC when you first connect it via USB.  Although basic, the software does enable video to be condensed to make it easier to send via email, as well as having a quick upload feature for Facebook, YouTube and Vimeo.

Video can be stored on the internal memory, but there is not much space at all.  An SDHD card is therefore pretty much an essential purchase once you have the camera.  It’s best to buy a card with a high-capacity (the Zi8 can take a card of up to 32GB).  It also recommended to go for at least a class 6 card, although we have gone for a 16GB class 4.

The camera also shoots in full HD and has an HDMI connection to connect with a HD television.  It also has an image stabilisation function (EIS) which helps to eradicate camera shake (although not entirely, for best results you really need to hold the camera with both hands).  I found when shooting video one-handed (which seems the most natural way to use it) there was still some noticeable ‘shakiness’.

A nice touch is an additional macro/landscape mode.  A flick of the switch on the top of the camera enables you to shoot up close and still keep the image in focus.  My only criticism of this is that the switch on the top of the camera can be a little stiff at first, leading to the camera shaking around all over the place whilst you try to switch between modes.  That said, once you get used to flicking between the two modes it isn’t too much of a problem.

So what about the video itself.  Well, although I said earlier I wasn’t disappointed with the Zi8, I was a little disappointed with the quality when I started recording some video of our daughter on Christmas morning.  However, I later discovered that the poor quality was due to the fact that there had been several software updates since that camera was packaged.  Once updating to the latest software there was a noticeable difference in picture quality.

It’s all very well telling you that the quality is quite good, it means nothing unless you can see it for yourself!  I shot this first video using HD mode on a bright, sunny day in Seville:

As you can see, even with the EIS function, there is still a bit of camera shake.  Also, whilst the picture quality is good, it is not quite as clear as you would expect from an HD recording.  Having said that, it would perhaps be unreasonable to expect top quality HD in a pocket camcorder that costs the fraction of a top quality camcorder.

So that’s how it performs in bright conditions, what about in low light conditions?  I shot the following video at night using the 720p mode….

Whilst not perfect, it’s not too bad.  You can still make out some of the details on the various floats and even when zooming in, the quality is still reasonable.

Overall, I am more than happy with the quality of the video from the Zi8.  Considering the size of the device (about the size of a BlackBerry) and its relatively low-cost (£114.99 on Amazon at the moment), I have been really quite impressed.  It will certainly enable us to record some decent quality video of our daughter as she grows up and, to be honest, we can’t ask for more than that.

Social Networking in Libraries

Those of you that follow me on Twitter will know that I recently delivered a presentation on how social networking can be used in libraries to promote the service.  I passionately believe that libraries need to look at new ways to communicate with members of the community who either think the library is irrelevant to them or those that only make limited use of the service.  There are a number of tools out there that we could and should use to connect us to the people that matter.  Unless new, innovative marketing techniques are utilised, the library service will struggle to appear relevant in a digital age.

Anyway, I have heard a lot about SlideShare in the past, so I thought I would take the opportunity to give it a try and share my presentation (I’ve embedded it below).  I also thought it would be worth experimenting with sharing on both Flickr and YouTube too to see how they would work as presentation sharing tools (obviously both are rather more clumsy than SlideShare which is, after all, a dedicated tool for sharing presentations).  Anyway, I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this topic.  Why should social networking be used by libraries?  Or should it be used at all?  Is it merely a distraction?  Would like to hear people’s reactions to this topic.

Web 2.0 Technologies and the Media

As a long-time blogger, I have been a great believer in the positive impact they can have on the news narrative.  I have always believed that they can be a force for good, drawing people’s attention to the stories that the mainstream media overlooks. The growth of the blogging community could (finally) ensure that the stories that are normally ignored by the mainstream media would finally get the exposure they deserve.  They also had the potential to create stories in a new and exciting way.  In my opinion, blogs had great promise as providing a distinct news narrative from the mainstream media.  At least, that was my opinion, until the events of the past couple of weeks.

The revelations concerning the proposed establishment of a website designed to smear opposition politicians grabbed a great many of the headlines recently.  What made this story unique was that a well known blogger (Paul Staines, otherwise known as ‘Guido Fawkes’) was key to these revelations getting into the public domain.  Cue much excitement in the media about blogs coming of age and actually dictating the news agenda.  But was this such a great revelation?  Was there actually any real difference between these revelations and countless other similar such revelations in the tabloid press over the past twenty years?  Not really.  The blog at the centre of the revelations has hardly caused a revolution in terms of the style of reporting.  It has merely repeated tactics that have been used by the tabloid press for sometime.  The fact that it was on a blog rather than in the print media was the only thing particularly unique about the story. The real story over the past few weeks has been much more interesting than that.

When Ian Tomlinson died during the G20 protests, there was initially very little coverage of the incident in the mainstream press.  When it was mentioned, it was usually framed to imply that protesters had been the main cause of his subsequent death.  The central accusation that they had thrown bottles at members of the emergency services who were trying to resuscitate him. The story was sidelined by most of the media and little or no attempt was made to investigate the incident any further.  The version of events that was presented to the media was taken to be fair and accurate representation of events on that day, and there appeared no need to investigate the story further.  This was pretty much reflective of how the mainstream media have operated in recent years.  Investigative journalism is time consuming and, therefore, expensive.  In these times of increased competition, costs need to be kept low to ensure that the organisation is competitive.  Consequently, investigative journalism is a rare feature of the modern media (although obviously it still happens from time to time).  This is not a good thing for democracy as a whole.  As one professor in journalism has put it:

Investigative journalism matters because of its many contributions to democratic governance. Its role can be understood in keeping with the Fourth Estate model of the press. According to this model, the press should make government accountable by publishing information about matters of public interest even if such information reveals abuses or crimes perpetrated by those in authority. From this perspective, investigative reporting is one of the most important contributions that the press makes to democracy. It is linked to the logic of checks and balances in democratic systems. It provides a valuable mechanism for monitoring the performance of democratic institutions as they are most broadly defined to include governmental bodies, civic organizations and publicly held corporations.

The decline in investigative journalism means a decline in quality information ‘about matters of public interest’ – a concern for anybody working in the information sector.

Despite the failure of the mainstream media in investigating the incident in question, the story did still develop over the following weeks. However, this was not due to traditional investigative journalism techniques. Whereas the media had failed to fully investigate the death of Mr Tomlinson, the public and modern technology stepped in. Shortly after the initial reports had emerged, a witness had approached The Guardian with filmed footage of what appeared to be an assault on Mr Tomlinson by a police officer shortly before he died. Needless to say, this caused a media storm and suddenly questions were being asked when before a blind eye was turned. Over subsequent days, more evidence began to emerge about what really happened during the G20 protests. Photos such as this one were posted on Flickr. Video footage emerged on YouTube that also suggested that the police were less than even-handed in their dealings with protesters. Suddenly, the media agenda was being led by developments on web 2.0 technologies. Ordinary citizens armed with cameras were able to do what journalists had failed to achieve. This was radically different to anything that had happened before. This was providing a new, distinctive narrative separate from that pursued by the mainstream media. Whereas ‘Guido Fawkes’ was essentially repeating the tactics of many a red-top over the years, this was something new and different and highlighted the potential that sites such as FlickR and YouTube in disseminating information.

The funny thing is that, over the past few years, blogs and the mainstream media have become ever closer. The media mimic some aspects of blogs in order to maintain an audience (see the number of articles that now have comment threads) and blogs (such as Guido Fawkes) have mimicked typical tabloid tactics. In the near future, you will barely be able to distinguish between the high-profile blogs and the mainstream media, such will be the similarities between the two. The consequence of this (particularly in terms of decreasing funds in the mainstream press) is a distinct decline in the standard of information in the public domain. This would, in turn, lead to an ill-informed electorate without the information required to exercise their democratic rights. It could just be that web 2.0 technologies will become an even more important informational tool than was first thought.

Time To Up The Pace

Well, here I am, the wrong side of Christmas and the realisation hits me that I need to up my pace pretty radically.  I have been working on the same module since the middle of September and it feels like I am never going to get it finished.  Although I have pretty much maintained the same pace as last year, it is really not fast enough.  To attend the study school in April I needed to complete three modules (only needed to get two done last year) and I haven’t even done two yet.  This further complicated by the fact that I am going to be a father in April, so I won’t be going to the study school in April anyway.  Unfortunately, this has had the psychological impact of making me think I have more time than I really have and meaning I have taken my foot off the peddle a bit. Problem is I need to get those three modules done by June if I am to go to study school in September, which is an absolute necessity.  With a baby due in April, the next few months are going to be very stressful.

But I guess I am not alone and, so long as I spend as much time as possible on my studies, I should be ok.  The main problem is the fact that I have ‘the fear’.  The fear of sending off those assignments when they aren’t quite right yet.  The fear of sending off those assignments and failing.  The fear that I will be found out.  The fear that I am not really cut out for this librarian malarky.  But I guess the fear is just that.  Fear.  Sometimes you need to bite the bullet, face down your fears and get those assignments sent off.  I mean, they can’t really be that bad, can they?

 

Anyways, here’s a little ditty on Web 2.0 and the iPhone.  Enjoy.

 

The Insulting Librarian

Should really be concentrating on my assignment[s], but saw this and had to share it.  Of course, I would never dream of even thinking what the librarian is saying…..honest.