Kodak Zi6
Kodak is taking up the competition with the Flip Mino Family with their new Zi6 Pocket Vide Camera.A tiny pocket camcorder for simplicity over power and performance, have reached the market to take up the competition with Flip pocket camcorders the Mino, Ultra, and Original have been growing in popularity with the younger, YouTube generation.
Many pocket camcorders give problems when shooting in dime light. Dime light video will often have a grainy appearance, which also is refered to as noise. Technically, anything other than strong sunlight will be considered to be a low light environment! Roomlight which is acceptable to the eye but will many times show up grainy on video. Make sure to test out the light performance capabilities with the demo camcorder in stores. Shooting in environments such as out door a cloudy day will give you a bad quality video if the camcorder’s light capabilities is not handeling the task.
Illumination rating is the amount of ambient light needed by the camcorder to operate without an additional light source. This value are measured in lux, a measurement standard for light strengths. Lower lux values are to prefere. Budget video camera models start at 7 lux or lower. Mid-range and higher models go down as far as 1-2 lux. Although, the lux number isn’t always accurate, as the manufacturer often boast a lower lux level but hide facts regarding the video quality at that ambient light level! Also, if you’re shooting with a fast speed shutter, you always need a good light source.
Of importance is also the aperture amount. Nowadays most camcorders normally have automatic adjuting andcontrol of the light, the CCD. This light value is denoted by numbers like f2.0, f1.4, or f1.3. The lower the number, the more precise the camcorder will record in low light environments.
To compensate the film in low-light environments, most video cameras now has a included lights , when filming on automatic mode, will auto turn on the light soure when the lux level is low. Semi-professional video cameras may not have an light source, but rather a slot refered to as an “shoe”. This is this is used for connecting optional accessories such as microphones and lights. This slot is connected to the video cameras controls, enabling it to seamlessly control the attached in accessory. Newer video cameras have started to appear with LED led lights instead of the old incandescent types. This often pushes up the price a little, the good from this makes it worth it, as LED light consume less electricity which doesn’t drain the batteries so fast, and have a longer life than the incandescent variety.
Also if you plan to use your video cameras to shoot regular photos (not recommended) you will also be helped by a extra light. Like for most digital cams, the flash will pop up when the light is too dim and you are shooting regular photos.
Semi-professional video cameras also offer a mode for shooting in total darkenss. This mainly uses IR technology which gives low color results when needed. The quality is also most often low, but it will do for some shots such as animals or a sleeping baby.
One other method to improve the lights of the recordings is to use video signal gain, which often is in some video cameras. Gain is the technical term for increasing the amplitude of a signal. I also here must inform that the gain adjustment can make it worse when it comes to the picture quality and increase the noise in your film. You’ll have do experiment with the various gain settings, which is uses decibels (0 dB, 6 dB, 18 dB, etc.), so you can see what works best at the moment.
More info at Kodak Zi6 Camcorder
