As you may have heard me say before, audio is of the outmost importance when shooting videos. If you look at my two part article on recording audio for video, my preferred way of recording audio is to record it separately on a dedicated audio recorded such as the Zoom H4n, however there are situations when it is more efficient to record the audio straight into the camera.

Recently Canon released a firmware upgrade that allows you to adjust the audio gain control manually and providing better sound control. Additionally, there are a few products out there specifically geared towards helping you get the best sound recorded into your camera. The two most popular products in this category are the BeachTek DXA-5D and the juicedLink DT454. These units trick the AGC within the cameras and provide for much more controlled audio recording. But the also provide means to monitor your audio as well as mixing a couple of channels or audio sources.

I ran a quick and pretty simple test comparing the two units mentioned above as well as recording straight into the Canon EOS 5D MarkII, with AGC enabled and disabled. The location I picked, in front of a noise waterfountain, was deliberate to simulate locations where the AGC tends to perform the worst.

After testing these devices, my preference is still to continue recording on a dedicated audio recorder, but out of the BeachTek and juicedLink units I was most impressed and got the best sound out of the juicedLink DT454. The unit was a little complicated to set up, but once I did, the audio recorded by the camera was the cleanest. The BeachTek came in close, but the juicedLink had a distinctly better audio. Not all is rosy with the juicedLink though, the way this unit gets such clean sound is by feeding the camera a reference signal over one of the audio channels which in essence forces the camera into a constant gain level, which means all your audio is recorded on only one channel, the left channel; the right channel contains some white noise.

The juicedLink has 4 audio channel inputs, including 2 XLR all of which you can adjust the audio levels to get as clean as sound as possible. As mentioned before you can also monitor the sound, which is crucial to make sure you are capturing the right audio. So if you need to record your audio “in camera” I would HIGHLY recommend the juicedLink DT454.

During the California Photo Festival Rick gathered a few of the instructors for an impromptu “Battle of the Sunset Tips” given by Jennifer Wu, Hal Schmitt, Rick Sammon and Juan Pons.

Please excuse the quality of the video as this was done at the spur of the moment and we where very lucky to have Tim Grey on hand to quickly record the moment. We thought the tips where great and wanted to share them with you even if the video quality leaves something to be desired.

Hope you enjoy it!

Rick and Juan where teaching at the awesome Maui Photo Festival a few weeks back and we took a bit of time to record this quick and easy tip on creating great portrait shots in harsh light situations.

Hope you enjoy this tip.

This is a short video featuring some of the best images I made while at Maui Photo Festival. We were so busy I did not get a chance to make too many images. One of the highlights of the Maui Photo Festival was making it to the Haleakala volcano crater for a sunrise, and what an spectacular sight that was. I decided to capture the sunrise doing some time lapse movies instead of stills and I am glad I did. I am very pleased with the results.

If you want to see the video in 720p HD check it out here: http://vimeo.com/14703212

I really hope you enjoy the short video and hope you are able to make it to the next Maui Photo Fest in 2011.

Aloha!

-J

[Editors Note: If you are having problems viewing the video above try this link: http://vimeo.com/14127819]

Here are some tips for photographing waterfalls. I filmed this while on one of my “Waterfalls of Western North Carolina” instructional photo workshops.

If you’d like to join me on one of these workshops, check out my workshops website at http://wildnaturetours.com

Enjoy,

-J

The fine folks at Kessler Crane recently sent me one of their most popular products, the PocketDolly v2, for review. The PocketDolly is an inexpensive yet incredibly well made dolly specifically designed for Video DSLRs. The PocketDolly measures 38.5 inches yet provides approximately 35 inches of travel allowing some the addition of some great movements into your videos.

What really sets the PocketDolly apart from most other similarly priced competing models is the fact that it is belt driven and includes a crank that makes it MUCH easier to achieve smooth movements, both by turning the crank or by winding some string around the crank and pulling it. At only 7.5 pounds, the pocket dolly is very portable, yet can hold cameras weighing up to 15 pounds!

Don’t worry if you don’t know what a dolly is, or how you can use one on your videos, in the review I demonstrate how to use and and show you some sample shots.

Check out the video review and take a look at how great the PocketDolly is; HIGHLY recommended.

As always if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below and I will answer them ASAP.

-J

P.S. Video shot with a Canon EOS 7D

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jYZl8F5xf8

Rick, Hal & Juan where in Japan for PhotoFest Japan, and we had a blast and we very much enjoying teaching and learning from all the participants. While we were there, we took the opportunity to record a number of photo tips for you on video. Enjoy!

In this segment, Rick talks about the importance of shooting from a different vantage point. We shot this segment at the Tsukiji fish market in Japan, the worlds largest! Take a look.

In case you were interested, this video was shot entirely with the iPhone 4, the video quality from this iPhone is amazing. We shot almost all the photo tips videos from Japan using the iPhone4 while we recorded sound externally using a Zoom H4n recorder and Sennheiser EW100 G3 wireless mics. In order to keep the iPhone 4 steady we used the awesome Zacuto Zgrip iPhone Jr.

Did you know that this and all the other videos here on DPE are available via an iTunes podcast channel? Why is this cool you ask? If you subscribe to the DPE Instructional videos podcast channel on iTunes, whenever we upload a new instructional video it is automatically downloaded to your iTunes, and you can then sync it to your iPhone, iPad or iPod, and watch the videos anytime, anywhere. How cool is that?

So, make sure to head on over to the DPE Instructional videos podcast channel on iTunes and subscribe, and while you are there, make sure to give us a positive rating on iTunes. Thanks!

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9qIcXVbXN0

Rick, Hal & Juan where in Japan for PhotoFest Japan, and we had a blast and we very much enjoying teaching and learning from all the participants. While we were there, we took the opportunity to record a number of photo tips for you on video. Enjoy!

In this segment, Hal tells us why it’s a good idea to remove your filters when shooting with many light sources. We shot this segment at the Tsukiji fish market in Japan, the worlds largest! Take a look.

In case you were interested, this video was shot entirely with the iPhone 4, the video quality from this iPhone is amazing. We shot almost all the photo tips videos from Japan using the iPhone4 while we recorded sound externally using a Zoom H4n recorder and Sennheiser EW100 G3 wireless mics. In order to keep the iPhone 4 steady we used the awesome Zacuto Zgrip iPhone Jr.

Did you know that this and all the other videos here on DPE are available via an iTunes podcast channel? Why is this cool you ask? If you subscribe to the DPE Instructional videos podcast channel on iTunes, whenever we upload a new instructional video it is automatically downloaded to your iTunes, and you can then sync it to your iPhone, iPad or iPod, and watch the videos anytime, anywhere. How cool is that?

So, make sure to head on over to the DPE Instructional videos podcast channel on iTunes and subscribe, and while you are there, make sure to give us a positive rating on iTunes. Thanks!

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyoYrFE-mr4

Rick, Hal & Juan where in Japan for PhotoFest Japan, and we had a blast and we very much enjoying teaching and learning from all the participants. While we were there, we took the opportunity to record a number of photo tips for you on video. Enjoy!

In this segment, Hal teaches us about a very important technique he learned while he was a fighter pilot and how you can apply it to your photography. We shot this segment at the Tsukiji fish market in Japan, the worlds largest! Take a look.

In case you were interested, this video was shot entirely with the iPhone 4, the video quality from this iPhone is amazing. We shot almost all the photo tips videos from Japan using the iPhone4 while we recorded sound externally using a Zoom H4n recorder and Sennheiser EW100 G3 wireless mics. In order to keep the iPhone 4 steady we used the awesome Zacuto Zgrip iPhone Jr.

Did you know that this and all the other videos here on DPE are available via an iTunes podcast channel? Why is this cool you ask? If you subscribe to the DPE Instructional videos podcast channel on iTunes, whenever we upload a new instructional video it is automatically downloaded to your iTunes, and you can then sync it to your iPhone, iPad or iPod, and watch the videos anytime, anywhere. How cool is that?

So, make sure to head on over to the DPE Instructional videos podcast channel on iTunes and subscribe, and while you are there, make sure to give us a positive rating on iTunes. Thanks!

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=39ms0jx5ueA

Rick, Hal & Juan where in Japan for PhotoFest Japan, and we had a blast and we very much enjoying teaching and learning from all the participants. While we were there, we took the opportunity to record a number of photo tips for you on video. Enjoy!

In this segment, Rick and Hal talk about using fill flash to add definition to your subjects and make them stand out. We shot this segment at the Tsukiji fish market in Japan, the worlds largest! Take a look.

Oh, I almost forgot, this video was shot entirely with the iPhone 4, the video quality from this iPhone is amazing. We shot almost all the photo tips videos from Japan using the iPhone4 while we recorded sound externally using a Zoom H4n recorder and Sennheiser EW100 G3 wireless mics. In order to keep the iPhone 4 steady we used the awesome Zacuto Zgrip iPhone Jr.

Did you know that this and all the other videos here on DPE are available via an iTunes podcast channel? Why is this cool you ask? If you subscribe to the DPE Instructional videos podcast channel on iTunes, whenever we upload a new instructional video it is automatically downloaded to your iTunes, and you can then sync it to your iPhone, iPad or iPod, and watch the videos anytime, anywhere. How cool is that?

So, make sure to head on over to the DPE Instructional videos podcast channel on iTunes and subscribe, and while you are there, make sure to give us a positive rating on iTunes. Thanks!