This is a fun little video I created at JibJab.com.
I took some liberties with the character roles since Becky is Dr. Frankenstein and her sister Lisa is bride of Frankenstein’s monster. You can guess who’s face is on the monster, eh? It just seemed funnier with Beck doing the lead as the Doc. Andrew is the Wolfman and Evan is Dracula.
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Windows only: Free media file converter FormatFactory is a handy all-in-one utility for taking one kind of audio, video, or picture file and converting it to another. The interface is a dead-simple drag-and-drop affair, and it’s meant for running batches of files through converters?FLVs to Windows Media, MPEGs to iPod-friendly video, DVDs to DivX files, etc. You won’t get a lot of options for quality control, compression rate, or other tweaks, but for some folks, that’s really a benefit. FormatFactory is a free download for Windows systems only.
Courtesy Lifehacker
I have always wanted a camcorder for myself and not just any camcorder. I wanted one a bit like a professional broadcast camcorder, where I would be able to mount ad-ons like pre-amps, lights and all the other ever so cool stuff you’ll see professionals packing. However I’m not about to pay the horiffic price of eg. a Red Camera . So let’s just build one…
Basically, a camcorder only consists of 8 things;
1) The optics
I’ll recomend SLR optics – they come in all shapes and sizes in a good quality at reasonable prizes compared to Camcorder optics. It’s time for dusting off the MF-lenses you’ve got in the attick. For how to mount the SLR optics on a CCD Camera read this article
2) Capturing
To capture the light that comes through the optics, I use a standard surveillance camera. These goodies comes in all shapes and sizes. I recommend a monochrome with 480 tv-lines or more. Colour cameras are quite expensive especially if you’d want 3CCD, and it’s very hard to control the colours of your recordings, if you don’t know what you’re doing. You should never choose a higher value than 0.5 lux when it comes to light sensitivity. If you stick to this you’ll always be able to shoot video indoor with just a few lamps turned on.
3) Storage/Recording
For storage/recording I have used a SONY Digital8 recorder. They are easy to come by and relatively cheap on e-bay. The really cool thing about these recorders is that you can record both from an analogue video source or digital (firewire) video source. So if your standards get higher you can always buy a security camera with a Firewire output. And the quality of these recorders are superb though they are aren’t that young. No doubt this is a pro video tool and with lots and lots of option settings.
Alternatively you can also use the Portable HDD recorder
4 + 5) Microphone & Pre-Amp
I won’t be getting into the Mic and Pre-Amp (this could be an article just in itself), although I would suggest a shotgun-microphone with a build-in Pre-Amp. Small battery operated Pre-Amps with a decent sound quality are hard to find…
6) Device to see WTF you are recording
Since decent viewfinders that you can actually use for this project are very hard and expencive to come by, I’ve chosen to use a LCD-screen instead. Luckily, I already had one that was as “made for the job” all ready with a hotshoe build on, so it would be easy to mount.
7) Batteries
Since both the recorder and viewfinder-screen carry their own battery pack, the only thing I had to supply with power was the security-camera (12v dc) done with 8 1,5v AA batteries. A lot of security cameras can even take aprox. +-3, but for the safety of your camera it may be a good idea to put a “current controller” between the camera and the battery pack.
Defining these 7 points, the rest is like hooking up your VCR with your tv… Well, almost. When connected right the battery data, recording data, etc. will show in the display… just like a regular camcorder.
So that I didn’t have to carry the whole thing in a bag and use 5 hands to operate it I have put on some sort of frame. This was made from an old Velbon monopod and other bits.
If you would like to see how it works out take a look at the film klip below…
I used the DIY Camcorder with a Nikkor 35-70mm f/3.3-4.5 lens.
Recorded through my window on a rainy and cloudy day in June in Denmark.
So whats to gain on this monstrosety…?
Well… You can say you build a camcorder yourself of course but you allso get a setup you can alter in so many ways… actually all the way to pro if you got the greens for it.
Make it go all digital with HDD recorder put on a 3CCD camera etc. there is no limit.
And if you like old B/W films then this could be the way, since you can make a pro B/W camera for less than 1000$.
The down side…
For the time being you’l have to do with out autofocus and you have to spend cuite som time chosing your components, but maybe that’s not a downside afterall. Most pro cameramen wouldn’t relie on autofocus and the time spend shearching for bits to your camera will only make it fit near 100% to the job.
