Blog Of Rick Pepper

Zoom H2 – Has the Beef!

admin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:45:22 +0000

I’ve had the pleasure of using the Zoom H2 now for several months and have to say that I’m very pleasantly surprised. The S/N ratio is really good, at least on the built-in mics. I can record a meeting (all voices) As a 320k MP3 and subject it to multiple stages of compression and some EQ in Bias Peak, re-encode it and it’s still wonderfully quiet. I highly recommend it for any type of remote recording, especially ad-hoc voice situations (I’m using it in a church setting with prayer meetings and prophetic situations, all sorts of stuff.) I’ve found Lithium AA’s to offer somewhere near 8 hrs of battery life in that environment as well.

Zoom H2

Makeshift Tripods and Such

admin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:32:11 +0000

Taking impromptu photos of indoor still life can be accomplished with the help of makeshift mounts or stabilization. Wide angle lenses or adapters can offer more framing options as well. In this first example, I used the Opteka .45x wide angle adapter (on an Olympus C-8080) and pressed the face of it up against the glass of the display case. This allowed me to get enough depth of field to get good results (by making shutter speed less of a concern). The tricky part of this is getting the correct angle to compose the image when the angle is restricted by the plane you’re anchored against.

Maritime Museum Display

Another Museum Display

Here’s one where I just set the camera on the table – exposure time over 3 seconds! Helps to shoot in RAW mode as well (yes, I’m one of them).

Table Centerpiece

Star Wars display at the Science Museum of Minnesota, Canon Rebel XTi/Sigma 18-50 f2.8. The Sigma 10-20mm would have been nice for this one.

Millenium Falcon Model - 20mm (32mm w/CF), f8 1/10 sec

R2D2 - 31mm (50mm w/CF), f10 1/8 sec

Star Destroyer Model - 18mm (29mm w/CF), f22 1/2 sec

TIE Fighter Model - 18mm (29mm w/CF), f22 1.3 secs

TIE Fighter Wing Detail - 18mm (29mm w/CF), f8 1.3 secs

Remote Model - 18mm (29mm w/CF), f8 1/8 sec

Cheap Wide Angle Adapter For Olympus C-8080

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:05:59 +0000

When your choices for a fisheye lens are cost-prohibitive (this lens would be nice), re-purposing a point-and-shoot becomes an attractive option. The Opteka .45x wide-angle adapter saves the day.

Below, Sigma 10mm fisheye for Canon SLR $699, Opteka .45x wide-angle adapter $29 (for Olympus C-8080, search for your particular camera model – there are numerous models supported) and a couple sample images taken with the Olympus/Opteka combo. On the cropped Canon body the Sigma comes out to 16mm actual focal length, the Olympus with 28mm x .45 comes to 12.6 (call it 13) mm. Also, don’t overlook the macro capability, this adapter allows some VERY close focusing. See below images for the caveat.

Sigma 10mm Fisheye

Opteka .45x Wide-angle Adapter (For Olympus C-8080)

Duluth Lift Bridge

Duluth Harbor From Enger Tower Park

One limitation of this adapter, at least on my C-8080, is that when using it at full wide angle (which is where you want to use it 99.9999% of the time), the image sensor sees the edges of the adapter, making cropping or extreme vignetting necessary. Do note though that the above image is cropped to 3:2 aspect, whereas the following images are the native 4:3. There is also some significant chromatic aberration added. I use these settings in Lightroom to compensate:

Chromatic Aberration Adjustment in Lightroom

Uncropped Wide Angle Image

Using vignetting to hide the adapter edges

Centerpiece Close-Up

The Daaaawwwwg

Zodak Zi8 HD Camera Facilitates Short Workflow

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:33:06 +0000

The Kodak Zi8 video recorder makes short work of capture-to-web workflows. I’m doing some post-processing with QuickTime Pro and Bias Peak, but I wouldn’t have to. External mic jack is the selling point for me, and the use of SD media. Check out this review as well.

Kodak Zi8

Zoom H2 Rocks

admin — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:50:32 +0000

Maybe I’ll have time to post more, but so far I’m finding the Zoom H2 to be insanely flexible, now ships with a 1GB SD card, a mini tripod that attaches to the standard tripod thread socket and a plastic handle that screws in there as well so you can hold it like a traditional hand-held mic.

Zoom H2

Cash For Clunkers

admin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:13:33 +0000

Opinions vary on how wise this program was, but one thing’s for sure, it generated some interesting happenings across the U.S.

"Clunker"

The View From Here

admin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:11:27 +0000

MSP Skyline

Portable Recording Devices

admin — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:37:13 +0000

Ran across some interesting news yesterday. Alesis is touting a soon-to-be-released product called the ProTrack, which makes an iPod into a portable field recorder. Supports 5G and Classic iPods and 2G/3G Nanos. Sounds exciting, key is $$$ ?
Here’s a good thread on Macintouch on the subject as well.
Alesis also has the IMM8USB 8 channel mixer with integrated iPod Dock, using the iPod as the final destination for the mixer.

Here’s another, taking a very unique approach to the matter – integrating it into a hand held mic. Way too rich for my blood though.
The HHB DRM85.

And I’ve enjoyed the Belkin TuneTalk Stereo as well.

Using this mic for direct speech recording, the AT ATR35S.
I concur with IHR’s analysis that the flash-based Nano’s provide much better results in regards to disk fragmentation (as it causes ’skipping’) with hard disk based iPods. I experienced the same with my 5G Video iPod. Also, for sound effects recording, or recording ambiance, you can hear the hard drive spin-up, so the Nano rules. And the processor feels faster on the (3G) Nano, more quickly going in and out of the dialogs for the voice recording screens.
Here are some recordings of thunder and ambiance using the TuneTalk Stereo on a 3G Nano. One, two, three, four.

Photography Fun

admin — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 03:00:45 +0000

I saw an image on the web today that gave me the idea to use this very short tripod I have, try about 3 inches tall, to place my camera places I can’t get, or capture unusual angles.

Rocks

DIY Speakers For The Wise

admin — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 02:49:30 +0000

Bill Fitzmaurice is the maestro when it comes to DIY horn-loaded speaker systems. He’s got designs large and small, wedge, sub and tall. I’m seriously considering one of his designs for our new church location (I’m entertaining a single copy of the dual 12 version.)

My last DIY project served us well, but I’m looking for something with a little more projection and defined dispersion. The high SPL of all his designs are an added bonus. I’ll probably recycle my existing sub, after that I think a couple of these loaded with dual 12’s would do nicely.

Our previous PA “tops” (times 4). Those are dual Vifa 8’s (same as used in one of the older Mackie self-powered studio monitors), Audax Pro (PR series) 6 inch mid (used by EAW for eons), and Audax PR series tweet.

Vifa/Audax Cabinets

The sub, those are the venerable Swan 305 woofer from Madisound, now “out of print.”

Swan 305 X 4 Cabinet

Bear in mind, this is all in a 40 X 40 room with 10 foot ceilings.