Darren Waters, technology editor for the BBC’s technology Web section, has spent a week testing the Nokia N95’s photo, video and text capabilities and is mostly impressed, he writes in the BBC News’ dot.life weblog.
Waters says, “The original aim was to use the phone to test the limits of what was possible with these devices and examine how the web can be used as a vehicle for delivering content more quickly to the blog.”
He likes the N95’s video quality — in good lighting conditions and when the handset is kept steady while recording. I agree. If you know what you’re doing — good lighting conditions, the correct settings and not shaking the phone, the videos are good enough not just for consumers but also for broadcasting on television.
Waters also likes the application Shozu for easily transmitting photos and videos to multiple weblogs and video sites as well as the BBC’s ftp servers. Shozu has generated quite a following for its ease of use.
The value for breaking news
Waters writes, “The ability to file to a third party website, like Blip.TV, means we can get video from the phone and on the blog often within 30 minutes. It's not always the case that we will need that sort of speed but having the option gives us more flexibility.
“I can also envisage a time when for breaking news purposes the ability to shoot video and deliver it back to the BBC quickly and in reasonable quality -- without the use of a satellite connection -- is very useful indeed. I have resolved to always have this equipment with me.”
Well, duh. This is a no-brainer. I’ve been writing for years that every journalist, especially every broadcaster, should carry a good video-enabled camera phone — and the N95 is one of the best.
Instant broadcasting
Again and again I write that the future of journalism (I have an M.S. in Journalism with a major in broadcasting) is the ability to instantaneously transmit video and photos — and the camera phone is the key.
Waters is also pleased that most people aren’t concerned by his using a camera phone to shoot video. “I had expected people to be horrified but in fact most people were extremely receptive and many were impressed by the novelty.”
Today it’s a novelty that’s mostly the province of early adopters using such real-time mobile video blogging platforms as Qik and Flixwagon. Tomorrow — perhaps by 2010 or 2012, if journalists and their editors aren’t too prehistoric to understand the value — live streaming camera phone videos will be common.
Poor audio quality
Waters is dead on when he complains about the N95’s poor audio quality. As he notes, the handset’s microphone is designed for making phone calls, not for picking up voices in videos.
The BBC had asked Nokia to provide a a special adapter for a commercial-quality external microphone, but the handset manufacturer wasn’t able to comply within the time required. To be fair, Nokia has developed such an adapter that it has given to Reuters as part of the “mobile journalism toolkit” (see below) that Reuters reporters are testing for camera phone videos, photos and text entry, as I’ve written.
So why doesn’t Nokia offer an adapter for an external mic for its video-centric Nseries phones? This isn’t just a nice-to-have accessory; if your audio quality is awful, your video is often ruined. Live streaming video blogger extraordinaire, Robert Scoble, often uses his N95 with Qik, but also often complains about the poor audio.
If Nokia really wants to market its new handsets, such as the just-introduced N96 (see below), as the ne plus ultra of today’s video recording phones — and it does! — why doesn’t the company offer a way to get excellent audio into videos?
NOTE: Panera, the sandwich shop/bakery — of which I’m rather fond — is blocking me from accessing Robert’s Qik feeds via WiFi (see below). In fact, it’s blocking me from accessing the entire Qik site. The company doing the blocking is Sonic Wall. I am not amused.
Is there a mobile consumer device that you would recommend for making radio?
The N95 seems a viable option for video, but as Darren Waters also writes, you need to make a separate recording for radio.
Since I own a MacBook, I have been looking into the option of using an iPod Nano combined with MICROMEMO, but the problem there is that you cannot listen while recording.
(something also discussed by this Belgian podcaster http://www.mydigitallife.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10042&Itemid=43)
Posted by: Joost van de Loo | March 29, 2008 at 06:34 AM