Kickstarter is quickly become one of the go to sites for getting your hands on new cool innovative tech products before they go on sale to the general public. Accessories for popular smartphones, cameras, or laptops are especially prevalent. A quick search for "iPhone" routinely pulls up 5-10 ongoing campaigns looking to fund a wide of products ranging from cases and clip on lenses to wireless charging pads and projectors all designed for the iPhone. Personally, I find myself searching Kickstarter on almost a weekly basis for any new GoPro accessories which may be trying to gain the funding necessary to come to market. I've backed several GoPro-related projects in the past, and while some sadly fell short of their goal, I have been very happy with the one's that have been successful.
I decided to make this third "What I'm Backing on Kickstarter" exclusively about GoPro-related products currently seeking funding on Kickstarter since three of the four projects I am backing fall into this category (the fourth is CHATLIGHT: Lighting For Video Chat And Selfies for those who are curious). If you are a true GoPro-er, you will likely be joining me in backing one if not all of these campaigns.
It seems like interesting Kickstarter campaigns come in bunches. I had almost given up checking the discover tab every day or two when all of a sudden I found one, than another, and then another Kickstarter campaign/product which perked my interest. Since some of these campaigns have not yet reached their funding goal (and are only days away from completing their campaign), I decided to once again share with you all what I am currently backing on Kickstarter.
So this is the second blog post I've dedicated to the awesome and innovative tech gadgets which seem to pop up like cute kitten videos on YouTube. For this I decided that instead of linking to a bunch of campaigns which I liked (but only a couple of which I had actually backed), I would only link to and recommend the three which I am currently backing, a way to "Put my money where my mouth is" as they say. So, without further ado, my favorite campaigns currently happening on Kickstarter (in order of campaign end dates).
Starting about 6 months ago I began really getting into backing projects on Kickstarter. As a tech enthusiast, I had known about Kickstarter for a while and even checked out some pretty cool projects, but I had never felt compelled enough to pull the trigger. That all changed with the Pressy Button for Android phones. It was a product that I could see myself using, it was innovative and creative, and above all it was affordably priced at below what they were planning on selling it for to the general public. This is ultimately one of the best things about Kickstarter; startups can get support for a new product and backers can get it for a discounted price (yeah I know I'm late to the party and everybody has already known this for like 5 years but whatever). Since popping my figurative Kickstarter cherry in the fall, I have gone wild, backing 11 total projects almost all of which were successful. Some of my favorite projects I backed were: The Pocket Drone and the Retro-Essential Brass & Wood Pen.
I now regularly check Kickstarter's recently launched project page to see if there are any new and interesting projects which I might want to back. I decided to share some of these projects (my favorite of which is the Frankenspiel FS-X Bluetooth Speaker) so other people could benefit from my semi-recent obsession. If you have any questions, suggestions, or projects you think I should check out, please leave a comment or find me Facebook or Twitter.
A lot of people are creating and posting videos to Youtube nowadays (nearly 24hrs of video is uploaded every second). This means that if you want your videos to standout among the crowd they should not only be creative, engaging, and original, but also look good to the viewer. While the look of a video is mainly dependent upon you, the creator, director, cameraman, and producer, no one can deny the effect of filming on a good quality camera or camcorder. Since the majority of the devices on the market today are capable of filming in Full HD (1080x1920), it has become a lot harder to choose the camera which fits your needs. Luckily, I've taken the time to break it all down for you below.
As I see it, there are currently four basic categories to choose from for a video recording device under $1000: mobile devices (cellphones/tablets), point-and-shoots (including Flip Camcorders), camcorders (such as the Canon Vixia), and DSLRs. Like I said, these are basic categories, and they blatantly ignore mirror-less cameras, Wifi enabled point-and-shoots, and other new but rapidly expanding categories.
Mobile Devices:
+Portable and Convenient
+Share-ability
+Can usually edit the footage on the device itself
-No Optical Zoom
-Relatively Low Bit Rates (MegaBytes Per Second)
-Hard to hold steady resulting in the classic "shaky cellphone" look
Point-and-Shoots:
+Relatively Inexpensive
+Small, Lightweight, and Portable
-Few to no manual settings
-Very few accessories available
Camcorders:
+Best Autofocus of any Camera Catagory
+Designed exclusively for videography
+Good built in mics
+Amazing Built in Stabilization
-Designed especially for shooting video
-Slightly more expensive
DSLRs:
+Can do it all
+Able to achieve the "filmesque" look with their shallow depth of field
+Great for manual focusing
+The ability to change lenses
+Tons and tons of accessories available
-Worst at Autofocusing
-Produces very large video files which can be nearly impossible to edit on slower computers
-Slightly more expensive
So these are some of the pros and cons for each category. If you want more information on this and some sample video comparisons, watch the video below:
One thing I just want to emphasize from my video is how having the best camera won't instantly make you a great filmmaker and vice versa. The video that probably demonstrates this the clearest is Sandcastle Sensei by YouTube star Freddie Wong. The video was shot completely on the Samsung Galaxy S3 and it was edited using only iMovie. The video is a testament to Freddie's true talent and proves that he didn't get famous just because he could afford a good camera.
So that's basically it from me on how to choose the best camera for YouTube. If you have any questions on the issue or anything else tech related, feel free to leave them in the comment sor hit me up on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube and I wish you the best of luck with your next camera purchase!
As the first post on my blog, I would like to thank everyone who has watched my videos on Youtube. I recently surpassed 100k views and literally (not just in the cliche sense) couldn't have done it without you guys and girls.
Now I know not many people will read this first post, but I would like to say that a have a very cool video coming up. It will be a comparison of the video quality of the iPod Touch, Samsung Galaxy S3, Canon SX50 HS, Panasonic HDC-TM700 camcorder, and the Canon T4i DSLR in hopes of finding which is the best for Youtube videos.
Since I am going to be filming this on my vacation (away from my home recording setup) I had to purchase a few gadgets. Below are a couple of the products I purchased. You will likely see reviews/unboxings of them on my channel in the coming months. (Btw it will really be helpful if you buy the products using the below links since I will get a percentage from Amazon.com).
That's about it for now guys. Remember to subscribe to my Youtube channel to get notified when I release a new video. I hope you are having a good year so far :)
