[bsprague]

After being absent for so long it seemed appropriate that I report in when I bought a new camera.

My absence? I guess it was due to not having much to contribute without buying new gear. In fact, my camera collection has been gifts from my wife. I haven't bought a camera in over a decade!

The new gear? An Osmo Pocket 2. Why? My biggest, long term, most consistent problem is lack of steady video shooting. There is always a tripod but I tend to not want to hold up the person or people I'm with. The Pocket 2 will make anybody steady. The bonus it that it has some good audio options.

The Pocket 2 has been reported here so there is probably not much I will be able to add. Like before, I'm a couple months late!

Best to all of the regulars here!

 

[markr041]

Welcome back. I, and I am sure others, missed you.

 

[Ken Ross]

I’ll second Mark’s comment, welcome back. I‘m sure you’ll enjoy the Osmo.

 

[luidoly]

After being absent for so long it seemed appropriate that I report in when I bought a new camera.

My absence? I guess it was due to not having much to contribute without buying new gear. In fact, my camera collection has been gifts from my wife. I haven't bought a camera in over a decade!

The new gear? An Osmo Pocket 2. Why? My biggest, long term, most consistent problem is lack of steady video shooting. There is always a tripod but I tend to not want to hold up the person or people I'm with. The Pocket 2 will make anybody steady. The bonus it that it has some good audio options.

The Pocket 2 has been reported here so there is probably not much I will be able to add. Like before, I'm a couple months late!

Best to all of the regulars here!

Welcome back, You will not be disappointed with the Pocket-2, it is really amazing
Thanks
Luis

 

[bsprague]

Welcome back. I, and I am sure others, missed you.

Thanks Mark! It has been a long time since the HX9V and TM900!

 

[bsprague]

I’ll second Mark’s comment, welcome back. I‘m sure you’ll enjoy the Osmo.

Thanks Ken. I'm still using some of first 4K gear I bought with help here. The Panasonic LX100 and Panasonic GX8 are still working for me. My most recent project was recording a couple musicians doing holiday music. I had to learn proxy editing and multi camera techniques in Premiere Pro. A friend is an audio recording perfectionist so I had to learn how to sync external audio to the multi camera editing! I'm hoping to use the Osmo for some additional "b-roll" in the next project.

 

[bsprague]

Welcome back, You will not be disappointed with the Pocket-2, it is really amazing
Thanks
Luis

Thanks Luis.

The Pocket 2 was a compromise. I ordered a DJI Mini 2 and then started reading where I could and couldn't fly it. Based on where I like to go for travel and landscape it turns out to be useless for me. I never took it out of the box. B&H was very good at taking it back and then selling me a Pocket 2.

I realized that my two biggest challenges are being steady without a tripod and audio. And, for me, small is always better. Since it shoots 4K and is by nature steadier than anything I have, the Pocket-2 seems to fit my needs.

Another compromise was between a gimbal big enough for my "real" cameras vs the tiny Pocket 2. Set up seems to busy and fussy with larger gimbals. The Pocket 2 is quick and always ready. So, I accepted less than perfect picture quality.

Bill

 

[markr041]

Bill,

This is pro-like. Good editing and good audio - excellent tonality and little noise. Limited stereo separation of the instruments, though - which one would not expect given how far apart they are. Tell us about the mic set up. Also, why not 4K?

 

[bsprague]

Bill,

This is pro-like. Good editing and good audio - excellent tonality and little noise. Limited stereo separation of the instruments, though - which one would not expect given how far apart they are. Tell us about the mic set up. Also, why not 4K?

Thank you for the "pro-like" compliment.

One of the odd things that happened to me since I drifted away from here was becoming an "Adobe Community Professional" or "ACP". I had been in the habit of asking and answering questions in Adobe's Premiere Elements user forum. One day they invited me to be 'one of the team'. In exchange for trying to answer about one user question a day, they give me the full Creative Cloud subscription. My video hobby has expanded to learning Premiere Pro, Media Encoder, Audition and After Effects. There is also Photoshop and the 5 Lightrooms. So, I guess I should be more "pro-like". Part of it is a non disclosure agreement for meetings about secret new stuff coming!

Joe (my audio friend) is married to the clarinet player and has been recording music for a long time. His basic tools are a pair of old Shure 545 mics plugged in to a Zoom H4 recorder. We've also tried Shure SM58 mics. His software of choice is the (free) Audacity. His strategy comes from music recording forums he is on. Apparently getting a "blend" is more important than stereo separation. Most important is what his wife likes when he is done!

In this case, I shot in 4K so as to have room to create some pan and zoom motion in post that will (hopefully) keep the viewers eyes engaged. Secondly, I don't think few, if any, of the target viewers have, or even know what, 4K is.

The audience is 1350 residents of a CCRC retirement community. (www.panorama.org) At 75, I'm on the younger end of the population. Average is 82! Most don't have anything that plays 4K. The closed circuit TV on campus is provided by Comcast as part of their federal licensing requirements. It is still in SD!

One of the campus benefits is a TV Studio run by residents. I signed up. It is very old school with three remotely operated cameras and it takes 5 people to operate. One of the new toys is a Zoom H6 and I seem to be the only one using it.

 

[markr041]

Thank you for the "pro-like" compliment.

One of the odd things that happened to me since I drifted away from here was becoming an "Adobe Community Professional" or "ACP". I had been in the habit of asking and answering questions in Adobe's Premiere Elements user forum. One day they invited me to be 'one of the team'. In exchange for trying to answer about one user question a day, they give me the full Creative Cloud subscription. My video hobby has expanded to learning Premiere Pro, Media Encoder, Audition and After Effects. There is also Photoshop and the 5 Lightrooms. So, I guess I should be more "pro-like". Part of it is a non disclosure agreement for meetings about secret new stuff coming!

Joe (my audio friend) is married to the clarinet player and has been recording music for a long time. His basic tools are a pair of old Shure 545 mics plugged in to a Zoom H4 recorder. We've also tried Shure SM58 mics. His software of choice is the (free) Audacity. His strategy comes from music recording forums he is on. Apparently getting a "blend" is more important than stereo separation. Most important is what his wife likes when he is done!

In this case, I shot in 4K so as to have room to create some pan and zoom motion in post that will (hopefully) keep the viewers eyes engaged. Secondly, I don't think few, if any, of the target viewers have, or even know what, 4K is.

The audience is 1350 residents of a CCRC retirement community. (www.panorama.org) At 75, I'm on the younger end of the population. Average is 82! Most don't have anything that plays 4K. The closed circuit TV on campus is provided by Comcast as part of their federal licensing requirements. It is still in SD!

One of the campus benefits is a TV Studio run by residents. I signed up. It is very old school with three remotely operated cameras and it takes 5 people to operate. One of the new toys is a Zoom H6 and I seem to be the only one using it.

Thanks for this. You are a pro! I get to use Premiere Pro and the whole Adobe creative cloud suite for free, but my editor of choice is DaVinci Resolve Studio. I used Premiere Pro because it deals with ProResRAW, unlike Resolve. It was perfectly good

So, here are my comments on the video (besides I think the editing and audio quality are great):

1. The stereo blend should depend on what is viewed. In this case I believe the blend was too much - it should reflect the distance of the performers from each other. They were far apart, but the sound of each instrument was almost one on top of the other. There is a very important spatial component to audio, and the audio for a video should be spatially consistent with the video, not just be pleasing to the ear. There was a disjointedness of video and audio. My favorite mic technique is ORTF, which very well captures the spatial position of the players being recorded and thus is well suited to video. In principle those cardioid Shure mics can be used in an ORTF configuration. The less mucking around of the audio in post, the more realistic the sound; like video, getting it right in the field (placement, separation, level) makes for a better product. I record audio (classical concerts) professionally from time to time, but cannot link to anything I have done for copyright reasons.

2. We are back to the old 4K debate. I get that you like zooming and panning in post, and that is really helpful here. So, you are taking advantage of 4K and yet producing an HD video. The problem is that YouTube and Vimeo apply a different (worse) compression standard for HD versus uploaded 4K videos, and HD videos look far worse than 4K videos on any screen. So, there is a tradeoff. The HD here looked more soft than it should - too low a rendered bitrate? In any case, you now have a really good excuse to get a 6K or 8K camera, so you can deliver in 4K and still pan and zoom in post!

 

[bsprague]

I had to look up ORTF. Interesting and makes sense.

It is not that I like zooming and panning in post, it is that, in this case, I think a wee bit of it helped in a couple places that were too static.

Soft video? Could be. All I can say is that I like the video that comes out of my cameras. Recently I've had to lower the bit rate for a couple local projects for odd transition requirements. I was surprised that it still looked good to my eye.

Keep in mind that my eyes and ears are reaching 75 years of steady, sometime hard, use! At least I can be sure when it is color, not B&W.

Do you remember telling me that the video from my then cherished RX100 (original) was seriously flawed? Mark, could it be that your eye might be excessively critical??

It will surprise me if I get any 6K or 8K gear. I know it is coming. And, it will be marvelous.

Bill

 

[markr041]

I had to look up ORTF. Interesting and makes sense.

It is not that I like zooming and panning in post, it is that, in this case, I think a wee bit of it helped in a couple places that were too static.

Soft video? Could be. All I can say is that I like the video that comes out of my cameras. Recently I've had to lower the bit rate for a couple local projects for odd transition requirements. I was surprised that it still looked good to my eye.

Keep in mind that my eyes and ears are reaching 75 years of steady, sometime hard, use! At least I can be sure when it is color, not B&W.

Do you remember telling me that the video from my then cherished RX100 (original) was seriously flawed? Mark, could it be that your eye might be excessively critical??

It will surprise me if I get any 6K or 8K gear. I know it is coming. And, it will be marvelous.

Bill

The panning and zooming in post was very effective in the video to break up the monotony of just two static views. It could be I overreact to softness; I notice some overreact to stability or to motion oddities from slow frame rates that I do not notice at all. I also hate hot spots. On the other hand, I never find any movies or TV shows I watch to be soft or to have hot spots.

You have a good memory (which is great). And here I am using the latest RX100's. But, we both liked the Hx9v and the TM900. And that Brownie camera was terrific in its day...

 

[bsprague]

The panning and zooming in post was very effective in the video to break up the monotony of just two static views. It could be I overreact to softness; I notice some overreact to stability or to motion oddities from slow frame rates that I do not notice at all. I also hate hot spots. On the other hand, I never find any movies or TV shows I watch to be soft or to have hot spots.

You have a good memory (which is great). And here I am using the latest RX100's. But, we both liked the Hx9v and the TM900. And that Brownie camera was terrific in its day...

I over react to stability. I hate shaky. That's why I bought an Osmo Pocket 2. I think the sensor is too small for best picture quality, but I think 'rock solid' is there.

I really would like a logical justification to buy the latest RX100. My dear wife (of 52 years!) just bought an RX 10 IV. Amazing gear but I'm not allowed to touch it. We share everything except cameras and computers. It is funny how marriages evolve.

My TM900 was relabeled as an SDT-750 because it came in a kit with a 3D lens. Nobody wanted 3D so it was really cheap. 3D was fun for a couple months. I still have it and am going to put it to use. I've become the Secretary of a RV travel club. The SDT-750, aka TM900, has pretty good audio and no recording limit. It came with a 120v cord so the battery is not a limitation. I'm going to record dull meetings so that my written minutes are correct and have a backup.

 

[Ungermann]

Welcome back, Bill. I am still using my TM700 and SD600. They are pin-sharp for a 1080 camera. I wish they had more bitrate. I had a 4K Panasonic M4/3 camera, but sold it. I don't shoot anything that would necessitate 4K or HDR.

 

[bsprague]

Welcome back, Bill. I am still using my TM700 and SD600. They are pin-sharp for a 1080 camera. I wish they had more bitrate. I had a 4K Panasonic M4/3 camera, but sold it. I don't shoot anything that would necessitate 4K or HDR.

Thanks for the welcome back!

I do miss the camcorder formfactor. I've been tempted a few times to buy a 4K camcorder. In a way, I just did! The Pocket 2 is a video camera. Unlike my M4/3 gear, I don't think it will be very useful for photos. I took it for its first walk this morning.

Bill

 

[bsprague]

Seems like I should offer a review! Turns out that I got more than I expected when I bought it. I'm far more impressed than I thought I would be.

First of course, is always "picture quality". There is no shortage of examples on YouTube, so you can judge it anyway you want. Suffice it to say that it is VERY good enough for me. There are a lot of menu choices and I haven't tried to test them all. 4K30 and 4K60 work well. There is an "HDR" and a "D-Cinelike" that may be part of my future shooting, but for now I want footage as close to what my other gear does in 4K30.

The part that, as they say, "blows my socks off" is stability. I started on this forum a decade back and have always fought stability. I hate, with passion, shaky video. Even with the best lens and body stabilization, I have to work hard to be only mostly stable. Most of my footage is too wiggly. Tripods and monopods work, but they cumbersome. This Pocket 2 starts up quickly and, with standard settings, is rock steady. Amazing and better than I expected.

Of course a tripod makes rock steady too. But, the shots can be boring. With the Pocket 2 you can move to simulate jib, boom and slider shots that are far more interesting. I love being able to add that interest. To make it even better, I bought the DJI boom pole that uses a phone as the monitor.

The second part that has blown me away is the "creator combo". It adds a remote wireless mic, headset monitoring, wireless connection to a phone and tripod mount. The wireless mic has a port for better mics. So, if the hardest part of good video is the audio, this combo kit get it!

This is not a simple kit. Of course it has a very good, default, easy mode. After a week, every time I watch or re-watch a tutorial I discover something else.

Last is the size and nature of how the parts and accessories fit together. It is tiny and the design behind making it all fit and work together is providing a lot of fun.

My other cameras are a Panasonic GX8 with a 100-400 lens for wildlife and Panasonic LX100 for everything else. Both are good at 4K and stills. A backup is a Olympus TG-5 for rough, ready, windy, rainy and snowy. A Pocket 2 kit expands the shooting options because of the stability while in motion or not. (Sitting on the shelf are a TM900 and RX100 original. Lost to a seawater salt bath was the HX9V.)

I'm more excited about shooting some video than I've been for awhile! The Pocket 2 is well spent stimulus money.

 

[bsprague]

More review.....

I like the Pocket 2 for excelling at being both tiny and capable. Yet the smallness can be awkward. The addition of the DJI Extension Rod ($70) transforms it into a much easier to hold and control "rig". The design of this "looks like a selfie stick" is brilliant. It has a mount for a phone giving it a bigger screen and more controls. It has typical buttons for remote controlling. It telescopes to improve "boom" shots. It has a cold shoe that can be used for a mic or maybe a Lume Cube light. Perhaps the best feature is the big enough for large hands handle.

As a selfie stick it excels. With the phone attached, you can draw a box around your head and it will track it as you compose a "head to the side of the frame shot".

The only downside is that it converts the unobtrusive little camera into a more obvious and noticeable recording rig. In other words it improves the ergonomics while removing any semblance of stealth.

I don't know how to measure or compare the picture quality to other cameras. But the design of the system, including the stick, make for a more capable "story telling" rig. The colors may not be as pure and the dynamic range may not be as great, but my videos of travel and family adventure will be more interesting to watch.

 

[Ken Ross]

Bill, I couldn't agree more. It's amusing to me to see how some owners buy these tiny cameras and then adorn them with every conceivable outboard mike, external monitor, external drive, selfie stick, etc. Before long they've got a rig that's as big or bigger than the big camera they originally avoided because of its size.

 

[bsprague]

Bill, I couldn't agree more. It's amusing to me to see how some owners buy these tiny cameras and then adorn them with every conceivable outboard mike, external monitor, external drive, selfie stick, etc. Before long they've got a rig that's as big or bigger than the big camera they originally avoided because of its size.

I was watching the inauguration this morning and looking at the huge shoulder mounted video gear.

Where this optional stick works well is at expanding some usefulness in a minimalist way. "Normal" use is without the stick. But, the stick can add certain amounts of drama where that might be useful. Being on a walk as a tourist in an iconic city is different than being on a filming mission in that city.

Being an (old) one with a history of conventional cameras, this DJI thing is remarkable. It is like someone threw out everything traditional, focused on current technology and started from scratch. Previous cameras have been incremental steps forward. This one seems to have thrown the baby out with the bath water to start from design scratch.

 

[Ken Ross]

Bill, I still have the original Osmo Pocket and it certainly does have some amazing capabilities given its tiny size.