Gadgetory

hey what is going on everybody I've known from technobuffalo calm and you know yesterday or I guess it was yesterday I shot it today I posted it piece of advice number one for aspiring tech reviewers and journalists and bloggers forget your concept of time because you know you write things today they get posted tomorrow you shoot things yesterday they get posted at the end of the week time zones embargoes trade shows all kinds of crazy stuff just just forget what you thought about time was it just goes crazy for you believe me but anyway posted this video answering an email from somebody named Nick or starting to answer talking about you know advice for aspiring tech reviewers and tech bloggers and stuff and there's some comments posted already those you who watch the video thank you those you didn't go watch it and have some comments posted go watch it I don't know what that was some comments posted already asking some follow-up questions what are the most common ones one of those common ones was you know tell us more about how to get products to review that's a separate topic for another video I think unless this one comes up short but I have a tendency to talk a lot so probably not but one of the other topics which I want to cover right now is what gear you what gear to use what camera to use you know that kind of stuff and so I here's the thing about gear don't let gear get in your way of getting started and making content okay to to run a website you need access to a computer and access to the internet and and really that's all you need to get started you can use free programs you can use you know hosted blogger accounts or wordpress account or whatever for free just to get started YouTube it's free to get an account if you want to use YouTube you need a camera of some sort you can use the cam the webcam in your computer to get started if you have a cell phone that shoots video you can use that you know you don't have to go out and spend a lot of money and let the technology get in the way of just getting started just get started that's what's important because a lot of times I was like this you know as a kid I still get all excited about something I'll spend all this time researching what gear to get I'll get the gear I'll use it for a while and then you know I I'm not interested anymore so you don't want to don't make my mistake you don't let the gear matter just just get started that being said I'll talk a little bit about the gear that I use because some of you asked I'm shooting this on a canon camcorder it's a vixia m30 I believe what I say here yeah hmm 30 so this is the the newer version of the camera I used to have when I was at the phoneDog but I had to give it back because it's a company camera when I left the job so I bought this one I in like November a few months ago whatever there's not five months ago and I use Canon camcorders for two main reasons one is they the files work well with the video editing software I use the second is the camera camcorder canon camcorders almost all of them have a microphone jack so I'm actually using you can see here a little lavalier mic which just plugs right into the microphone jack and I've had three different camera canon camcorders I can't say the name but I've had three of them two of them have been HD one of them was the fs100 which was a standard def camcorder it was great for standard def and even that for like 200 bucks had a microphone jack which a lot of the camcorders out there non-professional ones the ones that are under a thousand dollars don't have microphone jacks and it's nice to have that I don't use it all the time but this lavalier mic is great for getting good vocal quality I have a handheld mic that plugs in you know and this Mike was like 30 bucks off amazon this mike i got eight years ago for twenty bucks at Circuit City and serving sitting on business anymore and it still works fine but these mics are great for vocals you know when it's just you you know you're not interviewing something or getting sound off with something else they're also great for shooting out in the field so at a trade show a press event you know that sort of thing again you don't have to use them all the time if you want to get fancier with it John has a sony camcorder and he is a bluetooth wireless bluetooth mic which is great the wireless is awesome and you know but that's the kind of stuff that don't worry about that yet I I think it's a wise policy I used to not follow this policy and I got into some debt and I got out of that now for all the policy don't go spending a lot of money at first just do it cheap and easy first and then if it works then you can upgrade you know as it's worth it with phoneDog the first videos were shot on a little you know $90 point-and-shoot camera that shot 30-second MPEG clips and then that led to getting a camcorder that led to getting a better camcorder that led doing HD video you know and so on so there you go I know John quach shoots video on his digital SLR the DSLRs now or awesome if I was buying a new camera right now you know I would look I do a lot more video than photos and I'm a terrible photographer believe me but I would look into you know a camera that a point-and-shoot maybe that does video also that kind of thing hard to find one that has a mic and a swiveling screen I like the swiveling screen also so there you go so the sound very important and you know an external mic can be really good lighting is also very important I had a lighting kit inexpensive lighting kit something broke on it so I'm actually in the market for a new one but lighting can be very tricky shooting outside natural light is great inside can be tricky I'm not a lighting expert for sure but sounded lighting or to Portman things and when you're shooting videos of gadgets you know I've got a gadget here I've got a cell phone and the screens can be very reflective and you can see the screen is reflecting back in the you know the screen of my camcorder and so it's tricky and the things about shooting videos of gadgets with a lot of close-up on screens in expensive cameras like the flip cameras and the Kodak cameras that are really great for shooting high def video sort of in general some of them a lot of them don't do well with close-ups on screens so that's something if you're going to be shooting stuff with gadgets you kind of got it yet you have to kind of be careful you kind of got it you have to get it you have to gotta be careful you gotta be careful kids be careful and find something that's going to work with screens you're not shooting the screen so much you know you can get away with with other stuff and webcams you know that ton of people do stuff on YouTube all the time get millions of you shooting off their webcam so don't discount that just play around with what you've got and then if you're into it and everything like i said then worry about you know upgrading the gear so let's take a quick tour around look at you know some of the other gear that i use here and I you can get a sense of you know the tools of the trade i guess but again you know don't don't let the gear hold you back from getting started so here's my desk key things about the desk you will notice it's got a monitor i used to have two monitors but I found that I had one monitor for my work and the other for email and Twitter and I am which has turned into distractions and I was ignoring my work and instead just focusing on the distraction so I ditched the second monitor also important I have a lamp I rarely turn it on but I have it there anyway just in case keyboard and a mouse of course now you might you know you might find it ironic that I use an apple computer but I have a microsoft keyboard and mouse I was using the apple wireless bluetooth keyboard which is over here and the magic trackpad but I you know I went back to their good but I went back to the keyboard and mouse I like the old style keyboard because I type a lot like deal style keyboards a little roomier and has the nice button action you know sounds like old train coming down the track what else it's very important to have at least 25 web browser tabs open at once it makes you feel like you're being busy preferably you want to have a picture of yourself on the screen or even two pictures of yourself on the screen at all times very important also on the desk empty cup of coffee makes it seem like you really burn the midnight oil John's been teasing me a lot lately about how I drink fancy coffee at a fancy little cups but it's true I like the espresso random gadgets scattered around I've got my nike sportband for running I've got my iphone I've got the verizon Thunderbolt you want to make sure you have multiple no you don't at all this is just this in my life you know I review engadget so I've got you know review phones around I've got this remote I was trying out for the iOS devices not not so keen on it I've got an empty bin I don't know why rechargeable batteries I haven't opened speakers I've got the logitech z10 you should know none of this stuff i'm showing you except for the review phones which i send back they're not mine none of this stuff was like I'm not paid to user or whatever there's just the stuff that i personally use logitech z 10 speakers there there many years old now but no sub woofer so they don't take up a lot of room when I had a sub woofer I would always kick it under my desk and then it the cords would come out everything so I like these it's us be controlled sounds good you can find a pair now they're probably really cheap this is all hooked up to this is a pro tip right here if you can get a fancy computer that's not yours you don't have to spend money on it my friend you and let me this computer when he went back from San Francisco to London it's a mac pro tower you and thank you it's on permanent loan or semi permanent loan so i'm using this my personal computer they actually own 13-inch macbook pro i also have an 11-inch macbook air which is TechnoBuffalo property which I've come to really like for trade shows because it's SuperDuper light but point being that i use a mac and it's just personal preference i don't have a big thing against windows or linux or whatever I just I like the max because I liked the video editing software which I use a lot and the music editing software which I use you know and in my non-work life well I haven't been playing much lately I use iMovie to edit all my stuff because it's simple I don't do a lot of fancy effects i just do cuts and titles John quach we got to get John quatrain on camera because he is a whiz he's one of the most talented people I've ever met and one of the nicest guys in the world and he can talk video production way more than I can so but anyway it's my setup the mac pro tower I've got to external hard drives because it's not my computer this has empty bays in it but eventually would have to give this back so I've got the external drives with my backups and I use one for video editing stuff whatever keyboard mouse there's my monitor 23-inch you know it's low budget I'd love to have one of those fancy Apple monitors I'm not going to spend a thousand dollars on it what else important stuff here old beat-up mousepad from an artic art exhibition at the Guggenheim gives me street cred not one but two SD card readers because Mac towers don't have an SD card reader reader built in blu point-and-shoot camera which is not a work camera necessarily it's personal camera but I use that sometimes to take still photos and they come out much better than on the camcorder it's just that this doesn't shoot good video so I get lazy and I'd use the camcorder for photographs inspirational drummer also I should show the inspirational mug patients because I don't have enough of it and my little inspirational card with a reading from the Dalai Lama because I have too much pride there you go and fake paper flowers not just because they're cool also they don't need watering anyway broken memory card I have so many memory cards laying around it's ridiculous I tried to fix this one by taping it back together it worked for a little bit but didn't last a random stuff gearbag boxee box will come over here yard you've probably already noticed there are a lot of chords it's a very dangerous place I've got a press bag full of paper case I ever need to print anything which i don't but i've got a little personal laser printer under there I only ever print fedex labels to send things back this thing if you're a Mac user who shoots a lot of video I highly recommend the y el gato turbo 264 it at HD I like this thing so much that when I broke it I taped it back together and it kept working which is awesome this speeds up the encoding process so it integrates into quick time and so when I export video out of iMovie especially if it's HD video everything I shoot winds up getting exported almost everything the 720p and I kind of tweak the settings to make it sort of optimal you know small file size but but good enough quality this thing speeds up the exporting process at least three fold so what used to take 25 minutes to export now takes seven or eight it's awesome it's about 120 bucks probably hunted for less now and I can't recommend enough you just have to find the right settings to dial it in random stuff you know press releases there's the box from the elgato thing obviously I'm a neat freak there's the Samsung TV that I'm reviewing right now you might have seen this in the backdrop some of the videos the TechnoBuffalo logo on it will turn this thing on there's the Philips blu-ray player then I'm reviewing right now you can see under the table here is just bins and boxes and things of you know review stuff some of its review stuff that needs to be sent back a lot of it is just like cables and things like that I've collected over the years that I really should get rid of her giveaway in fact you know what there's a bin over here I'm kind of I can't show you this area it's too embarrassing hang on all right so this is just a bin with like stuff just old stuff from like you know product samples from trade shows and things like that and they just kind of pile up over time you know the eye bags or better members the eye bags right and the ipod nano waterproof case there but then here's you know here's the thermo pack but then there's an ipad case and so maybe we should give some of the stuff away on the site just you know the stuff piles up and and sometimes companies go out of business or you know it's just whatever sometimes it's just samples you accrue and I have so many bags from trade shows and all it's crazy we should just give this away if anybody wants it and you back over here to the desktop and so basically again you know the the deal really is most important have your own picture on the screen in as many places as possible at all times I have lots of other websites including really fancy high-profile websites like The Wall Street Journal that now employ people you know like Tricia who is up there in the right corner of it but her picture just changed have that up there also because that makes you feel important but most importantly don't let the gear get in the way just get started make stuff you know work on your style your writing style your video stuff here I'll get in from the camera you know I mean if you go back if you go to the crabby crab channel on YouTube care a vivir y KR v KR a vivir y KR AV on youtube and you search by date go in the oldest ones first and look at the first couple of videos i did i'm not saying my videos are great now but those old videos man it was just trying stuff it was trying to run I don't know what I was doing and you just have to try things and maybe it's video maybe it's writing maybe it's photography who knows but just try it and those were shot on you know like I said that old point-and-shoot camera we just happened to have that shut MPEG clips don't let the gear get in the way just do it you'll borrow a camera use your webcam whatever start putting it online you know and then promote yourself and we'll talk about that in the next video the promoting yourself and trying to get stuff to review and all that kind of thing all right so anyway I hope it was helpful hit us up with questions hit us up with comments of course and I will get some of my esteemed colleagues on some of these videos to give you tips because you know John Q knows way more about video production and SEO than I do John render obviously knows a ton about growing a Youtube subscriber base in a very different way than how I did it with phoneDog so you know we want to share the wisdom if we can because really what we want to do is we want to find the next awesome bloggers and steal you and make you work for us that's what we want we'll see you later