The Flip Video family of cameras have always been somewhat appealing to me; they are small, easy to use and cheap ($200 or less). Almost perfect for the blogger, or small business owner getting their feet wet in the world of web video marketing. The one problem: No audio input! How very annoying! The video quality is pretty darn good for what you pay but the audio leaves a lot to be desired.

Thankfully a couple of other companies have noticed that hole in the market and are picking up the slack. I’m going to take a brief look at three possible solutions for an affordable handheld video cam that has quality audio capabilities.

Wired magazine recently profiled the Zoom Q3 videocam. Zoom is known for making audio recording devices (think the perfect little pocket recorder for bootlegging a U2 concert), therefore this new device has a top-mounted mic that records in 44.1/48kHz 16/24-bit Linear PCM or MP3 audio up to 320kbps . In other words pretty damn good audio, even though it doesn’t have an external mic jack. The problem may be that this device is an audio recorder first and a video recorder second. In a time when most pocket camcorders are upgrading to some sort of HD flavor, Zoom is sticking with SD- 640×480.

This might be OK for some users if the picture quality holds up, especially in low light scenarios. The Zoom Q3 isn’t out until Oct. 9th, 2009 and I have yet to find any good footage and audio tests online. Therefore the jury is still out on this one, but it has potential. This is probably the best solution around if you are shooting lots of concerts, as it also has on screen audio levels to help with dialing in the correct levels. The cost for this video camera is $249 on Amazon.

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As part of what my producer Craig Bland calls ‘Branded Social Programming,’ I shot and edited this promotional web video for JCP Teen’s Schooled in Style with Whitney Port campaign.

The reality style webisode features Whitney Port (”The Hills,” & “The City”) and one lucky $1,000 Back To School shopping spree winner at the new JC Penney’s in Manhattan. Whitney styles the 16 year old Mary Ann, and gives her tips to look her best in the new year.

We sent Mary Ann a FlipCam before the shoot day to get an authentic taste of who she is and the world she lives in. The video she shot serves as a nice introduction to the meat of the video package and proves how the proper use of lower quality cams can add a very effective “real” element (now if they will just make a FlipCam with a mic jack!) I talk a little bit more about our pre-production process for the shoot in my post from a couple weeks ago.

The final video was distributed across the Celebuzz network including Whitney Port’s official blog.

Incorporating video into any online promotion adds an dynamic and engaging element that is otherwise not possible.

Below is my long over due reply to Dan, a Realtor in Florida who is having some trouble with using his new video camera’s MPEG-4 files with Windows Movie Maker and encoding a quality .FLV file for post. Plus I recommend a completely free online flash video player that is easy to setup and has the ability to add your logo, pre-roll ads and more. It may be perfect for your web videos too!

Hi Wayne!

Here’s my problem: I’m using Windows XP and Windows Movie Maker. The camera produces MPEG-4 files and WMM won’t accept them. So I have to convert them (with anyvideoconverter) first to XVID files which WMM will accept. I do all my editing and add music then WMM produces a WMV output file.

I’ve tried converting the WMV to FLV with limited success….the output isn’t the quality I desire and that might be my fault because I don’t even know what to set the output parameters (fps, etc) to so I just leave them at the defaults. The output isn’t clean and smooth like the input.

So my problem is all the file conversions and the resulting file looking like crap! You mentioned something about Sony Vegas? Is that my answer? And if so, does it come with a Player or what player would you recommend I use? I would need to paste the code for the player on each individual web page and then just point at the new video file each time.

Regards,

Dan, REALTOR

My reply is after the jump…

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