I’ve been thinking a lot lately about where I want to take the business and I’ve always known that the 3D printing side has limited scope for expansion. 3D printing was always going to be just the start and something I could do for some income while being a full-time stay-at-home dad. Things have slowed down somewhat lately mostly due to the arrival of our son and continued house renovations but the lack of space available for building projects is also getting to me.
Everything needed to film 4K video and take beautiful pictures. Actually that’s not true… So much more is needed!
I’ve always enjoyed filming what I’m doing and once the back shed is built I’ll have a lot of projects to get stuck into. All the pictures and video I’ve produced so far have been captured with only my cheap Android phone which doesn’t do too poorly but I wanted be able to make 4K video for YouTube. For this purpose and for the allowed budget I decided on the Nikon Z30 over its competitors, the Sony ZV-E10 and the Canon M50. I felt that the Canon was more expensive without much advantage over the others so it was down to the Sony and the Nikon.
I very nearly went for the Sony as it was slightly cheaper and in a lot of ways better than the Nikon, e,g. it’s less prone to overheating and it has included software to eliminate camera shake. What made the decision to take the Nikon though is its better weather resistance and superior rolling shutter characteristics. Weather resistance is important for creating content in the workshop and back shed where there will inevitably be some dust around. Rolling shutter for those who aren’t familiar is a method of capturing an image by scanning rapidly from top to bottom of your subject. All digital cameras at this price point will use this method to capture images. The lagging effect it creates when panning the camera quickly is far more noticeable on the Sony than on the Nikon. In most circumstances this isn’t a problem but since I intend to capture motorsport in the future this is important for better results.
Now that I have the new camera, it’s time to get familiar with it and take some footage. While I’ve always had an interest in photography and videography, I am by no means an expert and so while the baby is sleeping I can take some of that time to learn how to operate the camera manually and how to setup scenes to get a good-looking result. I’ve uploaded a video sample to YouTube that I’ve captured using manual settings at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, and at Katoomba in the Blue Mountains while on holidays recently. I think it’s vast improvement over the old camera phone but let me know what you think! Check it out via the link.
I’m itching to get stuck into some more projects that I can film and potentially get a proper YouTube channel going. We’ll see!
Gallery - Unboxing The New Camera
