Camera Bag

CameraBag is an extremely easy to use photo application for the iPhone. It uses the built-in camera on the phone to take pictures, so you don’t need any extra equipment (although lenses and flashes wouldn’t hurt), and it’s pretty cheap to buy.

The specialty of this application is to put filters on the pictures you take. There are several different ones, although some, like color cross, I can’t see anybody using for professional reasons, and others look very much the same. But there are enough different, useful filters that this application deserves a download and a look.

CameraBag doesn’t require that you use the application to take the pictures, and in fact the application works better if you just take the pictures and put them on your camera roll. If you have it open when you’re shooting, each picture will open on the camera, and before you take another, you will have to click on the phone to open our camera back up. Instead, you can go out and take your pictures, then upload them to CameraBag.

Either way, once you have your picture, it’s a simple process of flicking the screen from side to side to see which filter works best for what you’re using. Helga has ended up being my favorite, but really the story would warrant the filter, if you use one at all. Once you’ve chosen, you just have to tap the save button and your picture will be saved to your camera roll, so that you can text, email or upload it like any other picture you take.

In all, the application is a pretty neat little deal. It’s certainly something you wouldn’t use every time you go into the field, but if you were working on a story that was a bit more featurey than normal, I could certainly see it coming in handy. If you do use it, it’s simple and quick, and getting the pictures off your phone is virtually effortless.

Pano

Pano is a pretty simple application for the iPhone designed to take several pictures, piece them together, and form one panoramic shot. Now, the final image isn’t perfect, but it’s adequate for both the price of the application as well as what it’s attempting to do.

Firstly, it’s extremely simple. You start the application up, let it boot, and then you take your first picture. The icon showing the rectangles lets you choose whether you will be moving your camera vertically or horizontally to take your panoramic. I like horizontal more, simply because I’m usually more focused on what is happening in front of me rather than trying to take in a great height of something.

Once you’ve taken that first picture, line up the translucent afterimage with the real image on your camera (basically moving it to the side), and then take the next one. You keep doing this until you’ve got everything you want, and then you hit the check mark. It takes a moment to render, as it places all the images into one coherent line, and then you’ve got your panoramic

The AI in the application to make your picture is pretty decent. It’s by no means perfect, and you’ll wind up with a few odd angles, particularly if there are a lot of angles in the area you’re shooting, but in all, I couldn’t find much to complain about. It didn’t look wrong, just a tad off.

As far as actually using this application for journalism, I think you’d be hard pressed to find a way to employ it. The situation would definitely have to warrant it, and unfortunately (it really is, because this thing is nifty), that that just doesn’t come around too often. Still, if you find yourself pretending you’re a tourist to write a feature about something, consider this before you head out.

Election coverage

The Mobile Journalism Tools team decided to cover the midterm elections with different live coverage applications on both Androids and iPhones. First, we deciding to live tweet the results and the experiences we had at the College Democrats watch party at The Blue Note in Downtown Columbia.

We were retweeted by KOMU 8, the local NBC affiliate the most. I was retweeted by one or two people and so was Drew Dumas, but that was it. If we would have had a better plan of attack, we could have let people know about our #comoelx hashtag (#) ahead of time and maybe it would have caught on like the #KOMUelx hashtag did. To see all of our #comoelx tweets, click here.I also experimented with both UStream and CoverItLive. First I will talk about CoverItLive. I couldn't find CoverItLive in the Droid Market, so I had to use it on the iPhone. Since we were stationed at a table for a night, I set up the Apple Wireless Keyboard to my iPhone 4 and the application wouldn't register the keyboard, but every other single application I have tried it on has worked. After I turned off my Bluetooth, I finally got the application to work, but it had all kinds of quirks (which we have heard from another capstone group). It wouldn't let me post videos or even photos sometimes because it said there wasn't enough space, but it would post audio clips, which were just as large. I could post text, but it was too glitchy to be successful. It was a good idea, but it just didn't work.

UStream also has its fair share of glitches, but it was definitely more successful. I set up both the Droid and the iPhone on the mobile tripod throughout the night to compare the two video qualities and ease of use. The Droid video quality was a lot poorer than the iPhone, but the Droid allowed you to film horizontally, which my tripod was made for. The iPhone forces you to shoot vertically. Since I put the phone in the tripod, all of my video from the iPhone is sideways. The iPhone has much clearer images, but it was really dark at The Blue Note so it kept trying to refocus and adjust on lighter flashes and images, so the video is a little weird.

I really like the concept of UStream. You have the option of recording to your phone, or going live. You can include a hashtag to appear with the chat for your channel online. This allows for conversation in multiple ways. The only real problem with using UStream on a mobile device is the sound quality. For Mizzou's Homecoming skits, the audio techs connected UStream to the main audio. You could hear the techs talking over their radios, but the sound quality was perfect and there weren't any audience mumbles. The only problem is I'm not sure you can connect a mobile device to the stereo equipment like you can a laptop. To view my UStream account and see the videos from tonight, go to http://www.ustream.tv/channel/elstonjen

Here is a sample from the Droid 2. The audio quality is quite good for no external microphones, but the crowd and setting are really dark.

The only think I wish we could have changed about tonight was that I wish we would have separated to cover the Republican party also. We just really wanted to cover one aspect well and test all of the glitches out now, before we might use the applications in a real setting.

Halloween Follow Up

Photo by Don Shrubshell, staff photographer

Due to scheduling conflicts, we decided against going to the superhero event for Columbia Public Schools, and it is a shame. It looked like a blast. Click to check out the story by the Columbia Daily Tribune or to see their slideshow of pictures from the event. There weren't enough people to break the world record (only 762 people showed and they needed 1,580 to break the record), the event did raise $3000 for Columbia Public Schools.

We did, however, go to the corn maze to test lights and lens. It was not as easy as I expected. One of the lights (read flash) was improperly soldered and wouldn't turn on. The other two worked quite well, but as fall as photography is concerned, they didn't lend themselves to great pictures. Here are two sets of pictures - each has one without a flash and one with. You can determine the quality for yourself.

The lenses were a different story all together. Neither the sticky gel lens would stay on, nor the magnetic ring ones. They also cut off the corners of your photo in a weird way. I have no idea why you would need most of the lenses that we tested.

Fisheye effects are not very journalistic, and if you wanted to create some of the effects such as sepia, etc... you can do so on one of any photo editing application such as Photogene. The biggest thing to note about the lenses is that you cannot use flash with them, especially on an iPhone 4. The lens will cover the flash and will create a photo of the inside of the lens. See example below.

I wouldn't recommend using a lens on an iPhone unless maybe it is an Owle Bubo or something more sturdy, durable and a higher quality.

Owle Bubo

The Owle Bubo is a pretty handy, if bulky, piece of equipment. Essentially, it’s a oiece of metal that you can stick your iPhone into, and has a lens over the camera area of the phone. It’s meant to help steady your shots, make your camera more portable, and give you better pictures via the lens.

What the Bubo DOES deliver on is making it easier to carry around your phone (kind of) and steadying your shots. It’s nice not having to hold your camera (phone) by the fingertips and then try and push the button to capture while also trying to remain steady. The grips are spaced enough that it’s comfortable, your thumb can easily push the button to take a picture, and it’s heavy enough to give you comfortable stability without tiring your arms. Slightly less, effectively, it makes it easier o carry around your equipment. The bubo comes with a neck strap, so when you need to jot down notes or fiddle with a microphone or something else, you can let your “camera” hang from your neck, freeing up your hands. However, since the iPhone is placed into the apparatus using only the friction caused by putting your phone (wrapped in the Bubo’s custom case) into the slot in the center of the device, I would show caution when letting it hang from your neck. My phone dropped out of the Owle twice in one afternoon.

The Bubo also has a cold foot mount on the top for any special gear you want to mount (like a flash) and has an area on the bottom where you can screw it onto a mount, giving you the ability to make it extra steady for, say, video. These are both very welcome additions to the device, and make the Owle Bubo much more versatile in the field.

Now for the lenses. You have some options, you can go with the super wide angle, which will give you a slight bend on the corners of the picture, like a less powerful fisheye lens. It’s handy for crowd shots, but not preferable for a lot of other things. You can unscrew this (and stow it away, somewhere; there’s no place to put it on the actual Bubo) and then use the macro lens. If you’re going to do this, then be prepared to get really comfortable with your subject, because it’s definitely only good for one purpose, which is to get really fine detail extremely close up. Finally, you can unscrew this lens, leaving a large whole in the Bubo where your camera shoots from, so that you can simply use the iPhone’s camera.

In all, I was pretty impressed with this equipment. I eventually dropped the lenses, preferring to just use the internal camera instead of having to work around the super wide and the macro, but this was balanced by the actual usefulness of the tool. I can mount it, I can put flashes on it, I can get my hands free while not having to worry about where I’m going to put the phone, and best of all, it steadies those pictures. I definitely recommend this for shooting of any kind.

Alesis ProTrack

The Alesis ProTrack is a pretty high performance microphone built to work with the iPhone. It’s got a ton of features (though I found I only used a couple), it’s fairly light, and it definitely looks legitimate (may not seem like much, but the look of your hardware has a pretty significant effect on your subject. It reassures them that you do actually know what you’re doing). When I took it out reporting, I found it to be extremely handy for a couple of reasons.

It can record in stereo and in mono. I was trained to typically record in mono for editing purposes, so it’s nice to be able to record in that format, but even better I can switch to stereo for music recording. Also, there’s a switch on the side of the microphone that allows the user to charge their device while in use. Since the microphone uses four double-A batteries, this means you’re going to run out of juice pretty fast, but if you need that extra boost to capture the last 30 minutes of something, then it’s a pretty sweet switch to flick. The meters on the device are also quite accurate, giving you better control over your audio, which is good because the Microphone is pretty sensitive.

Which brings me to my next topic, the quality of sound. To say it simply, this microphone works. It’s certainly better than the internal mic and several of the other microphones we tested out. The only thing that gets close is the actual XLR microphone. The sound from this device is clear, it’s crisp, and it’s pretty close to professional quality, if not all the way there.

The only downside is that it’s a bit bulky and unwieldy. If your hands are small, it may be a little tough to grip, and it’s definitely large, even if it’s light, so have a way to carry it around, because there’s no strap. Also, without the ball on the end, it resembles (only slightly and possibly in the dark only) a taser, I got stopped for a moment and was the unfortunate recipient of a long look in security for a street festival I went to cover while using this equipment for just that reason, which is why I mention it.

Other than those few negatives, this is a pretty solid purchase, even if it’s expensive. I recommend it for sure.

Apple Wireless Keyboard

The Apple Wireless Keyboard is my favorite of our two Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard. It doesn't fold like the Freedom Pro, but the Apple keyboard is only $69.00 compared to, $142.94 for the Freedom Pro.

Even though it doesn't fold, it is a lot more durable. The keyboard is fully functional and the keys are normally spaced.

It is very simple to set this keyboard up. Simply put two double-A batteries in one side and turn on the keyboard on the other side. Then, if you are using it on your phone, go to Settings > General > Bluetooth. Turn it on and it picks the keyboard up very quickly. You can use this keyboard from a long distance (although I don't know why you would want to). If you are using the keyboard on your computer, click on the Bluetooth icon on your computer and click Browse Device.