Comments on: Any bright ideas?

By: Ian Stuart

Ian Stuart — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 19:59:29 +0000

Only tips with lighting would be making some basic reflectors from Cardboard and tin foil.
We are just using webcams attached to the UMPC’s to do the same thing

By: stuart

stuart — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 19:24:24 +0000

Got it last Friday, still working on setting it up but I’m going to try and make use of it tomorrow tomorrow doing some S1 Graphics.

It’s in really good nick for the price I paid and should do all we want for the moment. I’m waiting for a couple of extra cables to arrive and when they do I’ll be starting on getting the pupils to make some videos of things like how to use different tools, spurred on by a conversation on Friday with Ewan.

Do you have any tips? I think lighting is going to be my biggest issue in the Graphics room.

By: Ian Stuart

Ian Stuart — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 19:15:49 +0000

Did you get the Camcorder?

By: stuart

stuart — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 19:20:55 +0000

Hey Krysia, I was thinking something along the lines of a rig set up on a desk, perhaps made out of steel square tube, also maybe being able to raise the height of the bar above the desk. The rig itself will be fairly portable but the bits on it will be fixed. I think I’ll be mounting the camera fairly centrally on a horizontal beam, with some spot lights either side. I’d like to be able to make it a fairly stand alone unit with the minimum of cables trailing from it, hopefully just a single power cable and a single signal cable.

Fingers crossed it’ll arrive tomorrow and I’ll have time to set something up on Friday afternoon. I’ll get some photos on flickr of the experiments.

By: Krysia

Krysia — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 18:46:51 +0000

How are you thinking of rigging this up? Would it be a permanent fixture from the ceiling or on some sort of table top stand that can get moved about? Let me know how it goes. What have other people done?

By: Iain Stanger

Iain Stanger — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 20:21:07 +0000

Stuart pass on my regards to Jim Hunter when you see him next. If you want to operate a video camera without it going on to standby when the buttons are not pressed just use it without a tape in it. Ideal if you only want to use it live in the classroom when connected to the projector not so ideal if you want to record the event.

By: stuart

stuart — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 18:37:30 +0000

Bid for and won a Panasonic NV, only a snip more than £27. I’ve still to see if it’s any good of course but it’s a start at least.

By: stuart

stuart — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 18:26:26 +0000

Thanks for your comments, I was tending towards a camcorder already, webcams and cameras both present problems. If I can pick up one cheap then great - budget as always is the main constraint.

Iain, I’d already had a brief conversation about this with someone at Knox Academy who had come from Banchory (Mr Hunter? - I’m terrible for remembering names), small world. I’m hoping to get in touch with him soon for tips on lighting and other things.

By: Ian Stuart

Ian Stuart — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 18:05:43 +0000

Stuart
We use Panasonic NV Camera’s Setup with a quite large tripod and av cable going straight to the video feed of the projector. The tripod means that we can position the camera where we want it.
These are about £160 at the moment. ( or eBay current bid £27 for the perfetly good older model)
We went for opitcal zoom with macro capability for close up work.
Our science dept went for a goosenck visualiser camera which works very well but doesn’t offer the flexibility for other uses, like as a video camera.

By: Iain Stanger

Iain Stanger — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 09:05:44 +0000

Stuart I am pretty sure that Technical Ed department at Banchory Academy in Aberdeenshire have this set up you could get in touch with them and find out what they have.