I now work for an italian company. We use another form of internet communication but once the employers leave they all use skype.

Must be a great service.

Hi Grazie. We spoke via Skype quite a while back. Worked fine and it was great talking to you, but then my company tightened up their firewall and I got blocked from using Skype. (In case you ever wondered why you never heard from me again!)

Richard

I have used skype once in collaboration with prettymay. I have a client whose son committed suicide. The only voice recording she had was of his answering machine on his mobile which has been on now for around a year b/c she did not want to part with his voice and she kept paying the bill. She asked if I could record the sound from the phone to a cd or something. I told her that I would try. She gave me the number and once I got back to the office I started thinking about ways I could plug up the phone directly to the computer and record. My initial thought was to use a standard male to male jack that would go right into my sound card, but of course, the phone does not have the same jack size. I thought for a while and then I remembered skype. I thought if I could call it from my computer and somehow record it, that would bypass the analog trap.
Downloaded skype and then the plugin prettymay to record it and dialed the number and it recorded automatically- cleaned it up a little in Vegas and burnt the cd. The only complaint is that the recording skipped about the first 1-2 seconds of the message. Anyways, it came in very handy and this is a very long post :)

I used it once and it did exaclty what I needed it to.

j razz

the fact is that Skype is better than MSN BY FAR, especially for vid chats, but really for everything. I would much rather use it than any other client.

Dave

Grazie and I both have web cams and chat on Skype every week. It is amazing to be able to socialize in this world of "working from home" and to actually show each other how to do something on camera. In fact, Grazie bought a SpiderBrace because he saw me using one with my Sony A1 on Skype. (btw, if you haven't seen the SpiderBrace yet, for $65USD everyone, IMHO, should have one in their kit. It's lightweight, inexpensive, and simply "works")

If you don't have Skype you don't know what you're missing. If you don't have a web cam, this will give you a reason to buy one (they are cheap and very high quality these days). Talking face-to-face with your Vegas peers and being able to interact around this "virtual water cooler" is priceless. This is the video phone from 2001 Space Odyssey come to life. ;-)

~jr

. .and if you WANT to speak with Grazie he is ON now: BIGGRAZIE

. . thank you .. . PING!

JohnnyRoy, I do not see the HVR-A1 listed, I assume the Spiderbrace 2 will work correct?

j razz

> I do not see the HVR-A1 listed, I assume the Spiderbrace 2 will work correct?

It's the 7th one on the SpiderBrace 2 list right under the Sony HVR-Z1U (it's incorrectly listed as the Sony HDV A1E but there is no HDV A1 its HVR A1) Yes the SpiderBrace 2 will work. I actually order it for my Z1 and use it with the A1 too.

I had them make a modification for me to make the arms longer so my LANC fits better and now they ship this modified version as standard so the arms will be a little longer than what you see in those pictures. I leave the A1 with a LANC on it all the time. It adds an amazing amount of stability for small cameras like the A1.

~jr

Thanks for the clarification. I think I will order one on Monday. I too use a lanc and it makes a world of difference with zooming for me. I am anxious to see how stable this thing will be with me behind the wheel. Do you utilize the in camera motion stabilizer with it or do you leave it off.

j razz

I've been using Skype for the last few months, mostly with Skype-in and Skype-out for an extra business phone line. I love it as well. What kind of camera do you guys recommend for video phone stuff?

By the way, I love my Spiderbrace as well. I use it constantly.

but for it to work well, you need real broadband - here in outback australia we have crippled 'government subsidised' connections called 'hibis'. not only is it half speed, it has a problem even reaching that sometimes ;-{

leslie

anyone for telepathy?

Since we're kinda all over the place in this thread, I gotta ask jr and jrazz - what kind of LANC's do ya'll use?

...and I've been wondering about the spiderbrace, thanks for the info.

When I was up in NY I stopped in at B&H. I tested all the ones they had out and found one I really liked. What suprised me the most was the price. After I found the one I really liked, I started looking at prices and It was the second cheapest one there. Here is the link. It handles zoom via a thumb rocker and you can set the zooms to be in reverse (zoom out default is rock to the right, you can set it to zoom out by rocking to the left). You can control recording as well as focus via the lanc. The zoom is really smooth too and can go really slow or really fast depending on how far you rock it. It keeps my hands off the cam and and is a more convenient way to film.

j razz

That is the lanc controller I wish I had bought instead of the Verizoom one that I ended up getting. The Verizoom is nice, but the "push to autofocus" does not work with the Sony HVR-A1 whereas I understand that this feature does work with that camera with the Manfrotto 521. At some point I'll bite the bullet and buy the 521 and sell the Varizoom on eBay because of this.


I just bought a Microsoft LifeCam VX-3000 for Skype video. It was the best they had at my local WalMart ;-)

I wonder if you could combine this:
http://dvcreators.net/steady-stick

with the Spiderbrace?

Would get all the weight off your arms.

> Do you utilize the in camera motion stabilizer with it or do you leave it off.

I keep it on. While the SpiderBrace helps a lot, it is not a tripod. Optical stabilization smooths things out nicely.

~jr

> What kind of camera do you guys recommend for video phone stuff?

Grazie and I bought the Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 and they are great. The current model is the QuickCam Pro 5000 so I assume it is just as good or better. I also have a Logitech Notebook Deluxe and it is even better quality but it only attaches to notebooks.

~jr

> what kind of LANC's do ya'll use?

I've got a Manfrotto 521PRO (on Grazie's recommendation) and I love it. I also just bought a Varizoom VZ-ROCK and I hate it! It is the worst design I have ever seen. The on/off button is right next to the Record button!!! They are both small square buttons that are totally unidentifiable by touch. It is an accident waiting to happen. The zoom rocker is also sluggish. I just don't like the feel of it. You push it for a while and nothing happens and then all of sudden it takes off. IMHO, the Manfrotto 521PRO is light years ahead of the Varizoom.

~jr

Well I'm looking at some online reviews and it seems that the Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 is a better webcam than the Microsoft VX model I picked up. Good thing I didn't open the package yet. I'll take it back and get the Logitech one tomorrow. Everyone seems to rate the Logitech picture quality better, especially in low light. Response time is supposed to be better as well.

Hi L!

Yup got me the LogiPro - love it! So does "NCIS" (?) that Navy CSI thingie? You can see 'em all over their screens! So they MUST be good!!!

I've now made some adaptions to the SB:

* Cheapo 7" Monitor

* Grazie-made Canon Battery pod on the shoulder hook-over

* Wiring loom from back to front

All sprayed MATT black. I'm just toooo kewl now!

G

Someday maybe getting a good interview will be as easy as calling someone on a videophone and capturing the conversation video stream! Not yet of course, but someday...

More important...
some day soon, anyone, anywhere will be able to do real-time editing for anyone - anywhere.

In a brief experiment w my buddy Grazie, [Grazie (London) - Victor (Florida)] I turned the simple $50 buck web cam I had to the second monitor on my setup. It was clear enough and sharp enough for him to easily read the sub-titles I had in that film - way smaller than typical lower thirds.

Granted the color sucked, but you could edit and then upload finished footage for final review - right now.

This "truly real time capability" opens the WORLD to you Vegas editors, but it also opens the world to third-world editors who are willing to work for $50 to $80 a day.

I'm not predicting the "end of the world as we know it", but big changes are in the air and international video editing is a reality within two or three years, in my opinion.

v