Happy Late Night, my Darling,
I hope you had a nice day today. I went out to Rice Canyon, as you may have noticed by my FB photo, and it was a gorgeous day on the trail, about 80 degrees like early Summer. I went out there in large part to try out the video feature on my little Panasonic, and I shot about a dozen snippets ranging from about 5 or 6 seconds to about 30-35 seconds. My first problem was that I had no idea how the video would arrange itself, or perhaps compile is a better word, in the totality of what I shot. You see, I have not shot any video in about 20 years, except for a couple dozen mini-discs in the short-lived format of the mini-dvd. I had a Sony mini-dvd cam in 2006, and with that format you simply shot the disc, then took it out of the cam and put it straight into your dvd player. It was easy to use, but not meant for computer upload (and indeed it was in the days before FB and Youtube).
Before that, my heyday of videography was in the mid-90s, and back then the format was tape, Hi-8 to be exact. Again, uploading was not a factor. You just shot your tape and popped it into a playback machine, or even easier, you just connected your cam to a TV monitor via RCA cable, and voila - you watched your video.
With the cams in those days, and even up through my Sony Minidisc cam from ten years ago, everything you shot ran together, all as part of one tape, or one mini-dvd. So let's say you shot some scenery, a minute's worth, then hit the stop button. Then you moved to another location and shot another minute's worth of scenery, and so on. Finally, when you had filled up your whole tape, or mini-dvd, you'd have one 30 minute (or more, depending on your tape or disc length) video. Your video would be continuous, abeit with stops and starts, and it would contain everything you shot. It would run from beginning to end.
So that's what I was used to, and I had no idea how video would compile on an SDHC memory card. I guess I figured it would all "add up" in the same way it used to, i.e. that all snippets would run together to make One Long Video.
But it didn't work out that way, haha. :)
So when I got home and put the memory card in my Chromebook, I saw that all the video snippets were separated, just like the photos. Also, as viewed on my Chromebook, no picture could be seen, although the sound was fine. So I figured, "well, lemme try to upload a snippet onto FB", and I did so. It took a long time to upload, maybe 10 minutes, which I guess is standard procedure. And when it was done, both picture and sound were intact.
But the problem was the quality. You have noted that FB ruins video quality, but this was a different problem altogether. My uploaded snippets (I tried several) did not look like they did in the camera playback. In camera, they looked okay, as far as the resolution of my little point and shoot goes. But when I uploaded them, they looked grainy, video artifacts jumped in and out, like a "melting" effect where images would melt slightly into one another when the camera was panned.
All in all, the video I shot just plain didn't look right when uploaded to FB. It looked like a glitch of some kind, so I deleted 'em all, and did some Googling. I dunno if I have the wrong file type or what. I don't think it's my new SDHC card. I bought a basic card, not "Ultra" or anything like that, but my photo that I posted today came out fine. So I'm thinking it's the file format. Some of the Google answers suggested things like uploading to Youtube first, then transferring to FB. I will look for an easier solution. There has gotta be a reason that, first of all, no picture (only sound) appears when I preview the snippets on my Chromebook, and then when I upload 'em to FB, both picture and sound appear, but the picture is crummy.
It's not something I have a lot of time (or patience) to fool with, so I am hoping I can find what the problem is because I had fun shooting some video today after all this time, and I'd like to do more, but with good results.
Maybe I will try again on Friday, if I have time, but anyhow, that's why I've got no video to show for today.
At some point, maybe later in the year, I may splurge and buy a really nice SLR, but I even read on Google that people have had problems with video glitches on FB, even with top notch cams, if the file isn't right, or something like that. So I will learn about how to do it correctly with my Panasonic before I invest in an expensive cam. Still photography will always be my Main Thing, and that is reason enough to eventually get a nice camera, but I just thought it would be a nice twist to shoot a little video on my favorite trails - with narration so I can Ham It Up, haha - and so I will keep trying via trial and error and see if I can get it right.
I see that you have another band on tour, not sure the name, but Cody is the drummer, so that is awesome and maybe they are a new client? The other post I saw said "music gives me butterflies".....
If you mean that performing music gives you butterflies, well.........that's understandable. Even many music legends have confessed to stage fright, or general nerves.
But you can't tell it in their performance, and neither can you tell it in yours. Every time you make a new music video, it is apparent that you are becoming more at home in your element.
I will see you in the morning, Sweet Baby. I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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