Canon Digital Camera Battery SUPERDEAL!

In a previous post I mentioned buying rechargeable batteries as a backup for your digital camera.  Spare batteries are always great to have on hand, especially if you're taking pictures at a special occasion or are on vacation.

But back when I wrote that post, up to that point I was using digital cameras that accepted standard AA size batteries.  I was apprehensive about buying a camera that used a proprietary battery format simply because the cost to buy any spares would have been out of reach.  I mean really - $39 for a spare battery?

Well, last summer in 2012 just before summer vacation my wife made it real clear that we needed to have great photos to remember the trip.  And the other thing that was important was having a camera that took great shots even in low-light conditions.  My previous cameras were never good at it, and frequently I wound up with blurry shots because I tried to take photos by exposing the shot longer and without flash because it was a situation (such as awards presentation or stage performance) where flash photography was prohibited.

After reading tons of reviews I settled on the Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS because the price was right and it had awesome marks for low-light photography.  That's another story.

Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS

Anyway I bought the camera and vacation was approaching fast.  Not wanting to be without a spare battery I started searching the web for the best deal.  Canon brand batteries I'm sure are most reliable but the cost was just too much for me.  I'm a cheapskate and don't have money to burn.

So as I Googled for "Canon NB-6L", I found the answer - or at least an option so cheap that if it didn't work my only loss would be $6!

On Amazon.com was a two-pack of Halcyon NB-6L 1600mAH batteries!  I thought - "well even if they don't work it's such a small price to pay", so I went ahead and bought them.  $6 for two batteries and FREE shipping - Fantastic!

The batteries fit both the Canon battery charger and camera perfectly.  I've taken hundreds of shots and use them constantly.  I would venture to say I use the Halcyon aftermarket batteries more than the factory Canon batteries.

$6 for two batteries - can't beat it!

Harlem Shake with Green Screen

So the Harlem Shake craze arrives and I felt like I had to make a video of it as well.
My son was pestering me to make one but it's just the two of us so I thought I better make something that stands out.
What better than if I'm in the air somehow - perhaps standing on the top of a swingset?

Green screen to the rescue.
I filmed three segments of video for this:

The two of us for the opening segment.

My son doing his Harlem Shake bit while on the swings.

Me in front of a green screen doing my harlem shake bit.

The swingset portion was filmed on a Sunday, but it was so windy that day (38mph gusts!) I couldn't get the green screen to stay up.  So the green screen part I filmed on the following Tuesday at approximately the same time of day so that the shadows would fall in roughly the same area as the first day of filming.

I think if I had to do this again I would drape the green screen over the wooden plank - it probably would have then been easier to blend the scenes together in Pinnacle.

What I used for green screen: the small one was included with the Pinnacle Software package bundle, and the larger one is a green flat sheet that came with a bedding set.  As it turns out the bed sheet is just the right shade of green for this.  And it was a really good deal from Walmart.

I only wish they still sold it - I'd buy a few more packages if that were the case.

Finished product.


Here's a link to the YouTube video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PGFa2ttASs

Rechargeable Batteries for Digital Cameras

If you are using a digital camera that accepts AA size batteries hopefully you aren't using the alkaline type.

If you are then you're probably replacing the batteries constantly.

Consider investing in a some rechargeables.

There are plenty on the market, see the picture above - Duracell on the left and two Rayovac on the right.

Even though they look the same there are differences.  I'm specifically talking about  the mAh rating.

Without going into so many technical details, basically the higher the mAh rating then the longer the battery will last.  So when shopping around try to go with the higher mAh.

Using the Canon Vixia HFM301 for Photography

On my most recent trip to Savannah, Georgia I decided to give a try at using my Canon Vixia HFM301 to take photos.  It is one of the features built-in to the camcorder and since I'll be in the market soon for a new digital camera I wanted to see how the Canon optics performed even though that's not the primary purpose of this particular product.

This isn't the first time I've taken photos with a Canon though.  My first decent digital camera was a Canon Powershot A60.  That was way way back in 2003.  It was a great camera and ultimately was sent back to Canon for repairs due to a faulty image sensor which turns out was covered under a recall of sorts.  They paid for shipping and replaced the image sensor.  The camera lasted for a few years more.

But the A60 was a 2.0 megapixel camera.  Newer cameras were entering the market with higher megapixel capabilities.  I then purchased a Canon Powershot A550 in 2007. Wow - a whopping 7.1 megapixels.  It served me well for a few years - and then - my son dropped it on the sidewalk while on vacation in Savannah.  The camera happened to be powered on with the lens extended and after it hit the ground the lens was whomp-a-sided and wouldn't retract.

Later that evening in the hotel I decided to try and "fix" it, so I forcibly pushed the lens back into it's normal position.  Amazingly I could power it on an off, the lens would extend and retract as normal.  I was surprised because honestly I was expecting the worst.

The A550 served well until 2011.  Early that year the LCD display started to fail.  I believe it was due to the sidewalk incident.

So then it was time to purchase a new digital camera.  Me being the cheap person I am found out about a Polaroid i1237 for sale at Big Lots for the low price of $55.  Even a coworker of mine owns that particular camera and raved about it.  The i1237 is a 12.0 megapixel and was the right price for me.

I bought it and don't you know it, on our vacation in summer of 2011 the camera's LCD display started failing.  It would go blank intermittently.  We coudn't use it because the i1237 doesn't have a built in eyepiece, so you have no idea what your taking a picture of.

Ok well this year we're taking another summer vacation and while the LCD display on the i1237 started working again, my wife doesn't have any faith in it.  So pretty soon we'll be buying a new digital camera.  But she doesn't want me to go the bargain route because, well, we see where it got me this time.

I took some pictures on our trip last week to Savannah using the Canon and posted them here as an example of their quality.  Everything looks good to me - so most likely I'll be shopping for another Canon.  These are all 3.0 megapixel images.

A jet fighter at the Mighty Eigth Air Force Museum.

 The entrance to Old Fort Jackson.

A soldier ready to fire the cannon at Old Fort Jackson.

The cannon after firing at Old Fort Jackson.

A lifesize cutout of Paula Deen greets patrons at her restaurant The Lady And Sons.

A tug boat play area on Riverfront street.

A view of the bridge on Riverfront Street.

The Tybee Island Lighthouse and Museum on Tybee Island.

A view of the ground from atop the Tybee Lighthouse.

A view of Fort Screvin from atop the Tybee Lighthouse.

A view of the horizon from atop Tybee Lighthouse.

A selection of cupcakes from Mabel Francis Potter's Cupcake Emporium.

The view from behind a rain covered window as a cargo ship passes River Street in Savannah.

All pictures copyright John Colangelo 2012.

Building A Steadicam

I recently agreed to film a friends wedding that is upcoming in August. This will be

the fourth one that I put film and put together, and really have come a long way for someone who simply does this as a hobby. 

My first one was shot with Hi-8 back in the late 90's, then Mini-DV for the second

and third wedding tapeings. 

Aye carumba - the time it took to transfer video to the computer with composite

video and firewire cables.  Now that was time consuming!  But this time it will be via usb - definitely faster.  Another step up I'm looking forward to is the addition of a steadicam rig. While my newest camcorder has image stabilization built in, the problem with it is if you try to pan a scene it doesn't look smooth and tends to be jerky.  After seeing what a steadicam can do - just search it on youtube for some samples – All I can say is it really enhances the video – looks really pro. 

Now a steadicam rig is certainly not cheap - why they can cost upwards of $800!

My solution to that is to build my own.  Borrowing on the design put together by 

WSClater and others on youtube, it really doesn't seem all too difficult. 

Perhaps the trickiest part will be balancing it.  And of course my goal is to keep

costs as low as possible.  That will be achieved by using parts from around the house.  Some parts I have had to purchase.

From Amazon.com I bought some skateboard bearings and u-joints for the gimbal. 

I will be sure to post pictures as assembly progresses on it.  For sure I'll have to finish it well in advance of August!

Taking Photos With A Camcorder

The Canon Vixia HFM301 is my current camcorder.  I purchased it last year for hmmm $299?  Can't remember exactly, but price would have definitely been one of the selling points that caught me.

Other things that drew my attention to it were the image stabilization feature, SD Card slot, and the microphone input jack.  That was something I had looked for in many different models but they were all a little too pricey for me.

I hope to one day put together a boom mic and then it will come in handy.  Or of course doing an interview with someone while they were a lapel mic will improve the audio greatly versus using the built in microphone as it tends to pick up ambient noise.

Now on top of HD video it also takes still pics.  That feature came in handy when while on vacation last year our digital camera crapped out and the HFM301 stepped up to the plate to substitute.

Now we are one vacation again and I brought that same Polaroid digital camera from last year for snapshots, but also brought the Canon Vixia for "just in case".  We're in Savannah, Georgia this time.  I'll take a few pictures with the Canon and post them on here to show what it's capable of.

More HDMI Cable Bargains

Perhaps you read my earlier post about HDMI cables - that quality isn't always determined by price.  The $9 HDMI cable from Big Lots is just as good as the $60 cable you'll find at a big box retailer.

Here's another good deal - a 10' HDMI cable just $6.99 from www.CompUSA.com:

That's an amazing $33 savings!

But maybe you're looking for an inexpensive HDMI cable in a brighter color - check out the myriad of colors available at www.monoprice.com for the low price of just $3.50:

Thats just their selection of 6' cables; check the Monoprice website and you'll find low-price cables of all lengths.

Amazing prices all around - discount stores locally if you need it right away, and online retailers if you can wait for it to ship.

Shop around... there are deals to be found!

SDHC Card Super Deal!

Wow!  This past weekend (after Black Friday) I was shopping for a reasonably priced 16GB Class 10 SDHC card to give as a gift at Christmas.  After checking all the sales flyers and retail websites I settled on a deal at CompUSA.  They were offering the Patriot PSF16GSDHC10F LX Series SDHC Card for $17.99 after a $10 rebate.

That in itself (to me) is a great deal.  Well imagine my surprise when I arrived at the store and picked up a sales flyer at the entrance.  There in print was the same card - but the stated price was $13.99 after a $10 rebate.  Even better!

But hold onto your hats - I went to the aisle containing all the SD Cards and USB flash drives, found the Patriot 16GB card and was surprised even further!  The placard posted next to the cards showed the $23.99 - $10 rebate = $13.99 price... but under that in red print it said $3.99.

What what what????  A customer standing nearby noticed me staring at the placard and came over.  He too could not understand what the $3.99 meant.  It just seemed too good to be true.  We summoned a sales associate over and he went on to explain the cards are $13.99 after rebate, then pointed at the $3.99 and said "I don't know how they figure that math."

No problem - $13.99 is still a really good deal, so I picked up the card and headed to the register expecting to pay $23.99. 

But sure enough it rang up as $13.99!  I was genuinely excited - somebody must have priced it wrong!  So now I've filed for the $10 rebate and in the end that card will cost only $3.99!

Legoland Florida YouTube Video

I took the footage I shot at Legoland Florida recently - all 65 minutes of it, and scaled it down to a 7 minute video.   All of the shots were limited to roughly 2-5 seconds each.  Included one shot at the very end of the merry go-round left in place from the days of Cypress Gardens.

Added a basic title screen and used Pinnacle Studio 11 for the editing.  Also used the ScoreFitter music generator to create a background track for the video.  As much as I like the sound of real artist-composed music I'll always try to stay away from using copyrighted music if possible.

Here it is on YouTube:

Legoland Florida in HD Widescreen

Legoland Florida

Through a deal offered to Lego VIP Club members we were able to visit the new Legoland Florida recently (one free ticket, two discounted tickets).  Very nice theme park for kids and anyone who is a fan of Lego blocks!

Many different rides for all age groups.  One of the neatest things there was a Lego city complete with streets, lego pedestrians, and little Lego cars just the right size for children to drive.  Not on a track either, nope - they get to drive all over the city.  When the driving experience is over they can then get their very own Legoland drivers license!

Another neat experience was the boat ride.  You and a passenger get to pilot a Lego boat through a river course.  Just like the Lego cars - the boats are not on a track.  Very very cool.

So many other things to see there - the miniature Lego cities that were represented must have taken a long time to build.

I brought my video cam along and tried to film as much as I could for a compilation video I'll post on YouTube.  Unlike my Universal Studios Simpson's Ride video, I'll try to use original music this time.
I'm trying to move away from using copyrighted music for videos that end up on YouTube.
I should be able to start work on it tomorrow.

The Harry Potter Pinata Fail Video

I just threw a quick video together, only 9 seconds in length and uploaded it to YouTube.  It's a clip from my sons birthday party when one of the kids swings a bat to hit a Harry Potter horcrux pinata and ends up hitting the girl sitting behind him.

Fail videos seem pretty popular on YouTube.  Let's see how this one does.

PTA Reflections - version 2 and 3

I'm surprised.  I posted a short 1:40 promo for PTA Reflections on YouTube and have now had a couple requests to customize it for different schools!

Not a major change really - just to the "Due by" date that appears at the end of the video.  Simple to do when you have the source files saved on your computer.

One of the requests from a PTA member in New York had her 8 y.o. daughter screen the video.  The daughter pointed out that some of the screens passed by too quickly to read, so the mom asked me if there was a way to slow it down.

I ended up with version 2 and 3 because of her and another request, and really the video plays much better.  By snipping out some of the still photos and then prolonging the time the info screens stay displayed it flows much better.

See it here:

PTA Reflections - Diversity Means - Version 2

After making these few changes for the various schools, I uploaded them to my free box.net account where the requester was able to download the video from.  Box.net makes it real easy to share files. I have a feeling I'll be using it more often!



Facebook Wedding Intro and StageTools MovingPicture

When I filmed the wedding of our friends Allison and Dave, I wanted to open it with something personal to them.

Facebook had been and still is something they are constantly using.  Seems they are posting on it most hours of the waking day.  As I started to look through their wall posts I noticed that they were always posting sweet nothings to each other.  That seemed like a good starting point.

I used a free program I found via Google that lets you download any friends wall history into text form.  After I had their entire history I loaded it into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, sorted it by date and then removed most of the irrelivant (non-mushy) posts.  Change the font style to match that of Facebook, added a profile picture to each post and then exported it to a graphic format, finally converting it into a JPEG.

So now with 8 or 10 JPEG of their Facebook posts on chronological order it was time to animate the opening. 

For that I used StageTools MovingPicture - a plugin included with Pinnacle Studio 11.  MovingPicture allows you to zoom in and out, rotate, and pan around still pictures in way that lets you bring it to life so to speak.

The StageTools MovingPicture interface

By placing keyframes throughout the sequence you can set the zooms and pans to however you like.

It is a very simple plug-in to use and brings your photos to life!

Check out the first part of Allison and Dave's wedding video where I use their Facebook history to tell the story leading up to their wedding day.

Allison and Dave's Wedding Video - Part 1



HDMI Cables

HDMI stands for High-Definition Multimedia Interface.  It's the type of cable used to connect for example a Blu-Ray player to an HDTV.  It is one of the best connections available for transferring video and audio to the TV.

When the cables first came out it was common to find them priced as high as $80 for a 6-foot cable!  CRAZY!

But when we purchased our Blu-Ray player a few months ago I checked around and found one at our local Big-Lots for just $9.99!  I was a little skeptical at first - the brand was TriQuest, one I had never heard of before.  But for ten dollars I took a gamble and purchased it.

That $9.99 cable works perfectly - HD movies look like HD movies.  And the price - you just can't beat it!

YouTube Cleanup

I thought today I'd go through all of the videos I had uploaded to YouTube ever since I opened my account delete the videos that didn't accumulate too many views.  Anything with less than 100 views I figured wasn't worth keeping. 

I got rid of the gem "Trolley passing on River Street" and a few videos shot at Monster Jam years ago, both shot with a Canon Powershot A550 camera.

Many of the videos I have on YouTube are just scenes I shot while out of state of such simple things as a cargo ship passing down the river in Savannah, Georgia, and surprisingly something like that has more than 1,400 views.  I would never consider it a great video (another one shot with a digital camera), but there are enough people interested in watching it I felt it made no sense to remove.

I'll check my YouTube account in another month or so and see if there's anything else I feel like deleting. 

The Simpsons Ride

The Simpsons Ride

When the Simpsons Ride at Universal Studios Orlando was about to open, we were lucky enough to receive an invitation to preview the ride prior to it being open to the general public.  I brought my Canon Powershot A550 along just for general snapshots, but while there I had the idea to film the outer area of the attraction for posting on YouTube.  Filming the ride itself from inside is forbidden so the outside was the only thing I could shoot.

Now the camera itself shoots in the very low resolution of 640x480 so this isn't stunning footage by any means, but the video I ended up posting on YouTube gathered alot of views in a very short time.  As of today it has over 600,000 views.

My only regret is that I used copyrighted music ("S Wonderful" by Ray Conniff) for the soundtrack - something that prevents you from earning any profit from Google AdSense.  Oh well. 

Still, even though it's not original music and not filmed in HD video - I'm most happy with this one because of the large audience it has attracted over time.

PTA Reflections 2011-2012 "Diversity Means..."

PTA Reflections "Diversity Means..."

Here is the video I created for the PTA at my sons elementary school.  They wanted something put together that would get the students excited in the program.

Just to recap from my earlier posts about this:

I watched a few PTA Reflections videos on YouTube for ideas - and saw some really good ones.  But the ones I felt as good had actual video footage in them - something I lacked for this project.  All I had to go on was still photos.

My first rendition resembled a Power Point presentation - too boring. 

Then I Googled "songs about diversity" and one of the results was an Avril Lavigne song titled "Keep Holding On".  That second version of the video is primarily what you see here but without all the 3D transitions.  The Holding On version used simpler wipes and fades.  Still very slow moving - not too exciting.

I then remembered the current Kia Soul commercial that features the LMFAO song "Party Rock Anthem".  That song gets people moving!  And at the recent school dance when the DJ played that song - all the kids were on the dance floor!

So I added Party Rock Anthem to the sound track and changed all the transitions to 3D effects included with Pinnacle Studio 11.  Added pans and zooms to the pictures and came up with this.

On Monday they will air it for the first time at school during the morning news, and then replay it twice a week leading up to the October 21st deadline for entries into the competition.

I keep thinking that when the song comes on the kids are going to jump out of their seats and start dancing in the classrooms!

Current Project - Update

Well, I finished two different videos for the PTA for their PTA Reflections kick-off.  The theme this year is "Diversity Means...".  My wife told me the video had to be something that would be exciting and hold the childrens interest. 

After watching some PTA Reflections videos on YouTube for ideas, I Googled "songs about diversity".  We narrowed the resulting list down to the Avril Lavigne song "Keep Holding On".
The video I made is a collection of pictures that convey "diversity" with varying wipes for transition between photos.  I guess you could say I have a "diverse" set of transitions in the video - ha ha.

But after reveiwing the finished product it seemed to me to be a bit on the slow side.  I wanted something that would be more exciting.  So the thing that seems to be hot right now is the Kia Soul commercial featuring the dancing hamsters, HALO characters and the LMFAO song "Party Rock Anthem".  A quick review of the lyrics shows some words that would be objectionable in grades K-5.  So the simple solution for this is to edit the song to be primarily instrumental - just as Kia did in the commercial.

After the song edit I took the same pictures used in the first rendition, applied visual effects and used 'fancier' 3D transition effects to make it pop.

I don't have a way to create CG hamsters dancing but I still wanted those dancing hamsters tied to this video somehow.  I grabbed a few Google Images of the Kia hamsters and used Photoshop to paste them into a picture of the front of the school holding a banner.  I also have one of the hamsters pop-up at the very end of the video while the entry deadline date is displayed - it got a giggle out of my wife.

Tomorrow both of these videos will go for review by the PTA president, and then on to those in charge at the school.  Hopefully one of the finished versions is suitable.  (But I really want the hamsters to be chosen!)

Once things are finalized I'll post the videos on YouTube and link it here.

The Current Project

Well up to now the only videos I've made that would be seen by an audience I wasn't acquainted with were the ones that I've posted on YouTube.

This new project is for the PTA at my sons elementary school to highlight and draw interest in one of the activities they have coming up.

I'll be using Pinnacle Studio 11 for this.  It has to run during the morning news one day and be limited to about one minutes in length.  I have two ideas in mind and need to get it done by Monday.  Let's see what develops...

SD Card Selection

Planning on filming in High Definition?  If your videocam stores video on SD Cards then choose your card wisely.  This is one place where I wouldn't try to save a few dollars.  Think about it really - if you're shooting video of your kids as they blow out the birthday candles on their cake or taking short snippets of video during your vacation, well realistically these are memories you'll want to keep forever.

And \nothing could be worse than reviewing the video you just shot just to find that artifacts are showing up on screen, the audio isn't synched to video, or any other number of things that can go wrong.

So in this area choose the best card you can!  Look at the graphic above - two PNY cards both of them 16GB in capacity.  But one of these you would not want to use for hi-def video.  Which one?  The one on the left - the Class 4 card is the one to avoid.  The price will be much lower than the Class 10 card but it is not capable of capturing the throughput of information that a Class 10 card can.

Here's a basic comparison of the different Classes:
(Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital )

Class 2 = 2MB/s
Class 4 = 4MB/s
Class 6 = 6MB/s
Class 10 = 10MB/s

Depending on the quality of your video, the amount captured will vary anywhere (using the Canon Vixia HF M301 as an example) anywhere from 5Mbps (lowest quality) to 24Mbps (highest quality).

Now buying a high capacity high speed card can cost - and buying several of them costs even more.  But from personal experience I can tell you that if you shop around for the best price then you will find there are deals to be had!

Example - a few months ago we were planning our summer vacation.  I knew that I'd be shooting lots of video and wanted to have at least three cards.  At that time the PNY Professional 16GB Class 10 SD Card was retailing for more than $45 each!  What to do?  I fired up my browser and started comparing prices online from different retailers.  I found Best Buy had this particular card on sale online for $27!  But vacation was a short time away and I couldn't wait for shipping.  So what I did was I printed out the page showing the product and pricing and brought it into my local Best Buy.  They price-matched the online price and I made three separate purchases (couldn't buy all three at the same time) - saved myself just about $60.

Of course that was months ago and prices have come down since then but for sure remember to compare prices, shop around, and buy the best card you can find!