I was in London yesterday, and so took the opportunity to put the Flip through a few more paces since my initial article on the subject.
I wanted to see how it would cope in a pretty noisy urban environment. There was traffic noise, other people, and occasional gusts of wind.
How did it shape up?
I took several short videos, in which I held the Flip between six inches and a foot away from me. I deliberately chose not to speak too loud, not least because I have an aversion to having people think there is something wrong with me.
In this first video, taken from Lambeth Bridge and looking towards Westminster Bridge, the traffic nose level was quite high, but the Flip coped admirably. I think a couple of words I said were lost because of some wind, but perhaps also I was holding the Flip just that little bit too far away from myself -- about a foot. It seems that around 6 inches is the ideal, especially with so much background noise.
Having said that, I have not done any post-production sound editing, and for the most part you can hear me very clearly indeed. I'm impressed.
This next video is just over the Lambeth Bridge, outside the Garden of Museum History. It was extremely quiet, so as you'd expect there were no problems at all with the sound. Again, as you may be able to tell, I was speaking quite softly.
The next video was taken over the road from the Museum, and shows and talks about different buildings, and features a London double-decker bus.
Then comes a little bit of footage of the Thames, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. (Incidentally, when I mentioned the word "mechanism", I should have said "bell".)
Last but not least, there's a snippet of video taken inside Waterloo Station, which is an incredibly large and busy terminus. You'll also learn a piece of history that not many people are aware of.
All in all, I was very pleased with the results. This latest little experiment of mine convinces me that it is perfectly feasible to get students walking around a town centre interviewing members of the public, or doing a travelogue.
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