Filming with Nokia Lumia

Published by Paul Coombes on November 22, 2012

Lumia 900 videos

We’ve had a couple of really nice Lumia 900 videos submitted for our Nokia Connects Go! competition this month, and who are we to keep them to ourselves?

The first is from Jacob Spera, who we showcased and interviewed a few weeks ago. He’s been hitting some tracks in the Colarado Desert with his trusty unicycle… yes, you heard right, unicycle!

Of course he was armed with a Lumia 900 too, and Jacob’s experience with the phone overall had it’s ups and downs. He told me that when the camera worked it worked really well, but other times he struggled to get the quality he needed. Whatever the challenges he faced were though, he overcame them to produce an awesome video. Remember to watch in HD!

The second video we have to show you is something a little different. Casual Arcane are a performance art duo from Maine in the States. They manipulate interesting objects, bringing them to life. I will be interviewing them later this week so you’ll be able to find out all about them then! For now, take a look at what they made for Nokia Connects Go! with a Lumia 900.

If you like either of the videos please leave comment, I’m sure the guys would appreciate it! If you want the chance to create an awesome video with a Nokia Lumia, drop me an email, leave a comment or reach out on Twitter.

Comments

  • http://twitter.com/Goldy73 Simon Goldberger

    We should get these guys a 920, the films they’d be able to make with that would be stunning.

  • http://twitter.com/dalydose Jeff Daly

    Wow. Both were done really well. I’m looking to do a lot of stuff with my new Lumia 920. I’m playing around with it now to get a feel and I’m going to shoot an up and coming singer’s music video soon and I want to shoot a short film, as well. I’m used to working with higher end cameras on pro shoots, but I **love** the idea of producing with just a phone.

    QUESTIONS:
    1. If I turn off the auto focus, can I still focus somehow? I thought it would be touch-to-focus, but touching initiates recording. I don’t like that auto-focus b/c it seems to hunt for focus a lot and make the screen have a pulse like effect.
    2. I haven’t tried it with the Lumia, but I have seen iPhones with external boom mics plugged into them. If I bought an adaptor for my pro boom mic, would I be able to record the sound from it??

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=624855599 Sibt Ul Hasnain Ashmal

      You can turn off CAF, it then switches to hyperfocal mode afaik, then you can keep shooting and a specific minimum distance is needed, if you get more close than that things get blurred otherwise everything stays in focus.

      As for the video recording, I’m not sure if it would accept external mics, but what I do know is that It records upto 140db, though maybe in mono, so audio distortion at even the highest pitches and the lowest frequencies aint a problem to handle for the 920, though the best audio recording experience is still on the 808, proudly another Nokia device as well!

      • http://twitter.com/dalydose Jeff Daly

        Thanks @facebook-624855599:disqus – I can use the phone’s mic for most things, but for my short film idea, I need to record dialog. For that I need to use the boom pole to isolate the person speaking and hopefully reduce the ambient sounds. I guess, I’ll have to play and see if I can make it work.

        • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=624855599 Sibt Ul Hasnain Ashmal

          yeah man, i get what you wanna do… as for the editor, im sure there aint any restriction on it, its just yet to come… see they even added screenshots, which costed quite some bucks before… its all a matter of time Jeff…!!

    • http://conversations.nokia.com/ Paul C

      Thanks for your comment Jeff. Really good to see that you are creating with your Lumia. Drop me a line when your video is live, would love to check it out.

      To answer your questions…
      If autofocus is switched off, the camera is using “full focus” to keep the picture sharp, there is no manual focus feature.

      We do not have specific information about using a boom microphone, though we do know that a connected headset can act as an external mic during video capture, so as far as we are able to tell it should be possible. However,
      in the absence of actual testing we are not able to give any kind of confirmation.

      • http://twitter.com/dalydose Jeff Daly

        Hey @PaulC13:disqus, thanks for your reply. I was able to get audio into the phone with the adapter that I found. I now have to make sure that it is coming through with better quality than just using the phone’s mic.

        ANOTHER QUESTION: Is there an OS limitation that prevents some developer from making a basic video editor on Windows Phone? iPhone has it and they have a similar dual core processor, so I think the power is there. I don’t mean like a full blown editor, but I would love to see: clip trimming, titles for beginning and end, putting a few clips in order, slideshows from still pics, adding voiceover or music. Could Nokia make this kind of app? Nokia Cutting Room. Yeah, that’d be niiiiice

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=624855599 Sibt Ul Hasnain Ashmal

    Hi Paul, sent you an email just now regarding the opportunity to film with a Lumia, kindly check and respond if appropriate. Thanks and Regards!