I have a lot of interest in the iPhone (and the new iPod) as an all-in-on multimedia journalism tool. So I decided to put my iPhone to the test at Drake men’s basketball media day today.
First, the bad news: Lesson one was to make sure you are perfectly comfortable with the tools you will be using. I recorded audio of the coach’s press conference using the application Monle. As I left the presser and started to listen to the audio, I couldn’t find the audio. My best guess is that I hit the wrong button when going to save the audio, and it never was saved.
Video: I recorded two videos, both interviews with players. For the first video, I used the built-in microphone. For the second, I used an external microphone.
The audio seems about the same with both, although the external mic seemed to help cut down on background noise. The second video is a little shaky, likely because I was holding the mic with one hand, leaving just one hand to steady the camera.
Photos: I also shot a few photos. These aren’t worthy-of-the-front-page shots, but I certainly wouldn’t be embarrassed to post them to a website or blog post.
The results
Negatives: Clearly losing the audio from the coach press conference was a big one. And the shakiness on video No. 2 was less than ideal.
Positives: The big positive here is speed. Even as most reporters are just leaving media day (it started 90 minutes before I am hitting publish on this), I already have edited and posted two videos and four photos. The quality is good considering I was shooting indoors with no external flash or light.
I’ll look for a chance soon to truly test the audio to make up for my error there.