VideoZone

The Basics

What You will Need

A digital video camera. There are many makes and models available, some record onto mini DV tapes, some onto DVD and some have built in hard drives. I use a Sony model that takes mini DV tapes.

Leads to connect the camera to a digital projector and to a computer. These will usually come with your camera. I use a firewire connection to capture video onto my computer from the camera, which I bought separately. If your camera uses DVD you can simply put the DVD into your computer's DVD drive

A tripod. Though not essential, a tripod can make things a lot easier to film and gives better results. This is particularly true for filming mechanics experiments.

A microphone. Again, this is not essential, as your video camera will have a built in microphone. However, these microphones are not good at picking up sound over distances. A better option, particularly if you want to video students presentations is using a separate microphone. These come in different styles. Some mount on the camera itself, some will stand on a desk or can be hand held and some can be clipped to clothing. I use a microphone attached to the accessory shoe of the camera

Video editing software. If you want to add your video to a VLE, or make it accessible to students over a computer network, you will need a video editing package. Most computers now come with this type of software installed, (Windows Movie Maker on PC's), however better software is available and is becoming more affordable, (I use Adobe Premiere Elements). Your school will probably have some good video editing software, (and someone who knows how to use it!). You don't need to use many features of this software, you just need to export the captured video into a different format, e.g. wmv or mp4. This will reduce the file size and allow it to be played easily on a computer, though it will also reduce the quality.