I’m loving the Fujifilm X100 for image making. It has a great sized sensor in a beautifully well made, retro-styled body.

It does have its issues though. It is sluggish when taking multiple raw photos and its manual focusing is fiddly. They are not really issues that concern my use though, and I feel most of the niggles so far reported can be fixed with a firmware update. For me its good points far outweigh the bad. Great image quality, a hybrid viewfinder, a lovely fast lens and near silent operation to name a few.

That said, for the X100 to be my every day workhorse, the camera I always have by my side, it also to be useable for video blogging. This is my first real test shooting video and although the lens delivers a great quality image, even in low light, a couple of clips appeared to have a buzzing on the audio and then for no reason.. it went. I didn’t do anything to make it go and can’t seem to get it to happen again. Nevertheless, it was weird and I can see myself doing a few more tests before trusting the camera to deliver both stunning video and acceptable audio. Even if just for video blogging.

(I recorded my initial impression of the camera here on audioboo should you want to hear more.)

One is just to get some content onto my OurManInside.com blog as it has sat dorment for a few months. The other is to pose the question in the title. How easy to use is your blogging platform?

I’ve found myself in a dilemma. I have had the theme Revolution Pro on this WordPress blog for a long time now. I love the way the front page displays a variety of content from throughout the blog and when I update my flickr photos the feed on the front of my blog also changes. I also have a video that’s easy to change. When I remember.

It’s also is hosted & managed by Nik Butler AKA @Loudmouthman so i never have to think about it falling down or needing updating. He is the invisible being that makes this corner of my internet just work.

After seeing Loudmouthman dabbling in Flavors.me I set up my own at flavors.me/documentally. It’s handy to have certain online places aggregate to one page and really simple to set up. That said it does not do everything I am after and sometimes has a strange idea of how content should be formatted.

This is not a new idea.. Over two years ago myself and @Philcampbell used his creation Rezpondr which did very much the same but with more timeline customization and made realtime projects across multimedia platform easy to view in one place.

This year I finally found a fast posting platform I am truly comfortable with in not only it’s simplicity but the way it grows. It is listening to it’s users and growing with them. Posterous has truly revolutionised the way I blog as it’s auto embedding of content with cross posting ability makes it the easiest  platform I have yet used. My Documental.ly Posterous blog (themed by @RichardMackney) has almost entirely taken over  from this wordpress blog.

It’s all about ease of use and that’s mostly down to links being auto embedded, video and audio being hosted & embedded and all this seemlessly working from an email. All it really needs now is a decent back-up system for the masses of content I am pumping into it.

Richard Mackney also made me a hub page at Documentally.com If you are to mention my online places to anyone. please start with www.Documentally.com I am hoping it will always link to a few of my online places.

Bushte.ch, Paynestake.com and Oapedia.org are just a few of my posterous blogs all linked into the same backend content management system.

I haven’t done it yet but apparently I can easily import all my wordpress posts into posterous and was looking  to turn my wordpress theme into a content aggregation system for all my other places. Either this or turn off wordpress altogether. This is a really hard decision as wordpress has been really good to me. Possible because of Nik’s seamless support and that google keeps sending a large number of people here.

This is a small dilemma in the grand scheme of things. Whatever happens I will have to change the theme. I now have to sort out a separately formatted photo (unless i recycle an old one) that will appear on the front page link as well as go through flickr to find a photo to break up this body of text. It is so much more work than is needed compared to the other platforms cropping up at the moment.

I guess I could just post to fewer places to save time.. I would, but Storyfi.com has now made it even easier to filter and feed all the content we sew across our web spaces. Another game changing platform waiting to take off.

Anyway. For the time being I will be mostly at http://Documental.ly until i decide what to do. Unless the Libyans decide to unplug me.

UPDATE:

Actually, not technically an update as I had not yet posted all these questions and ponderings when I called @Loudmouthman who it seems has once again given me all the solutions to my musings. I knew i shouldn’t have Skyped him before I posted. He has almost voided this post with all his answers.

So.. For me to pump life back into the great platform of WordPress, (Nik reminded me of the many benefits Wordpress has over other platforms and I hope he can list a few in the comments below) I need to find a simple two column wordpress theme that will allow my flickr and video content to be featured via widgets. That way i get to keep all the great content that’s archived here and all going well I can cross post from my easy to use posterous into my wordpress pages. So, as Nik has done with Loudmouthman.com (no www.) linking to his blog only and with the www’s is goes to his flavor.me account he has all bases covered.

Phew. I am going to have a lie down in order to formulate a plan of action.

Cheers Nik.. No need to frown.. I got there in the end.

[Another Update]
Woot!.. As you may have noticed I’ve made the switch to a simpler theme and as a result in two days my stats have tripled. Of course an increase in stats if i were selling something would mean more customers but in my case it means more people reading and that less is in fact more when it comes to formatting blogs to help with accessibility.

Thanks again to Nik for the ongoing tweaks to my back-end. *sounds wrong*

I have somehow managed to post 14 videos over the 12 days so far. I am amazed I have managed to get this far. I am exhausted though.. With all this work and play there is not much time for rest.

This video reflects my mood at the end of the day today. The end of a hard but very satisfying stint of work.

I shot this on a Canon Ixus 120is and manipulated the clip in imovie.

The Musician is a friend of mine.

(This video was recorded on Quicktime on my mac.)

I sent an email to him last night half expecting him to be locked in some farmhouse on the outskirts of Baghdad handcuffed to a bed. It’s happened before. I don’t expect him to be quite so lucky next time.

Anyway, he’s not kidnapped, just delayed.

He’s an old time ‘proper’ Journalist. He’s mastered shorthand, always keeps his notebooks and is one of the finest writers I know.

He knows Arabic.

He files stories and photos for a Middle Eastern newspaper. He get’s the job done. Well.

He told me he looked at my ‘stuff’ online and is not sure if he has been left behind. “It seems pretty interesting and weird and, well, very modern (there are things I’ve never heard of..)

We came from the same daily newspaper in Northamptonshire and spent our last paid holiday on assignment in Egypt and Sudan before quitting work together.

We then took different paths. I don’t think he realises how those few times working together influenced me. Thanks to him I know there is a right way of doing things. I may not choose that way myself but I know it’s there.

In amongst my manic postings on multimedia platforms, occasionally there is something a little more polished, a little more in depth. Often I rely on the viewer or reader to bring their opinion, thoughts, conversation to the mix. Mostly I spew content into the streams without tagging, captions or any kind of context. Maybe I see documenting as more of an art form than providing information or an official record.

I have all the tools I need and more. Perhaps if I thinned out my social media toolkit I would solidify my content. Less of a scatter gun more of a missile.

Still, I am glad I took this path and am sure it will be an amalgamation of social technology and the ‘old ways’ that shape the future of Journalism.

If my friend knew that what I did was easy, he’d be unstoppable. Any journalist with an iota of imagination can pick up these tools and apply them to the way they work. The benefits are massive. As long as we don’t loose sight of our truths and see those truths as something to be shared on mass whatever the repercussions.

Maybe I will show him. A decent journalist works for the good of us all. A great one needs protecting and allows us a datum. It reminds us that some bloggers are journalists. And some are not.

I mostly blog at OurManInside.com

Three years ago online video was something I mostly only viewed. I’d played around with recording and uploading video but this was a long winded haphazard affair involving hand coded xml files every time I wanted to add a video to my podcast. Then if I wanted to share it further afield I’d upload it to YouTube giving me the option to embed on a website or link to it in an email or forum.

Now it’s just as easy as sending an email. Many of the sites I visit today are either video conversational platforms or at the very least places where video is being shared and commented on. Video is now a medium of conversation.

Recently I have been asked more and more by companies “Do we really need to get involved in video?”

The short answer is “Yes.”

For me, engaging with online video is a no brainer.

The easiest way for me to explain why this shift from old analogue methods of communication to online ones is so important is to compare online video with TV. The buzzword for a while now has been Social Media, Social Media does exactly what it says on the tin, it allows people to have conversations on a new level of engagement, be it from an entertainment or marketing perspective.  TV could not be further away from this world. The most interactive thing TV can offer us is the red button. Nowadays people expect a conversation with their content.

TV advertising is also fleeting and expensive. After the cost of creating your media, you pay for your slot and when it’s gone it’s gone. Online video on the other hand, can be made at a fraction of the cost, and if you spread it intelligently it’s viewable forever. Not only that but the viewer can comment on, respond to, and share it for you. This conversation around your content keeps it alive, relevant, and in the public eye way beyond other forms of old analogue media.

Online video is also instantly global, searchable, on demand and with viewing stats that are easily measured.

It really is a no brainer.

Whether you want content for your website, to launch a brand or product, produce video news releases, or just show the human side of your organisation, you need to have a presence in the digital world, you need to be using online video. I can show you how to do produce content cheaply and effectively. I cover the kit, how-to shooting tips, file compression, uploading and aggregation, how to make your video visible, and loads more.  Whether you wish to use some of the free solutions out there like Twitvid, Tokbox or Qik, or shoot HD on a hand held device, I can be there to guide you through selecting suitable equipment to shoot, edit and distribute your video effectively.

For a little while now I’ve offered one to one consultation and informal training sessions on all aspects of social media and video making for the web. Now, for the first time, in conjunction with Econsultancy, I’m going to be able to offer a formal workshop (snappily titled) ‘Video For The Web‘.

4.7 billion videos are watched online in the UK every year. Make one of them yours.

http://econsultancy.com/training/courses/video-for-the-web

(Please check out the other home for this blogpost and it’s comments here.. Econsultancy.com)

In the dark shadowy corner I shot this very quick video in 720p as the SD card I had to hand was not high speed and couldn’t cope with the fat data rate of the 1080p setting. The camera feels good in the hand. Well made and similar in form to the Zi6.

Already I can see the low light ability is better than that of the previous two models but more importantly I am looking forward to plugging in an external mic and seeing what kind of audio quality is possible.

The specs are as follows:

• Full HD 1080p video
• Built-in image stabilization
• 2.5” color LCD
• Swing out the USB arm to upload, share, and charge
• 5 MP 16:9 widescreen HD still pictures
• Built-in software for editing and uploading
• Compatible with PC and Mac
• Record up to 10 hrs of HD video (20 min per 1 GB at 720p HD at 30 fps) with SD/SDHC card up to 32 GB
• Face tracking technology
• External stereo microphone
• HDMI cable included

I’m thinking that finally camera producers are beginning to understand the importance of decent audio.. more important than picture quality in my opinion. It’s too soon for me to express anything other than relief at the mic input with the Kodak Zi8, but I feel with devices like the Zoom Q3 on the horizon (which is effectively a high quality audio recorder with a camera on it), I feel the goal posts have been moved and video blogging devices are entering a whole new era.

If you suffered watching the video with all the beeps in.. Now you can watch the uncensored version.

There is more information on the Kodak Blog.