Saturday, December 26, 2009

SNGF: The best genealogy gift was ... family videos

The challenge for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun was to tell:

What gift that you received for Christmas is your favorite for genealogy purposes? Book, magazine, hardware, software, website subscription, research time - what was it, and how will it affect your genealogy research?

My favorite Christmas gift this year that can be used for genealogy and family history purposes is a Flip Cam-corder:





This was our main gift from our daughter and her family - and I love it! The Ultra model is described on this web page. The best qualities of it are:

* 4 gb Flash memory - no disks or tapes
* Two hours of video time.
* Comes with built-in USB thingie-doodle arm that plugs right into USB port
* Anybody can use it.
* Uploads videos to computer easily (with built-in software)* Can upload to Facebook, MySpace, YouTube or web sites

I just uploaded a clip to Facebook showing Santa Claus coming in the house. The files are MP4 files, and are quite large. A 20 second video clip is about 12 mb. I try to limit the clips to 10 to 15 seconds so that they can be emailed.

One drawback is that there is no additional light source - you rely on the available light. Another drawback, for me, is that the grandchildren are too quick - they pass by in a flash and my panning skills are weak. Oh well - I'd rather have bad videos than none at all!

1 comment:

M. Diane Rogers said...

I received both a netbook computer and a digital picture frame. These will both be well used and enjoyed - one for taking family info with me (and for keeping in touch) wherever I go and the other for displaying the ancestral photographs on my mantel.
Enjoy making your videos, Randy!