Black Hole
May contain traces of nut
I'm looking to purchase two items in particular, hoping others might be able to fill in my lack of experience in these fields:
Mini Go Cam Thing
You see these all the time on telly now, clamped to peoples helmets going white water rafting or whatever, filming full HD broadcast quality video.
I'm going gliding in a couple of weeks (half-hour session), and it's a one-off opportunity to record the experience. My current kit includes a camcorder (dunno if it still works, bulky), compact Fuji digital camera (eats batteries, fiddly), Fuji bridge camera (top notch, but bulky and fiddly), and my iPad (last thing I want to do is hold the camera all the way through, and I doubt it could record for that long!).
I don't want the filming to detract from the personal experience, so I aim to mount the camera somehow, set it running and lock it off. I expect plenty of people do this, so the gliding club probably has advice to offer (I have made enquiries), but I guess possibly I can sucker-mount to the inside of the canopy, or maybe there's something I can clamp to.
So: something small and light, with an hour's battery and memory capacity, and preferably not too expensive because I don't see that I'm going to have frequent use for it. I do have a cheapie car dash cam, but a) it's broken (although I expect I can fix it) and b) it's crap.
Audio Mixer
One of my clubs has a need for a small mixer. Current kit includes a power amp and dual CD player, and the CD player has a microphone input with mixer controls, but there is no facility for an external input to be mixed in. Now a lot of people are presenting their music from digital sources, we will be moving away from the CD player but still need a way to match the PC/tablet/MP3 player line/headphone outputs to the power amp inputs, provide a microphone preamp and mix, and a master volume control (the power amp has individual gain controls for left and right, but that's hardly a convenient way to control the overall volume!).
It would also be nice (but not essential) to have a spare input for the CD player or other equipment. So we're talking mic plus two stereo inputs with individual channel gain presets and mix level, or mic plus one stereo input at a push.
The Behringer Xenyx 502 looks almost ideal, what I don't like is the aesthetics of having the connections on the main panel (why aren't they on the back?), and the lack of an easy mute on the mic input (a slider or a pop-free mute button would be much easier to operate than a rotary knob).
The 502 is also a good price (approx £30). This purchase is price sensitive, because I'm spending other people's money.
Any considered advice (regarding either of the above) is appreciated.
Mini Go Cam Thing
You see these all the time on telly now, clamped to peoples helmets going white water rafting or whatever, filming full HD broadcast quality video.
I'm going gliding in a couple of weeks (half-hour session), and it's a one-off opportunity to record the experience. My current kit includes a camcorder (dunno if it still works, bulky), compact Fuji digital camera (eats batteries, fiddly), Fuji bridge camera (top notch, but bulky and fiddly), and my iPad (last thing I want to do is hold the camera all the way through, and I doubt it could record for that long!).
I don't want the filming to detract from the personal experience, so I aim to mount the camera somehow, set it running and lock it off. I expect plenty of people do this, so the gliding club probably has advice to offer (I have made enquiries), but I guess possibly I can sucker-mount to the inside of the canopy, or maybe there's something I can clamp to.
So: something small and light, with an hour's battery and memory capacity, and preferably not too expensive because I don't see that I'm going to have frequent use for it. I do have a cheapie car dash cam, but a) it's broken (although I expect I can fix it) and b) it's crap.
Audio Mixer
One of my clubs has a need for a small mixer. Current kit includes a power amp and dual CD player, and the CD player has a microphone input with mixer controls, but there is no facility for an external input to be mixed in. Now a lot of people are presenting their music from digital sources, we will be moving away from the CD player but still need a way to match the PC/tablet/MP3 player line/headphone outputs to the power amp inputs, provide a microphone preamp and mix, and a master volume control (the power amp has individual gain controls for left and right, but that's hardly a convenient way to control the overall volume!).
It would also be nice (but not essential) to have a spare input for the CD player or other equipment. So we're talking mic plus two stereo inputs with individual channel gain presets and mix level, or mic plus one stereo input at a push.
The Behringer Xenyx 502 looks almost ideal, what I don't like is the aesthetics of having the connections on the main panel (why aren't they on the back?), and the lack of an easy mute on the mic input (a slider or a pop-free mute button would be much easier to operate than a rotary knob).
The 502 is also a good price (approx £30). This purchase is price sensitive, because I'm spending other people's money.
Any considered advice (regarding either of the above) is appreciated.
