Lately I have been experimenting with video blogging. I thought video blogging was done with a webcam, HA I was wrong, experts actually use digital cameras, mini dvs, camcorders, etc. A real video recorder basically.

First I ended up buying the Creative Live Optia for video blogging and video talking with my brother and sister and with my cousins. I enjoyed working with the Creative Live Optia because it was very useful and easy to use. But then once I started doing longer video posts, the video and audio stopped syncing properly.

I then researched about video blogging and what to chose or how to choose a good camera. Well after all that wait I have bought a new camera for video blogging, the Nikon CoolPix L11. I love Nikon cameras, my past 2 cameras were Nikon. I currently have the Nikon L4 for stand alone pictures, and I had a Nikon 3200 as well. Now in addition to the Fernando Nikon family I have adopted Nikon Coolpix L11. Here is a small intro video.

The video above was made with my Creative Live Optia AF. Here are some specs about the Nikon CoolPix L11 camera:

• Color Support Color
• Optical Sensor Type CCD
• Total Pixels 6,180,000 pixels
• Effective Sensor Resolution 6,000,000 pixels
• Optical Sensor Size 1/2.5"
• Light Sensitivity ISO auto (64-800)
• Digital Zoom 4 x
• Shooting Modes Frame movie mode
• Shooting Programs Landscape, portrait mode, close-up, museum, party/indoor, back light, beach/snow, night portrait, fireworks, night landscape, panorama assist, copy, sports mode, sunset
• Special Effects Black & White, Sepia, Neutral, Vivid, Cyanotype
• Exposure Modes Program, automatic
• White Balance Custom, automatic, presets
• White Balance Presets Incandescent, fluorescent, cloudy, sunlight, flash, shade
• Digital Video Format QuickTime
• Still Image Format JPEG
• Video Capture QuickTime - 640 x 480 - 30 fps QuickTime - 640 x 480 - 15 fps QuickTime - 320 x 240 - 30 fps QuickTime - 320 x 240 - 15 fps QuickTime - 160 x 120 - 15 fps
• Supported Flash Memory MultiMediaCard, SD Memory Card, SDHC Memory Card
• Integrated Memory 7 MB

I chose this camera because of its high pixels and of course video with audio. I did not want to choose a high quality camera, as I said I just got into video blogging.

But what was I looking for when I was looking for this camera? I was walking through best buy and I walked in looking for a mini dvr. You know those little things that just record video. A popular one is called the Flip. So when I walked into the BestBuy in my area they were asking $150 for it and it was the last item too. I thought to myself I might as well just buy a new camera with video and audio.

So with that said here are some aspect I was looking for when I chose a camera.

• Pixels - I don't go over 7 because I do not think I will blow up pictures to hang on my walls.
• ISO Sensitivity - Light sensitivity
• Double Flash - To prevent Red eye
• What type of Flash Memory - I have lots of SD cards so I only look for SD flash cameras, unless a camera beats my requirements then I will switch, but I try to stay with SD card cameras.
• Large easy viewable LCD
• Simple Navigation

These are just the simple aspects when I chose a camera, but what about for Video Blogging? Well I would assume the same as the above. When you record video the light sensitivity always changes with movement, so a good iso that interacts with video. Some camera's ISO only works for stand alone pictures; I would assume this would be good for video blogging.

Size and FPS are important, you do not want your audio to lag behind your video. You want to have it in sync as close as possible, so those aspects are important. What video format? Well Nikon only produces the video in .MOV (QuickTime). So it looks like I will have to convert the video on my end and edit using Windows Movie Maker or I can edit on my iMovie on my iBook G4.

But here is my mini review of the Nikon CoolPix L11

I am use to the Nikon standard interface as I have had several Nikon Cameras. But what is the quality? Well here is a video on YouTube I created with this camera, but YouTube tends to make the video poor quality. On my PC its great quality, too bad ISO does not play a role with the videos. It is converted into QuickTime movies, so I have to convert it to AVI to play and edit it.

The audio picks up pretty well, I do not have to yell or talk loud into the microphone. To me this camera works fine and I enjoy it so far. I think the microphone might be a little too sensitive, since it picks up the traffic noise outside my window. You can't really notice unless you really concentrate on it.

There really isn't much to review about this camera. I like this a lot and I hope to continue to use it for my video blogging experience, just hope the editing is easy!