Iphone Accessories
Geschrieben von muvhemes 211 Tage vor (http://jobfairincalifornia.com)Owle Bubo Review: For Hardcore iPhone Videographers
Owle Bubo isn't an obscure Star Wars bounty hunter. It's a $130 billet aluminum iPhone case, complete with swappable 37mm macro lens. It's well-made, attractive, and makes iPhone video easy. But you probably don't want this one. Products like the Bubo confuse my little retail suggestion brain. For some of you, $130 is a pittance to get a sturdy case with four female tripod mounts, a cold shoe for lights and microphones, and two comfortable handles that steady up your iPhone videography.
For others, $130 is nearly the price you paid for the phone itself—or the price of a decent Kodak or Flip video camera.
So Much Right
Let's start with what Owle gets right: The design—from packaging, to the physical feel of the Bubo in your hands, to the friendly instruction manual complete with jokes about Perez Hilton)—is excellent, especially considering it's Owle's first product.
The cool metal feels wonderful in your hands. The mounting points allow for nearly any combination of accessories, a quality I'd love to see emulated by other cameras and rail systems. (Consider that even most pro video cameras have a single tripod mount and a single hotshoe.)
Video quality is improved over the iPhone 3GS's default, simply by dint of the large glass lens that rests over the iPhone's sensor. It adds a slight fisheye effect, but one that is generally welcome, alleviating the typical claustrophobic feel of iPhone video.
Video Testing
But is it over a hundred dollars worth of improvement? Depends. Below I've embedded Owle's video they shot during CES that shows a side-by-side comparison of video with and without the Bubo.
Pretty good, right? Well, below are two videos I shot within seconds of each other of a mossy rock and then uploaded straight to Vimeo. Frankly, besides the wider lens and slight difference in sharpness, I'm hard pressed to see anything profoundly different.
So fine. It's better with Bubo, for sure, but not much. You can't judge the Owle Bubo without remembering that the power of its camera isn't that it's particularly high-quality, but that it's wedded to a phone with hundreds and hundreds of useful, fascinating apps that extend its capabilities to a fantastic degree. (It's hilariously true to say the iPhone is the most powerful camera in the world—if you discount image quality.)
Yet There Was A But
But a couple of things about the Bubo make me wary to recommend it quite yet.
It's heavy. Heavier than the iPhone on its own, certainly. Heavier than many "real" camcorders I've used. According to the box it shipped in—there's no weight information on Owle's website—it's just under two pounds before you put the iPhone in or mount any lights or microphones. On my light Manfrotto tripod, it kind of made it want to lean a little, although if everything was tightened properly it seemed to be fine. No big deal, but for handheld shots I could see it getting tiring. (Then again, all cameras are tiring after a while.)
The system for holding the iPhone in place scares me, too. You're forced to put your iPhone in a rubberized case. (One was included with my test sample, but several others from major case manufacturers are supported.) Then you jam that case into the back of the Bubo where it is held in place by tension alone. I never once had an issue where my iPhone started to slip out, but still...it's a bit scary. A simple flip-down tab would go a long way toward appeasing my fear of seeing the heart of my camera system go clattering to the concrete.
Finally: price. It's not too expensive for its level of quality—solid hunks of aluminum aren't cheap—but it does take it out of impulse purchase territory for most, which is a pity. A planned composite (read: plastic) version is in the works which Owle expects to sell for around $70. Considering the optics and tripod mounts will still be the same quality as the Bubo's, that seems like a fair price.
One final niggle I'd like to see improved in future versions: It would be nice to see a divot in the bottom tripod mounts for stabilizing pins, common on most tripods. That would help prevent the Bubo from potentially spinning itself out of the tripod screw during all-day use.
Appealing design that looks like it came from Night Owl's lab
Turns the iPhone into nearly any sort of recording rig you can dream up
Improves video and imaging quality, if even slightly
Expensive
Heavy
iPhone mounting system seems iffy
Send an email to Joel Johnson, the author of this post, at joel@gizmodo.com.
The unit also has an internal speaker, and it was louder than the iPhone alone, so hearing traffic directions was easier. The Magellan app allows access to your playlists, and I was able to get some music playing, and while it too was louder than the speaker on the iPhone, I didn't find the volume high enough to want to listen to music that way.
The cradle lets you flip the phone to either a portrait or landscape orientation, so I used the landscape view, which the Magellan app supports, along with most of the GPS apps available. The cradle also has a mini jack for audio out which will allow you to listen to music through your car system if you have the proper inputs.
There were some negatives, though. First, I received messages each time I put my iPhone in the cradle that the hardware was not built for the iPhone, the unit then asked me if I wanted to go into Airplane Mode. I thought that was a bit strange, so I said no, and continued to navigate. I began to suspect that my case was the issue, and sure enough, when I took my phone out of the case I did not get the warning. While my case is pretty thin and seemed to fit fine in the cradle, it is clear that all the contacts weren't lining up exactly right.
Once I had my bare iPhone settled in, I drove around and found navigation was excellent, the turn by turn directions were clearly audible, and it was a lot easier than just having my iPhone on the seat next to me.
I took 2 calls while I was navigating. Neither call was very loud, unfortunately, and at highway speeds one call was almost impossible to hear. I did turn the volume of the cradle all the way up, but it just wasn't enough, especially if the road noise was high. In contrast, navigation directions were quite audible.
With the iPhone in the cradle, power was not a problem, but when I plugged my phone in it had a 58% charge. After an hours driving, I still had only 58% charged. That suggests that the charger is maintaining power levels but not adding anything. My guess is that keeping the screen on and using the GPS full time wasn't giving the iPhone a chance to catch up.
So what were my overall impressions? I think the unit is a lot easier than holding your phone or depending on the built in iPhone speakerphone to hear directions. Although plastic, the unit seems sturdy enough. It was a lot easier to navigate with the Car Kit than without, and I believe the built-in GPS receiver enhanced performance. I really did think phone call volume was just too low, and I expect the promoted ability to work with your iPhone in a case may disappoint some people.
I did try the unit with the Navigon app [iTunes link] (which, it should be noted, costs another $90 to buy), and it worked fine; directions were quite audible. At U.S. $129.99 I find this item a bit pricey, close to the price of buying a small, low end dedicated GPS unit. TomTom has a similar unit at $119.95 and Navigon has a simpler cradle which is just a suction cup and charger. For the price, the Magellan works as promised -- as a cradle with a lot of bonuses -- but it's one of the more expensive options out there. If all you need is dedicated GPS device, you can probably find one of those on sale for about the same price.
Who Voted for this Story
Auf dieser Webpräsenz finden Sie Artikel sowie Empfehlungen von Entwicklern und Besuchern zum Thema Opensource wie Programme, Scripte für Ihre Homepage, Seo Webdesign Tools, Content Management Systeme ( CMS), HTML, PHP , CSS und Java um nur einiges zu nennen.
Kommentare
198 Tage vor
198 Tage vor