Top 5 List of Products for Screencasters from CES
Posted on Monday January 17, 2011 by Betsy Weber
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I was recently at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Besides meeting one of Bob Marley's sons, Rohan Marley, the highlights for me were the miles of gadgets and equipment.
A few products I saw on the show floor stood out that looked useful for screencasters... Here's my top 5 list of products for screencasters from CES!
- Cinemin Slice from WowWee - This handy little pico projector turns your iPad into a 60 inch projection screen. So, load up your Camtasia screencasts and show them off to the crowd. Added bonus - it has stereo sound. Your screencasts should look and sound great.
- Mikey for Flip by Blue Microphones (shown in pic above) - Adding camera video to your screencasts can make them dynamic and give them that personal touch. It can be difficult to get great audio on video cameras using the built in microphone. The clever people at Blue Microphones have solved this problem with Mikey for Flip. This microphone will give you professional sounding audio with your Flip video camera. Your screencasts will sound better and your viewers will thank you.
- KODAK PLAYTOUCH video camera - What can I say? This is my camera of choice for any screencasts I do. It can capture full 1080p HD video and it has an external microphone jack so I can get great sounding professional audio. And, it uses SD cards so I can quickly reload memory cards if I run out of space.
- Wacom Intuos 4 Wireless Pen Tablet - Using something like a Wacom tablet in your screencast can make your screencast more interesting and dynamic. Wacom's Intuos 4 tablet is now wireless. So, if you're in a classroom or presenting, you're not tied to your computer. You're free to move around the room with it.
- iPad Stand from Griffin - An iPad or Tablet can be a very useful tool for screencasters. It's great to have the extra screen for notes or to use as a teleprompter. Griffin has several nice stands for iPads and Tablets. The Arrowhead looks useful for all tablets plus small enough to travel with. I've also been enjoying the Loop stand.
You can see more pics from my trip to CES here.
What gadgets and products have you seen lately that would be useful for a screencaster?
Comments (1)
Betsy,
You were being modest and didn't plug your own microphone in this review.
I've found the TechSmith Lapel Mic to be a great addition to the Kodak Playtouch or Zi8 cameras. The sound is exceptional with this mic. And since it has a 10 foot cord and plugs right into these cameras, it's a great way to add some real video footage to your screencasts.
And since each microphone has it's own sound characteristics, using the same microphone for your video & screencasts helps your audio sound more uniform should you edit the two together.
Even if you don't use the lapel mic for your screencasting needs, it's my mic of choice when shooting video with the Kodak unit.
Scott
Posted by Scott Skibell | January 18, 2011 9:51 AM
Posted on January 18, 2011 09:51