Tips: Video Recording Concerts with your Nokia 808 PureView
NokConv have published a post sharing tips on recording concerts with the Nokia 808 PureView.
http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/07/31/tips-for-recording-concerts-on-your-nokia-808-pureview/
You are immediately advantages as a Nokia 808 PureView user because not many can be so compact and record such high quality audio and video.
- Don’t cover microphones with your hands
- Use tripod or handheld stabiliser
- Don’t change focus if moving around – wait until you stop and then focus
- Try and stay within 50m of the stage. This will apparently affect video due to reduced lighting (though we have seen PureView’s zoom assist here in bringing the action closer).
- Nokia 808 PureView apparently has spotlight scene for greater contrast. Use this if someone is standing underneath a spotlight.
Additional points:
- If you’re moshing, put your phone on a wrist strap in case it falls off your hand
- Pan slowly. This will ensure your video is clearer
- Use the LED/turn it off when appropriate. Close up open mics, the LED light might help otherwise, keep it off.
- Building on the tripod tip, use this to get some unusually high view points.
- Watch out for your battery! Video recording eats up more juice. Think about bringing a spare battery (because the batteries are interchangeable on the 808) or even better, bring a portable charger so you can have continuous recording
- If you have other cameras, use them to (make your friends do some recording) as least get some different view points that you can mash later in a video. You can trust yourself to keep the best video and audio on your 808. If you’re lucky, your other friends also have 808s.
That’s what I can think of for now. I better post this as my train keeps going under tunnels and losing signaL
Please feel free to share your recording tips in the comments 
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Oh there’s a general video below you might find helpful, published at the beginning of the month.
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nice! will use my 808 and record a few songs by Keane when they come here in the Philippines on October.
btw where are the two sterio mic located? im using a 3rd party hard case. Im not sure if its blocking the mic
On both extreme ends, next to the top and bottom of the phone.
im assuming those are the two tiny holes on both ends? how in the world should i hold it then when taking videos?
Slightly off center just about before the AMOLED display with both your thumbs cradling the phone, making a frame below along the contour of the Nokia 808 PV and your left middle finger near the volume rocker and your right middle finger near the physical shutter above. Your index finger should be free to adjust the on screen controls. All your digits should point upwards, except the middle fingers. Just as most normally would hold a point and shoot camera.
One handed, I hold it with my fingers across the top and my thumb right on the middle of the lower side. I can control zoom with the knuckle of my index finger.
Two-handed should yield a steadier video, but often I like to get a different angle from what my own eyes can see, as the viewing angle of the AMOLED screen allows it, which means stretching out one arm.
Although the 808 can record loud music, the mics are still vulnerable to wind blowing across them and messing up a recording. It’s definitely worth keeping the mic positions in mind all the time so you can cover them when there’s a breeze.
At present, I’m still making lots of mistakes and covering the mics when I don’t want to. Possibly from being so used to the N8. At least I’m not smacking the lens area across my palm anymore to force the camera into macro mode, like with the N95 and Omnia HD…
God damn I hate that sea of raised hands with flickering cell phone screens on top.
People recording the concerts instead of enjoying the performance should be shot or stabbed or better yet, both. Screw you Nokia for giving tips on how to be annoying.
Phones/cameras double as periscopes for when there are lots of heads in the way of being able to see anything.
Mine is due today between 12:44 & 13:44. I’m in a good mood…
I’d add not to bother with focusing at all. Go with hyperfocal.
And although a wriststrap is a good idea, don’t assume that it’ll be enough if close to a mosh pit. I’ve had one snap and send my N8 sliding across the floor. The N8 survived without any damage of course, but to pick it up meant risking damage to myself!
I recorded this on Monday btw. Red spotlights, red Coke placards everywhere and the singer wearing red is like video-encoding kryptonite, and it had to be recompressed before uploading to fit into a 500MB limit on Vimeo free accounts. But it’s another 808 example all the same.
https://vimeo.com/46725693
I went with hyperfocal on a fireworks video, it does work better.
PS: I hadn’t seen it on any videos, but i didn’t know that if you long press on the camera screen, it brings up the focus settings.
That took me a while to find also. Probably got it by accident while trying to zoom. Inititially I thought there was no way to choose macro or whatever in the Creative mode.
Seems weird that options like video stabilisation and the focus assist lamp are in a different menu too, since they are pretty useful to turn on and off. The LED is so bright that it can turn light-coloured objects into a white splodge that can’t be focused on, if trying to take pictures indoors.
I still get problems with bad glaring from the lens cover in low light videos.
I can’t upload anything, as my upload speed is so slow, it takes about two hours to upload 50MB.
But .. check out this video i found, just flick through it and see the glaring, it’s exactly the same problem i have, and it’s ruined some videos i’ve done. :/
This might be stating something you’ve already considered, but for me glare usually comes from a layer of grease on the glass. I noticed that my video suffered from it a little. Next day, I went to take a photo outside in the sun, and got even more glare. In sunlight, at the right angle, I was able to see the grease, which was probably there the night before but not visible at all in low light. I removed it and got good glare-free photos.
I do have a proper cloth to clean it with, but it still happens. You can see the lens reflecting on the cover in 99% of low light videos, similar to the one i pasted.
I need tips on “how to take pictures in a bar on a Friday night”
So they don’t come out blurry and dark
Try a higher ‘ISO’ number to reduce motion blur.
Get all the light you can (if in a dark corner, use the flash or just don’t bother).
Steady your hands by breathing evenly and slowly, and find something to lean against if you can. If your subject is keeping still, use the timer so that you don’t introduce shake from tapping the screen or pressing the shutter.
Why can take one photo when you can take several? Take all indoor photos in pairs at minimum.
Get better at fixing red-eyes on a computer. I’ve not yet found anything that will automatically do this reliably.
Don’t put the phone lens-down into a puddle of beer on the table.
Oh yeah, resist using the flash all the time, or putting every picture taken with flash online. It’s often very harsh and uncomplimentary. Some people I know will insist that their photo is never taken with a flash.
Thanks. Yes, ideally, no flash
I should have also added with alcohol impairment so steady hands might not be completely available
There’s a high chance of this going wrong if you don’t have a chance to experiment with angles, exposure and the rest, and it does need steady hands, but you could try and bounce the flash off of a wall or ceiling using a light-coloured beer mat.
nokia should make pureview + pureprojection
Symbian had such potential with Qt.