[RNLD] Re: 360 video cameras

[Bradley McDonnell]

Dear all,

In case anyone is interested in using 360 video cameras, I received a very
informative response from Mark Sicoli. I have included it below with his
permission.

Thanks to Lise Dobrin for forwarding my message to him!

Brad

On Wed, Sep 11, 2019 at 12:17 AM Sicoli, Mark A (mas8ad) <
mas8ad at virginia.edu> wrote:

> Hi Brad,
>
> This was forwarded to me by my colleague Lise Dobrin. I’ve been using 360
> cameras for a few years mainly supervising student fieldwork use and
> exploring the affordances for analysis in my multimodal interaction
> seminar. I’m currently developing a VR viewing platform that would allow a
> class (or other group up to 20) to simultaneously view 360 footage through
> VR headsets for group discussion/workshopping of video from the inside so
> to speak. It would support subtitling, laser pointing, communication
> between viewers, and some coding. It will be freely available when it’s
> done (we’re hoping to be testing this fall and sharing in the spring). Some
> uses I’m looking forward to are advisor/student meetings where we can work
> with fieldwork videos, group data sessions, and participatory methods with
> community members using immersive playback.
>
>
>
> I have not used the camera you linked to, though it looks right for the
> job both in terms of video and sound. The files are large and the image
> area large as well so usually HD images don’t seem quite as HD as standard
> framed video (because distributed over larger space). Though what you are
> looking at seems as good as things get. I generally recommend that
> fieldworkers also have a standard framed video camera in their toolkit
> whether a camcorder or one of a variety of sport cameras and also another
> point of sound capture in a digital audio recorder. One caution is to check
> the recording time of the units. Some devices have very short recording
> times (1/2 hour or less) and others longer so check into that before
> purchasing to be sure the imagined use matches capability (also another
> reason to pack a standard video camera as well).
>
>
>
> I do like the way the little orbs of the 360 camera units attract less
> attention to themselves generally than tripod/camera/mic assemblages. They
> can of course be set up on tripods, but can also just sit on a table.
>
>
>
> More editors are able to work with 360 video to edit and export 360
> content in archivable formats, and to convert the video-in-the-round to
> ELAN friendly formats like rectilinear (unrolled) video. And allow a user
> to select rectangular framed segments to export as clips or edit a “tour”
> where one can export rectangular framed video that follows action around
> the 360 space.
>
>
>
> Let me know if you have any questions. All in all I think packing a 360
> camera will have positive benefits for language documentation projects and
> ethnographic research and should become a standard tool in our field kits.
> The format adds useful affordances especially when paired with VR headset
> viewing from the POV of the camera affording a better perspective in
> interparticipant/object relations in the space, tracking eye gaze, deictic
> gestures, ability to immerse viewers in your field site and to revisit our
> own fieldsites in a way that would prompt memory and new insights beyond
> fieldnotes, audio recordings, or standard framed video.
>
>
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Mark Sicoli
>
> --
>
> Dr. Mark A. Sicoli
>
> Assistant Professor
>
> Department of Anthropology
>
> Interdepartmental Program in Linguistics
>
> University of Virginia
>
>
>
> Acknowledgement: We at UVa are on land under the traditional custodianship
> of the Monacan Indian Nation. We honor their elders past and present.
>
>
>
> --
Bradley McDonnell
Assistant Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of Hawai'i at
Mānoa
Book Review Editor, Language Documentation & Conservation
<http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc/>
Organizer, International Conference on Language Documentation &
Conservation 2021 <http://icldc-hawaii.org/>


On Tue, Sep 10, 2019 at 2:01 PM Bradley McDonnell <mcdonn at hawaii.edu> wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> I'm interested in buying a 360 video camera, such as this one
> <https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1382310-REG/vuze_vuze_4k_3d_360.html>,
> and using it in a documentation project primarily to record conversations,
> which would of course be transcribed in ELAN. I'm curious about any advice
> in purchasing one and/or positive/negative experiences using such a camera
> and processing/archiving its video files.
>
> Thanks,
> Brad
> --
> Bradley McDonnell
> Assistant Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of Hawai'i at
> Mānoa
> Book Review Editor, Language Documentation & Conservation
> <http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc/>
> Organizer, International Conference on Language Documentation &
> Conservation 2021 <http://icldc-hawaii.org/>
>
>
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