Hey everyone, I recently created an official page on Facebook for Racoon’s Corner. I created this page so that people who are not following me on Twitter or use Facebook more than Twitter can be notified when I publish new blog posts and upload new videos to YouTube on their home feed.

I also have my Email address on the page so if anyone has any business inquiries or needs help with something they can contact me by using that email address, which is Racoon@RacoonsCorner.com or they can visit the “contact” page on my website here. If you want to visit the page and hopefully “like” it, you can by clicking here.

Thanks for reading!

-Racoon

A few months ago, January to be exact I bought a Kodak Zi8 Camcorder that was on sale at OfficeMax for $99 which the total price came to around $107. The original price of the zi8 is $179.00 so that is about $72 off which was a great deal. There are many reasons as to why I picked this specific camcorder over all the other pocket video camcorders at the time.

The Kodak Zi8 is capable of recording up to full high definition which is 1080p that use when I am talking in front of the camera. Besides recording up to 1080p it shoots in 720p, 720p @ 60 FPS(Frames Per Second) which I use for app reviews on my MyTouch 4G, WVGA and the ability to take 5-MP photos which is pretty good for the price. The 720p @ 60 FPS is really good if your recording fast movement stuff or just want smooth footage, however 1080p and 720p @ 30 FPS is still pretty great on the Zi8.

One of the reasons why I wanted this camera is because of its macro mode which I also use for my app reviews. The macro mode allows you to capture awesome up close footage with your camcorder. The button for the macro mode is located on the top of the Kodak camcorder. If you want to see a demonstration if this you can watch my How To Root a MyTouch 4G video right here.

This camcorder  also has an external microphone input which could provide great use to some people and is a nice addition to this camera . An external microphone versus the internal microphone can help reduce background noise, and improve audio quality. The Kodak zi8 also has a built in image stabilizer that the Flip UltraHD first generation lacks and that I used to use for my videos before getting the Zi8. The zoom is digital so it may not be the best compared to optical zoom but it does zoom in.

On one side of the camera there is a SD card slot which you do need an SD card if you want to be able to store more footage on your camcorder because the internal memory is not big enough. The Flip UltraHD can record up to 2 hours to the hard drive which the Zi8 cannot. Of course there’s the power button and there’s a charger input. The camcorder comes with a charger for it that plugs into the camera in the charger input and into a power outlet and it can also charge via USB.

On the other side you have you’re A/V and HDMI ports in which an HDMI cable is included, and you also have your USB dongle.  When you plug in the camera via USB it comes with Arcsoft which can be used to edit your videos and has to be installed to your computer, it can’t run from the camcorder BUT it’s great that it comes with software. 

The last thing is the battery. It comes with a special Lithium battery so you cannot put AA batteries inside of it, it MUST be the Kodak Lithium battery which might not be so good if your battery dies and you have to record more footage. Yet, you can buy another battery as a backup. The Flip UltraHD takes AA batteries and comes with a rechargeable pack which can be charged via USB and it is basically AA batteries.

Overall, I really like this camcorder and I think the quality and features it provides are really great and useful and I would recommend this camera and it DOES have a tripod mount.

Thanks for reading,

Racoon

Hey Everyone, I recently created a video on how to become a YouTube Partner. In the video which is above, I discussed the qualifications of a YouTube Partner and some of the benefits of being one.

Basically, for those of you who don’t know what a YouTube Partnership is, it’s a program made by YouTube where people can apply to be one and get paid for making videos.  There are however, some qualifications you must meet in order to be eligible to be considered for one.

According to YouTube you must

• “create original videos suitable for online streaming. “
• “own or have express permission to use and monetize all audio and video content that you upload—no exceptions”
• “regularly upload videos that are viewed by thousands of YouTube users”

Now, the last qualification can be debatable because not all of my videos are viewed by THOUSANDS of YouTube users. I do however, have videos that have 1,000+ views. I think if a user has around 100,000 or so total upload views they should be fine.

Another qualification that I hear about is to have a lot of subscribers, around 1000 but that’s from videos that are around a year old and I became one with about 377 at the time. So Subscribers do matter to some extent. You can’t have one subscriber and expect to become a partner.

So what are the benefits of being a YouTube Partner? Well, as stated above you can get paid for your videos which is through Google Adsense. Along with getting paid, you can have branding options. The branding options allows you to have a channel banner [below], a side column image on your channel, a branding box which allows you to put any text in, like your contact information. Lastly, you can have a video page banner [below]

Channel Banner

Video Banner

To view more qualifications and benefits visit This Page.

Thanks for reading,

Racoon

Congratulations IrishMonkey214 on winning the $10 iTunes Gift Card.

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