ISO50

RSS

The Zumi Digital Camera + Swod + Lusine

Posted by Jakub


I often like to click on ISO50 commenters links connected to their names just to see what there all about and recently clicked on AndresM and found out what they(I guess a couple shares this account? :] ) wanted for Christmas hah, It was this close to affordable alternative to a Super 8mm video camera but in digital called a Zumi. Here is a pretty decent example of footage, not bad for the 170USD price tag:

Now for the music, I think everyone will be very happy to hear this Swod song and give this Lusine track a try, the second half of it builds like a Lusine classic.

26 Comments Leave A Comment

4

NAVIS says:

January 8, 2010 at 3:12 pm

I’m going to start a collection of “Hot indie girls in pointless modern digital nostalgic feeling 1970’s video set to uber hip music” videos. It seems to be the right thing to do.

6

Homer Alexander says:

January 8, 2010 at 3:36 pm

hi kuba.
I want a video camera, this one is of sufficient quality and handy! GIVE IT TO ME!
also, what would you like for your birthday?

7

AndresM says:

January 8, 2010 at 3:41 pm

ha! awesome!
The reason we fixated on that camera was because Junia and I are going on our honeymoon soon and as much as we love our Diana F+, we LOVE Super 8 too. We wanted to invest a little cash into something that could bring this little aspect to our documentation of both our wedding and honeymoon in addition to our regular digital cameras. Also thanks for link to her blog, she got super excited!

12

bryant says:

January 8, 2010 at 10:28 pm

I bought my Zumi back in November of 2009 and I’ve made a few videos and have gotten some great feedback actually. This little toy does a great job.
I’ve seen they came out with the part of 2 actually, and the only difference it has is black&white and sound which doesn’t really matter much to me because I would probably put audio over the video unless I was doing an interview.
But as a photographer I’ll just add audio over the video :-)

Check out the video here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhoEx14c7BU

14

Moe says:

January 9, 2010 at 5:12 am

Hey Scott check Oneohtrix Point Never / Zones Without People album I guess you will find out, Hyperdawn track reminds me the feeling of your work. In my tumblr I just uploaded the song.

15

Moe says:

January 9, 2010 at 6:15 am

@Navis

I’m with you, It’s kind of boring to see the same effect with a pointless background, I like Grizzly Bear but listening the song in this video and with that “retro” feeling.. is kind of lame. But the girl is hot.

17

Eric says:

January 9, 2010 at 12:28 pm

Came across a Mocean Worker song, What’s Wrong, any experience with them. They have a bit of a Wisp feel to them

18

marc says:

January 9, 2010 at 5:40 pm

I feel like my iPhone shoots about the same “low digital quality”. Maybe not quite as low, but throw a few shots in after effects and I feel you get similar results.

I think it’s a great idea though. I mean who doesn’t love the look of super 8?

19

TransitBroadcast says:

January 10, 2010 at 8:26 am

The SWOD track sounds like George Winston on acid, and the vinyl loop is a failure in this context. I miss those Flanger days.

The Luisine number didn’t go anywhere really, but he always makes cool sounds and effects regardless.

It’s too bad we can’t scrub the audio.

20

Kirk Hansen says:

January 10, 2010 at 4:45 pm

WOW; even for its digital “flaws” it definitely seems worth it if you’re into 8MM. I was actually talking with Forrest a couple days ago about our 8MM experiments back in high school and remembered that it cost around $40 in all to buy and develop one reel of film. luckily we already had a Super 8 camera otherwise it would have been too expensive to even start. We only did a couple rolls but you can see how expensive this particular hobby can be, especially for only 10 minutes of video.

21

greg says:

January 12, 2010 at 10:05 pm

A fun little camera for sure, but it doesn’t really look like Super 8 film. That’s just wishful thinking. You can shoot any video and make it look closer to Super 8 than that but just upping the contrast and saturation a bit and maybe adding some subtle scratchy bits. I’ve done this in Final Cut Pro. I also have several Super 8 film cameras and used to use them quite a bit, although I do admit the cost of buying, processing and transferring the film to video for easy editing is very prohibitive.

22

superlative says:

January 23, 2010 at 8:27 am

just a heads up; I got a chance to try the Zumi out the other day and it was colossal disappointment!

the camera itself is indeed, incredibly small and light and features all the functions it claims to have; but beyond that, every aesthetic and functional aspect involved with the actual use of the camera is a total nightmare.

firstly, the camera’s interface navigation layout is totally counter-intuitive for all levels of photography (for example, I had to consult the user manual just to figure out how to “erase” a video I had shot, and it turned out that the process involved pressing certain buttons simultaneously… for a digital camera in the 21st century that’s a bit outrageous). also the interface is hideous and looks shockingly similar to that of a counterfeit iPod that my friend’s nephew brought back from a trip to Vietnam a year ago.

the camera has literally two ISO settings (100 and 800) that you have to navigate through a series of different windows just to get to, which is an ordeal in itself since the few buttons on the back of the camera are incredibly small and sticky.

finally, the super 8 film feature of the camera (the main reason for which I bought it) failed to impress. I’ve an old Canon Elph digital from 2002 that takes better quality video (which I can edit to look closer to Super 8 film in the simplest of movie programs).

anyways, feel free to go ahead and try one out; it’s great for a laugh, albeit an expensive one at roughly US$175+

23

Laurent says:

January 30, 2010 at 6:15 am

Hey Jakub, as an aside I believe that for the launch of the zumi the makers and a label called PowerShovel Audio released a compilation called ‘Does Digital Harinezumi Dream?’ it features a bunch of worldwide producers including Take, DDay One, 40 Winks and many more and is really rather good. http://www.powershovelaudio.com/album/xqbp1033/index_en.html
worth a dig i think you’ll like it, the Take track on it is a personal fav of mine.

Lo

24

Smart Shopper says:

March 18, 2010 at 4:56 am

Now the Best Rated Digital Camera Going For The Best Rated Price

If you ever thought that the best rated digital camera would be available for the highest price you can think again. The site mentioned below is offering the best rated digital camera for the price of a bargain sale camera. The best digital camera available at the site below is making waves in the online marketing fraternity. So rush in to stake your claim for the best rated digital camera at the best rated price anywhere on the internet.

Drop in to http://www.Smartshoppers.in and see for yourself the very best rated digital camera at the lowest possible price! If you are interested in smart shopping visit http://www.smartshoppers.in/category/best-digital-cameras

25

timtop says:

September 26, 2010 at 3:36 am

I recently bought a zumi (version one) and am loving it so far – it fills a particular gap in my image making machine collection that nothing else did. I use it simialr to how i used to use my Lomo LC-A in that it’s for ‘life-snippets’. As I did more photography, I found that the diarist aspect I so loved at the start was being supplanted by ‘proper’ photos more and more, and as for digital video – well always a non starter for me due to it’s clarity and ugliness. This little toy has been in constant use for the two weeks i’ve had it, and making fun little videos of days in the park, train rides etc and phots of ‘stuff’ has brought back the ‘document my life’ side of me…
love it. (but get version one, not the new 2++ which is oversaturated and (argh) has sound recording capabilities which is not in the spirit of things.
ALso, in reply to the poster above who said the interface is rubbish – you dont USE the interface! It’s literally just ‘turn on, take pic’ or ‘turn on, press ok to switch to vid mode, take vid’. Simple as that. To switch ISO (only on v2, v1 does it automatically), just learn the button rhythm (menu,ok,ok,ok for e.g.)
Anyway- my adventure with zumi is all on the blog below…
tt