![]() ![]() It also seems curious that there’s no option to reserve space on the nano’s flash drive for video storage. It seems something of an oversight to me that there’s no option to sync videos into iTunes. Connected to a computer you’ll find them in a folder labelled DCIM on the device. Recorded videos can be viewed either by pressing the menu button with the camera active, or in the Videos menu, sorted by the date on which they were recorded. However, the quality is good enough that if you had been considering buying a small media player and a basic standard definition pocket video camera then you can now strike that second item off your list. The output of a dedicated pocket camcorder is still going to look better, there’s no denying that – especially if it’s HD, not SD. ![]() A one-minute clip will take up a little over 20MB of capacity. Specifically, the nano has a 640 x 480 pixel resolution and records at 30fps, in h.264 with mono AAC audio. The quality of video produced by the iPod nano isn’t going to facilitate shooting the next District 9 scale epic, but it’s entirely suited to the likes of YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook. I’m particularly keen on Film Grain – which does what it says on the tin. Take, for example, the Cyborg effect, which tints the view red and places a cross hair in the centre of the screen surrounded by scrolling numbers and similar robot-y details – a style that’s decidedly Terminator-esque, in a good way. There are 15 of these, although half of them are a bit naff as they’re distortions rather than ‘proper’ special effects per-se. What’s really cool, however, is the range of preset effects that can be applied to video as recorded, accessed by pressing and holding the centre button. The 2.2in screen is large enough to give a decent view of what’s being shot, and for previewing recorded footage. That complaint aside, there’s nothing to dislike about the nano as a camcorder. Moving it in from the edge just another centimetre would have been a much better placement in my mind. The video camera in the nano is slightly annoying in that if you hold the device ‘naturally’ and just tilt your hand 90 degrees to put it in landscape, you’ll almost definitely find your hand covering the surprisingly wide-angle lens at least partly. Besides which, if you’re happy to use a video camera built into your MP3 player, you probably aren’t too fussed about absolute quality anyway, or you ‘d have bought a compact HD camcorder already, surely? As long as you’re recording something interesting the action in a clip should more than make up for the lack of detail compared to a photo. Video at that resolution, conversely, can be excused. I don’t think that’s an issue though, given the low resolution of the sensor and how rubbish any photos would look taken with it. ![]() It’s probably worth pointing out that the nano is only able to record video – there’s no option to take stills. It’s around the rear of the nano that this range’s party trick becomes exposed.ĭown in the bottom left corner (with the nano held upright) it’s impossible to miss the camera and microphone where before there was just aluminium. The screen is slightly bigger, up from 2in to 2.2in, giving it a wider profile, although the resolution isn’t 16:9 which is a bit odd. The 5th gen iPod nano is, at first glance, barely distinguishable from its predecessor. You might think there was little Apple could do to improve on what it created, therefore. It was thinner, lighter and just plain prettier than its predecessors, while still managing to be a lovely device to use. Sure, there have been stumbling points – the 3rd gen nano and latest shuffle have their (entirely justified) detractors – but, for the most part, it’s a safe bet that you can’t go wrong with an iPod.Ĭertainly, there’s no denying that the 4th gen iPod nano was a fantastic portable media player. Ever since the first iPod launched, rivals have pretty much continuously been playing catch-up. Apple’s domination of the MP3 player market is conclusive. ![]()
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