What’s the point?

Your phone can double up as a camcorder, so get some quality shots from it following a few simple tips.

Is it free?

Completely

Sold! How do I do it?

Don’t move!

If your phone has image stabilisation, turn it on. However, even with that benefit it’ll pick up trembles and shakes from your hands. It’s unavoidable, but you can make it less obvious with smooth movements and single shots – waving the camera around wildly will give viewers motion sickness.

Zoom doom

Just like the still camera, the video camera uses digital zoom. All it really does is crop in on an image, so you lose quality the more you use it. It’s a nasty way of enlarging an image, and will make you look an amateur when you show off clips on the big screen. Avoid it at all costs!

Night fright

Use night mode as a last resort, it’ll increase the amount of light that’s picked up, but it’ll also make images grainy and less detailed. If all else fails it’s a useful tool, but do everything you can to get more light on a scene rather than use it.

Strike the white balance

More advanced Nseries phones let you tweak the white balance before shooting video. Choose a mode most like the situation you’re in and you’ll get footage that’s vibrant, full of colour and extra clear. There’re choices for florescent lights, daylight and cloudy conditions amongst others.

Quality control

Head to the ‘settings’ menu while your phone’s in video mode and you’ll see an option for ‘Video quality’. Poke it to drop the video quality down a peg or two. Your clips will still look good on the small screen, so if you’re not planning on big-screen showings you’ll squeeze much more footage onto your memory card. Once you’ve nailed the filming skills start [LINK]editing your phone movies[LINK].