My two grandchildren, each not quite a year old had scheduled visits. With a $50 Amazon gift card as an honorarium for serving as a university research subject, I spent the majority of it on a VLog kit, anticipating not only my grandchildren's encounters but some other summer travel.
It arrived the day before the order tracker indicated it would. I unpacked the plastic Yamaha recorder, two sham moleskines, and a package of purple highlighters that comprised the rest of this Amazon submission. The VLog kit on the screen looked very portable. It had a backlight and a microphone. Its wand could stay handheld or it could be extended for placement on a floor. It all came compactly packed in a not fully hard case with a zipper. It stayed as I received it until my son and his wife escorted my grandson into our living room. I really did not need this to take a photo of his adorable face or a short video of him crawling in our lower hall.
As we schmoozed in our living room, I unzipped the case. It had more parts than I expected, along with instructions printed on the front and back of a single page with print too small to discern with my bifocals. I handed it to my son. The illustration enabled me to unfold the tripod base. Extending the tripod from handheld to free-standing took longer. I placed the phone horizontally in its adjustable receptacle. I do not know if will take the phone in its vertical dimension, but the receptacle rotates so I can position the phone that way. The backlight came in a separate compartment. Attaching it was not obvious, but I deduced where it must fit. By rotating the phone, I could get the bottom of the light to fit in a portion of the stand. It had an on/off switch that did not seem part of the instruction sheet. It worked. I remembered to turn it off. That's as far as I got before they had to leave for their five-hour drive home.
Later in the afternoon, I decided to tackle the rest. It has a remote control that I will need to pair with the phone. It also comes with two microphones and a receiver. All ports are USB-C which makes it easy. Cables included. Everything seems to come pre-charged. The microphones have a special instruction sheet. The exposed side seems to be Chinese or Japanese. When I open the folded part and turn it over, English appears. Larger print than the main instructions. I checked the transmitter. It fits into the charging port of the phone. Each microphone has a clip. I cannot tell if these also need to be charged, but I will do that before I travel to meet my granddaughter in a few days. I'll pair everything before I go to sleep tonight.
It amazes me how inexpensive these adjuncts to a phone have become. I have no interest in creating professional YouTubes, but would like a more sophisticated record of the people most dear to me and of the places I visit. Everything fits in a small case easily transported in a carry-on or backpack, though perhaps not my briefcase. Not especially user-friendly, since I have to repackage everything to transport it. Reading the instruction's miniscule print did not go easily. But by my next trip in a few days and mini-vacation in a few weeks, I should have this upgrade ready for use.
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