Make the N95 stand for your videos without a tripod!

The Nokia N95 is capable of capturing videos with fairly high quality: VGA resolution at some 30fps with AAC audio sampled at 48kHz. There are of course many stand-alone camcorders that can produce better quality videos, but none of them can beat the N95 in terms of portability. I was never one who took a lot of videos, however with devices like the N93 and N95, I find myself doing that more often.

There are times — for example recording a long video clip (for me anything more than 3 minutes is long… I have a short attention span), or if you want to get in the action yourself — when we need to keep the N95 still in a fixed position. A tripod is best at such a task. Mark Guim got his hands on a Nokia DT-22 Universal Tripod and has posted a great review on it. But what if you don’t have a tripod, or own one but don’t have it handy when you need it?

Some have already discovered that you can stand the N95 up vertically without supporting it. However, the videos captured in this orientation will be sideways, such as this one (of a widgets demo) by Stefan Constantinescu at the S60 Summit 2007. Wouldn’t it be great if the N95 stands by itself horizontally? I tried that, it didn’t work, until I found a trick:

Yes, in the slide-out position (is that what it’s called?), the N95 is more than happy to keep still and steady for as long as you need it to! (Well, ok, you’ll also need a flat surface and no sudden gusts of wind… that’s why tripods will always have their place.)

This only applies to the N95. It doesn’t work for the similarly video-capable N93. What about other S60 video devices? Do you have related tricks you’ve discovered with your S60 “cameras/camcorders” to share?

- Carol.

Addendum: I uploaded the above video (which was taken by an N93) to YouTube yesterday. Before I’ve had a chance to compose this entry today, Mark has already posted a video response as well as a blog entry about it! He was able to make his N95 stand on its side without sliding the slider out. Click away to see how he did that!