Video camera

[Zukin]

Thanks for that, I have seen that one and was interested in it, I was just curious to see what you had and whether you had any experiences with that company

I have a Sony DV camera, and have a Sportspack for it, but it is too cumbersome and dangerous to have on the bike (of the handlebars anyway)

I have sent them an email

Cheers Scott

[takitimu]

Sweet, thats very helpful.



Nice, is this what you do yourself? What is the quality like and does it have audio?

Check this site out http://www.camrig.com/, he's got footage from kitesurfing & the guy is posting some footage from a bicycle ride he just went on shortly, his tutorial on Video Stabilization has some handy looking info in there.

I reckon I'll go that route with a mount from ramsolutions, but I want to see that bike footage first.

[Dave-]

ah the canon i mentioned earlier, its not image stabalized, so it wont be that great.

however, find a canon that has video and image stabilization.

canons have the best bodies and the best lenses.

[motorbyclist]

from http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...5&postcount=30

What make is that camera that you had attached to your helmet? I saw you walking round with it but didn't get a chance to ask you about it.

Is it decent enough quality/resolution? Audio? Memory size? Does it have removable memory?

Sorry for all the questions but I have been in the market for something like this for a while now. This is what I would like (http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-SCX105.../dp/B0007QN8AG) but I can't find one anymore...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...313372-9938850

it was an "Oregon Scientific ATC 2000"

i got it off trademe new for $250.

waterproof to 3 metres, seen video of one falling from a model rocket from 1900 feet and the video didn't even cut when it hit the ground, and i met a guy at the ride with one who had put it on his fairings and given it a bit of road rash - still worked fine

takes SD memory cards up to 2GB, at max settings a 2GB card (about $30) will last an hour, two alkaline AA batteries seem to last around 2 hours. usb to get it on your computer, and functions as a mass storage device, so no drivers or special software included/needed.
No cables needed either. Just turn her on and go.

comes with mounts for various applications, but I found a combination of "furry" velcro on the camera and 3M Dual Lock (both self adhesive) is the best way to stick it to your helmet - good to atleast 140kph on helmet

the video quality is what you would expect for $250. max settings are 640 by 480 at 30 frames per second. sound it ok, especially considering the mic is inside the body, but wind noise over 80kph is a serious problem (might actually be my bike's cam gears, but doubt it). i'm yet to make a wind sock to see if i can fix it.

note that resolution is much higher than youtube video, so for that purpose this camera can be run at much lower settings.

i found attaching to the tank was ok, but it needed duct tape to stabilise it or it flops around too much. on the helmet it is stable, isn't too heavy, and doesn't create much drag, but it take a bit to get the aim right as there is no live feed, so you have to put it on, sit on bike, take it off, load onto computer, adjust and repeat - i think i'll mark the mount points on my helmet lol.

so all that considered it was much cheaper and easier than buying a $400 bullet cam and hooking that up to a $1200 video recorder, and i don't have to worry about anything breaking on impact, especially when i try it on the dirt bike, but isn't exactly high def.

will try to post raw video sample asap

[motorbyclist]

sound is ok, especially considering the mic is inside the body, but wind noise over 80kph is a serious problem (might actually be my bike's cam gears, but doubt it). i'm yet to make a wind sock to see if i can fix it.

just had a test on an FXR, and yes, the VFR's cam gears (rather than chain) make a high pitched whining noise that the microphone really does not like, but wind noise can be an issue if the camera makes a whistle in the wind, otherwise the sound on the motorway is fine (but maybe still needs a wind sock)

[takitimu]

It'd take a bit more work than something like the Scientific Atlanta camera, but here's a video on a mountain bike with a Pentax W30, personally I think the quality is pretty impressive & looks worth the effort.

http://www.camrig.com/videos.php?clip=bikecamrigGG

[vagrant]

The biggest draw back i have found with my little oregon camera is that I have to wait till I get home to check out the pictures, no instant replays.

This is next on my neat toy shopping list,
http://www.helmetcamera.com/acart/ag...plete_Packages

[motorbyclist]

The biggest draw back i have found with my little oregon camera is that I have to wait till I get home to check out the pictures, no instant replays.

This is next on my neat toy shopping list,
http://www.helmetcamera.com/acart/ag...plete_Packages

yeah, takes a bit of effort to make sure any helmet mounting aims in the right place

[Chrislost]

those scientific ones are tough, saw one fall onto teh road at XXXkm/h bounced a few teims and when i got back to it the only damage was a few scratches and teh video didnt save

recorded fine the rest of the way home

[scracha]

The biggest draw back i have found with my little oregon camera is that I have to wait till I get home to check out the pictures, no instant replays.

Can't you just stick the SD card into your mobile phone, digital camera or PDA and play the video?

Anyone tried a Genius DV601 (of similar cheapo digital video camera for $200) on their bike? I'm dithering about getting the Genius one as it's got image stabilisation & weighs 135grams.....plus it's cheap. Don't imagine I'd be bothered about taking videos in the wet either.

http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-camc...-32497606.html

[Transalper]

My latest on road helmet camera youtube video, it's about the best picture I can get using youtube..
[YOUTUBE]hTg4PEUoJP0[/YOUTUBE]

[motorbyclist]

Can't you just stick the SD card into your mobile phone, digital camera or PDA and play the video?

now why didn't i think of that?!

My latest on road helmet camera youtube video, it's about the best picture I can get using youtube..
[YOUTUBE]hTg4PEUoJP0[/YOUTUBE]

ooh, "excessive display of acceleration" and speeding

you can get software like "adobe after effects" to track and pixelate faces and number plates

(when alot of bikers see my cam they ask if i can cut out number plates)

[Headbanger]

it's about the best picture I can get using youtube..

That picture is pretty good for motion video on Youtube, any chance you can walk us through your encoding process?, Not too much detail required.

[Transalper]

That picture is pretty good for motion video on Youtube, any chance you can walk us through your encoding process?, Not too much detail required.

aaaahem, well.....

To set the scene... I'm on a PC running Windows XP.
My editing is done with Adobe Premiere Elements version2 at this moment.
I have the K-Lite codec pack installed which includes the DivX component needed to encode with out a watermark.

When the edit is complete I export from Premiere to an AVI using the DV codec which premiere uses by default. It is a lossless codec so the export is the same quality as the original video on the DV tape on my camera.

Then I run AutoGK to convert the AVI in to a divX file with my favourite settings for quality etc. Another great thing about AutoGK is that it will deinterlace the video if needed too.

Now here comes the secret....
You can forget all the crap the Youtube help screens tell you, that shit only works on low motion video where you have a subject sitting in front of a bland painted wall hardly moving.

In the end less is more.
I find a smaller resolution/higher bit rate DivX file to give a smoother overall picture instead of all those blocky looking videos that are even worse in full screen playback. The trade off is that still things like titles are not as clear in my resolution, but then I'd rather get a better impression of ground texture than read crisp titles on a blocky background.

So here's what I use...

In AutoGK after I open my source file (the AVI made when I exported from premiere).
In the Advances Settings window set my resolution to Fixed Width about 224 pixels wide, the height is set automatically at the same time. 240 or 208 pixels wide seem to be ok too, so i went with the middle choice of 224.
I set the sound quality to VBR MP3, 48 or 64kbs I think?
Also I choose the DivX Codec.

Choose to encode to a particular file size or quality, when I have an almost 10 minute video I set file size to 98mb. Youtube of course has a 100mb limit. Otherwise I might choose quality of 70 or 80% but it don't seem to make much (if any) difference over 70%

In another advanced preferences window (ctrl F9) I usually choose force sound in mono unless you have a great stereo soundtrack, and from that window you can set crop parameters if you need too.

Choose an output file name/location, otherwise it will save the new file to the same folder as the original but with _agk added to its name.
Add job to queue and hit the start button.
When it's done that's the file to upload.

I'll check back later to see if there's any questions.

[Headbanger]

Interesting, almost exactly the way I do it.

I capture in DV, Then I chop the footage into scenes using Virtual dub (set to export with encoding to match the file,ie-DV) I then import the clips into Premiere Elements to assemble and do futher editing and then export in DV so as to retain quality,

And then encode with AutoGK if its going to Youtube, or run her through a DVD app if I'm authoring her to DVD. For youtube videos I encode to the exact resolution that Youtube uses, and up the bitrate.

Of the 3 helmet camera videos I have on Youtube two were originally encoded down small enough to be emailed, and then uploaded to Youtube when It gained popularity. Quality suffered, and I no longer have the project files.


The last video I made, I inserted a still photo,much like you did with the Kiwibiker logo, But every time I encoded the file with AutoGK the photo flashed on screen, and then vanished. A victim I assumed of the algorithm dictated by the codec..

I ended up encoding it as an mpeg and uploading it to youtube.Quality suffered.

My videos.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Metla666