Capture the action video camera

brokethebox

brokethebox

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Good evening all.

I, and a group of friends are heading off for parts unknown, and we would like to install a camera on the back of the boat to record bits and bobs for posterity and possible uploading via satellite for the folks back home.

We have in our minds a camera capable of day and night operating, and with an idea that we could have a 'record' button somewhere by the wheel or hatch whereby if something interesting was to happen we could hit the button and the next 5 minutes could be saved on the computer. (or even better the previous minute plus the next 4, something like that).

We would obviously be looking for something with low power consumption, and cost is an issue. Also, i do not thing HD would be sensible as transmission costs would go up.

Is a system like this anything you have come across in the past or have any thoughts on?

Many thanks in advance for your help.

James
 
There's a chap who used to post video logs on YouTube. He filmed himself talking and riding a motorbike.

I'm pretty sure he had a camera setup that did just what you're asking. Constantly on and press to keep footage when something happens. Unfortunately he died a few months ago, but he did explain the kit in one of his videos.

YouTube username Svengalie
http://www.youtube.com/user/svengalie

He has an "unboxing" video in his channel, but I dunno if that's the video of the camera I mean.

Not a whole lot to go on, but the videos can be fun to watch... some on road, some green laning and even one where he tests the myth that motorbikes can use cycle lanes as the V5 says "bicycle".
 
GoPro are just about to (or may have already done so) release a wireless remote control which could meet your requirements.
 
Maybe HD would be nice to capture...... you can always downgrade it for uploading it but then you'll always have a good quality master if you ever wanted to make it into a film in the future for instance.....
 
The Lazy Kipper said:
Following that motorcycle link led me eventually to this: The #1 position is a bit nasty :eek:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zhjwxrgCiU4
Click to expand...

Could see #1 coming from the first frame of the clip. OUCH!
I wonder how big the skin graft was.

Stunning how many people were lidless on there. I'm against laws requiring helmet use, but if you're not wearing one, you're a damn fool.
 
brokethebox said:
We have in our minds a camera capable of day and night operating,
Click to expand...

The problem is the night operation. Cameras depend on light - so for night operation you need a big lens, a big sensor and a big aperture. The big aperture gives a small depth of field so you'd need a cameraman to track focus. The camera will also up the gain, causing a lot of noise. You could of course buy a Day For Night filter and shoot the way the professionals do or get a separate night vision camera.

brokethebox said:
and with an idea that we could have a 'record' button somewhere by the wheel or hatch whereby if something interesting was to happen we could hit the button and the next 5 minutes could be saved on the computer. (or even better the previous minute plus the next 4, something like that).
Click to expand...

Journalism Cameras quite often have this pre-record feature - but you won't get a minute (the Buffer required for 1080p50 is 3Gb per second, so a minute will be 22.5 GB of very fast access RAM). Remember that this means the camera is running constantly - battery drain will be huge.

brokethebox said:
We would obviously be looking for something with low power consumption, and cost is an issue. Also, i do not thing HD would be sensible as transmission costs would go up.
Click to expand...

You probably can't get a camera with an SD sensor any more, so you'd be asking the cheap electronics to do the necessary filtering from HD to SD in the camera. My advice is shoot HD, use a decent software downconverter (decent does not mean expensive) if you must. However remember that with a decent H.264 encoder (again, decent does not mean expensive), you should be getting relatively small file sizes. Remember perceived quality depends on what the user is viewing, they'll put up with worse video on YouTube than on Broadcast.
 
There are cameras like that for fitting inside cars, Roadhawk do a nice one and I'm sure there are others; perhaps there are waterproof versions or they could be fitted in waterproof housings?
 
penfold said:
There are cameras like that for fitting inside cars, Roadhawk do a nice one and I'm sure there are others; perhaps there are waterproof versions or they could be fitted in waterproof housings?
Click to expand...

If you want a small camera with good quality video, buy a GoPro HD Hero2. However the OP should be aware that a unit of this size (or the RoadHawk's size) won't do what he asked about.
 
go pro bends straight things

st599 said:
If you want a small camera with good quality video, buy a GoPro HD Hero2. However the OP should be aware that a unit of this size (or the RoadHawk's size) won't do what he asked about.
Click to expand...

in my expereince the go pro bends straight lines - it has a very weird lens

but if that does not bother you....

buy one

I use an Xacti - but that does not have a remote, or the continuous running you are after

Dylan

this was shot on an xacti (now Panasonic CA 100 in good light

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYVYFFko9Ig

- it does a very bad job in the dark

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYVYFFko9Ig
 
dylanwinter said:
in my expereince the go pro bends straight lines - it has a very weird lens
Click to expand...
Very wide angle lenses (127º view angle on the GoPro) will do that. Dunno what the view angle of the Xacti is, but if the lines are straighter, it's probably a fair bit narrower.

EDIT
Of course... you knew that. Can't believe I just told a cameraman/journalist about wide angle lenses. Haha.
It was moire for others than you, but it's still funny.
 
Last edited:
dylanwinter said:
in my expereince the go pro bends straight lines - it has a very weird lens

but if that does not bother you....

buy one

I use an Xacti - but that does not have a remote, or the continuous running you are after

Dylan

this was shot on an xacti (now Panasonic CA 100 in good light

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYVYFFko9Ig

- it does a very bad job in the dark

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYVYFFko9Ig
Click to expand...



You can always de-fisheye each frame and cut a frame out of the middle.
 
WilliamUK said:
Very wide angle lenses (127º view angle on the GoPro) will do that. Dunno what the view angle of the Xacti is, but if the lines are straighter, it's probably a fair bit narrower.

EDIT
Of course... you knew that. Can't believe I just told a cameraman/journalist about wide angle lenses. Haha.
It was moire for others than you, but it's still funny.
Click to expand...

I don't use a video a camera while on the boat.
 
WilliamUK said:
Very wide angle lenses (127º view angle on the GoPro) will do that. Dunno what the view angle of the Xacti is, but if the lines are straighter, it's probably a fair bit narrower.
Click to expand...
It's very much to do with the design of the lens. Most small video cameras will hardly have enough back focus for the format and very wide lenses may need to be of retrofocus design. This makes the design much more difficult, although properly done (rectilinear) can produce much better control of straight lines.
For action video cameras with very little opportunity to frame shots correctly it is probably acceptable to have distortion.
 
st599 said:
Journalism Cameras quite often have this pre-record feature - but you won't get a minute (the Buffer required for 1080p50 is 3Gb per second, so a minute will be 22.5 GB of very fast access RAM). Remember that this means the camera is running constantly - battery drain will be huge.
Click to expand...

1080p50 is around 1/2 GB/s if it's raw video but all the cameras I know save in h264 which takes around 2 MB/s or 120MB/min which is quite a lot less and readily stored on flash memory cards.

Boo2
 
Boo2 said:
1080p50 is around 1/2 GB/s if it's raw video but all the cameras I know save in h264 which takes around 2 MB/s or 120MB/min which is quite a lot less and readily stored on flash memory cards.

Boo2
Click to expand...

Not if they offer pre-record they don't.

Video from the buffer is sent to the H.264 encoder only when you press record. This is the only way to guaruntee immediate start.

2 MB/s seems very low for a camera.
 
brokethebox said:
Thank you all for your input. I'm not sure if i'm more confused or less now!

From what i can see we're saying that this could be difficult. Could i then instead run something like this...

http://www.maplin.co.uk/160gb-4-ch-...15672X723195X11171fb77129e276f93b847c9c888804

full time and i'd just have to somehow extract the little segments of data i wished?

James
Click to expand...

You could - but the organisation of the clips could be a pain.

Have a look at:
http://nofilmschool.com/2012/04/beginners-guide-organizing-edit/
http://www.cinema5d.com/news/?tag=qr-code
http://www.highlighthunter.com/
 
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