Ride to work

anyone got any idea on camera mounts or a good way to stabilize my camera when i film my rides?

YouTube - ride to work.wmv

wow the quality is shit on youtube! vimeo is better yeah?

To be honest I don't think it's that bad (the actual footage I mean - youtube is pants). Perhaps slow it down/put more frames in. The main reason (I think) the footage is so jumpy is because the changes between frames are so different...if you see what I mean. It needs more in between.

mount to head. i think. i've seen someone mention on here it's the best way.

Vimeo FTW...

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/steadycam/

1. get a chicken (live)
   
2. mount your camera on its head
   
3. ride to work holding chicken.
   
   

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2008/11/hackmodo_use_a_chickens_head_as_a_camera_stabilizer.html

yeah.

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/steadycam/

I thought that link looked familiar... it's because I saw his Wiimote thing a while ago:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/projects/wii/

Makes me miss uni :-(

Sorry Koens, didn't mean to hijack your thread.

What are your video settings? you can smooth it out be reducing I frames and reducing the sharpness. a fwe more bits would help. the bars are not the best, you clothes will flap in the wind to strap it to your head

1. ride to work holding chicken.
   
   

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2008/11/hackmodo_use_a_chickens_head_as_a_camera_stabilizer.html

that is mad funny. might poach one from hackney farms.

Sorry Koens, didn't mean to hijack your thread.

hijack away, i think a wii set up will be a bit too much to carry on my bike though!

1. Hold a chicken in the air
   
2. Stick a deck-chair up your nose
   
3. Buy a Jumbo-Jet
   
4. Bury all your clothes
   
5. Paint your left knee green
   
6. Then extract your wisdom teeth
   
7. Form a string quartet
   
8. Pretend your name is Keith
   
9. Gaffer tape the camera to your head
   
   

Bob's yer uncle!

Sorry - you're cycling like a lunatic. I've heard of spin to win but your RPMs are way OTT. Slow down, that looks really dangerous. Take it easy and you'll enjoy it more.

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

Sorry - you're cycling like a lunatic. I've heard of spin to win but your RPMs are way OTT. Slow down, that looks really dangerous. Take it easy and you'll enjoy it more.

ummm.... i sped the film up... plus i'm riding 36/16 on 24" wheels, if i don't spin fast i don't move!

this is looking promising, but is more kit, was hoping to use my current camera rather than a new one...

http://www.qfonic.com/oregon-scientific-atc2000-all-terrain-action-camera-p-1684.html

slowed down by half

vimeo - ride to work on Vimeo

vs

youtube

YouTube - ride to work 730.wmv

Koens, if you add &fmt=18 to the end of the youtube address you get to see the higher quality MPG4 movie (rather than the lower .flv movie).

Mp4 ftw

It is notoriously difficult to successfully film smoothly from your bike, but you can decent results with some effort.

Here is what I have arrived at after a few years of doing this kind of lark:

Get a video camera with an optical stabilizer (not an electronic stabilizer) and switch it on.

FIlm at as high shutter speed as the camera will allow 1/2000th would be good (the reason for this will become clear)

Use as wide an angle lens as possible - if a fish eye is too much for you go for something like a x0.5

Attached the camera to your head ! There is no better stabilizer than your head.

Film in HD.

One filmed, stabilize the footage further on your computer with motion tracking software.

Each one of these steps will really help to produce a smooth flowing image. The reason you want to shoot at a high shutter speed is that when you stabilize the footage in software you have nice crisp images for the software to track and not smeared with motion blur - also the reason you would want to fim in HD is that as your image is stabilized the edges are compromised and you can crop a really decent standard definition (perhaps even 720p) image from the centre).

I have filmed from my bike with a Steadicam (a real one) and it was not as good as footage taken with the above method.

this is looking promising, but is more kit, was hoping to use my current camera rather than a new one...

http://www.qfonic.com/oregon-scientific-atc2000-all-terrain-action-camera-p-1684.html

"And thanks to its 640x480 VGA CMOS sensor, picture quality is cracking, no matter what you're getting up to. Okay, so the resolution isn’t up there with top-end fancypants vidcams, but would you really want to strap one of those to your head whilst playing silly buggers in a kayak? Exactly."

A CMOS sensor is about the worst sensor for this kind of thing - without getting technical on yo' ass, the rolling shutter (not global shutter) basically guarantees wobbly smeary video - and the resolution is shit, not even standard definition.

cheers for the video tips tynan, i've edited the youtube link as you suggested, still seems like vimeo wins though...

just had my fish eye lens delivered to my desk today so will try it with that, am filming in HD but its on a lumix lx3 so not a decicated video camera... will try as many of your other tips as possible, what motion tracking software do you use?

cheers for the video tips tynan, i've edited the youtube link as you suggested, still seems like vimeo wins though...

Adding &fmt=18 will take you to a better quality version - but if the clip you uploaded was poor quality then this will do nothing.

Incidentally if you upload HD, you can view it by adding &fmt=22 to the address.

Yes, Vimeo is better.

just had my fish eye lens delivered to my desk today so will try it with that

It will help a lot, but remember that what we perceive as speed is usually the shaky, rattling, vibrating look, smooth stuff out until it is perfectly smooth - as if you were gliding on air - and everything looks a lot slower - it's a trade off.

am filming in HD but its on a lumix lx3 so not a decicated video camera... will try as many of your other tips as possible, what motion tracking software do you use?

I thought the Lumix does HD (720p) ?

I don't know about shutter speed, you might be able to set it ?

I use After Effects' motion tracker and occasionally the free iStabilize (Mac OS X only), but if you are on a PC just search around for 'video stabilizer'.

ah just remembered i had the video guys at work convert my original 1.2gb quicktime file to mp4 so i could use it in windows move maker to add the audio...

yep the lx3 does hd video, shat's how i shot it originally... will check the shutter speed when i get home but don't think you can set it... hd is 24fps or it can do 848x480 at 30fps...

ep the lx3 does hd video, shat's how i shot it originally... will check the shutter speed when i get home but don't think you can set it... hd is 24fps or it can do 848x480 at 30fps...

Go for 720p @ 24 fps.

Here is a girl on a bike that I shot from a long distance away and then stabilized - it is just a few seconds that has been looped.

(Put your cursor/finger over her right ear to see how stable her head is:)

Girl on a bike on Vimeo

If you are logged in to Vimeo you can download the much better quality Quicktime of any movie. (bottom right of page under 'Downloads').

i see no video?