Solutions to video camera shake

[allen-uk]

The link that Morphix posted about setting the date and charging the battery:

YouTube - Mini DV MD80 9/9 - Mac OSX - Charging, Setting Date Time, Downloading, Editing Tips

might be useful.

What the bloke says is that you shouldn't bother trying to charge via the USB line to your computer, and that the mains charger is okay but has no indication of when the battery is charged, or not. I've tried it (on occasions) for 12 hours, for 4 hours, etc., and the 2 lights never go out on the charger!

But I normally get about an hour's filming out of a charged-up battery.

A.

 

[vhfman]

The MD80s I have are about a year old now, and I notice one of the batteries has lost its capacity to hold charge for more than 10min. The batteries are soft Lithium Polymer, so I will have to look on Ebay and see if I can get a replacement. Or it might be as cheap to get a new MD80 as they are probably about the same price as the battery will be.

Yes it is difficult to see the LEDs in bright light so a mod to the case would work if you are prepared to do a bit of drilling.

Alan, I wonder if your camera is in the Sound-activated recording mode. That can give you this short record time if the volume of the sound trigger is not high enough. Best to be in the Normal record Mode. When the camera is powered on with a micro SD card plugged in, pressing the MODE button toggles between Normal and Sound-activated recording modes. When the camera is recording the Blue LED should be lit and the Red LED should be flashing. Well at least that’s how my example works. But it could be that your battery has not charged properly. When new, I think my battery would take about 1.5-2hrs to charge using the computer USB connection @500mA. I found that the supplied mains adaptor was faulty so could not use that with the camera. Make sure that the battery is charging. Both LEDs are on when charging. You should be OK with the supplied USB lead but I have had problems in the past with duff leads.

Chris

 

[morphix]

Just been reading the last few posts about Allen's MD80 with interest.

I agree with Chris, Allen's MD80 just seems much better and more stable than his or mine. I think Chris is right, could be the luck of the draw with these cameras or a bad batch maybe.. I did shoot some more video with mine yesterday on a day out on the bike...when going very slow (crawling along at 3-4mph) with the camera mounted securely, the video was reasonably stable and clear, but no matter how i mounted it, going at normal speed produced unacceptable video quality.

I was speaking to a video tech bod in a specialised chatroom about this camera last night and showed it to them with the bad footage..

The advice they gave was that the camera (and these types of cameras in general) are not the sort of camera we should be using to capture quick moving video on bikes. They recommended to use a camera with a CCD sensor rather than a CMOS, and preferably with a shutter. The general advice was "use the right camera for the right job". I pressed them for recommendations and more info, but they weren't very forthcoming.

What they are suggesting sounds more like traditional camcorder technology to me rather than electronic pocket-sized cams, so not sure how viable it would be to find such a camera in a small affordable package that can be easily mounted up.. worth doing some further research tho?

Paul

EDIT: I forgot to add..I put the question to them of whether a faster class memory card would help with the MD80 and they didn't think so, they said its a problem with the sensor and camera itself.

 

[allen-uk]

Right, here we go again.

YouTube - bar mounted mk2-desktop.m4v

I think the yanks are out of bed, so be prepared for some of the dreaded 'loading' between bits of film - not too bad yet.

Anyway, not the most interesting 5 minutes of video, but shows that it works - this is with the camera contained in a little 'pouch' lined with orthopaedic foam, mounted on a pad of layers of silicone. And still, of course, it shakes.

Well, it would, I suppose, as in the end for all the padding, the lighting bar is attached by a metal rod to the handlebars, and for all Wisper's clever front forks, there is going to be movement.

Oh, but one success: I took the camera to bits (4 extremely small screws), and took a Stanley knife to the top, paring away 5mm or so, and it meant that even in bright sunshine I could still see both the blue 'on' light, and the red (is it red, I'm colour-blind) operating light to show that it was recording.

Does make it a bit more noisy, mind, as the mike must be in that top bit somewhere.


A.

 

[vhfman]

I am not sure about the CCD vs CMOS sensor debate. On higher end HD camcorders I have seen both CCD and CMOS devices, both can give fantastic quality. For instance the HD Go-Pro uses a CMOS sensor. I think with these very cheap cameras it hard to expect the video quality of a camera costing 10+ times the price.

If you are after top quality action video you will probably have to go for something like the HD Go-Pro Hero recording at 1080P. You need a camera with a very small aperture, which means almost infinite depth-of-field, and no worrying about autofocus. Also the camera sensor's refresh speed needs to be very fast, to minimize rolling shutter skew. Even with this kind of camera costing £250-£300 you still need a body or helmet mount if you want to get low shake results. That is unless you have a top full suspension bike, and or super smooth road surfaces; you will still get some camera shake, even with an expensive camcorder.
There are some fine videos on YouTube taken with the more expensive cameras. But action cameras are not unbreakable and replacement is costly.
I have been following a thread on Endless-sphere with a Go-Pro user who managed to break his expensive camera after only a few outings. The stuff he took before the loss was almost professional quality. There appears to have been an international fund raising campaign to replace his camera. I am thinking of starting a ‘buy me a Go-Pro campaign’.

In the end all we need is watchable material that is not too long, gives a flavour of the riding experience without making you feel travel sick.

Here is an idea if you want to see your ride from a different perspective, seen on Youtube:-

YouTube - Cularis testvideo heliview on Bazaki E Bike

Or this collection of Aussie Ebikers:-

YouTube - Endless Sphere Aussie Group Ride - Perth, April 2011

YouTube - 5000w electric bike - offroad detour on a shopping trip.

As you can see even with the Go-Pro camera there is still camera shake it’s just the video quality seems to recover faster after shaking.

Chris

 

[allen-uk]

In the end all we need is watchable material that is not too long, gives a flavour of the riding experience without making you feel travel sick.

Well, if that IS all we need, then I am inclined to stick to the thirteen quid MD80 as being inferior but adequate, but not THAT inferior, to those fancy ones the Aussies on electric motor-bikes are using!

A

 

[vhfman]

Just watched your video Allen and the shake is not bad. The speed and surface helps a bit in reducing the shake. I don't think your road surfaces are as cut up, and pot holed as they around my area.
Is there no way of getting out of your estate Allen? There seem to be endless loops and cul de sacs around you. And a lot of Disabled parking places, unless I was seeing the same one as you passed by.

Anyhow good video, and sound quality was not bad. OK on your camera surgery.
Good work.

And Ok about the Aussies. Yes considering they have a 200W limit, there do seem to be a lot of powerful bikes in Perth. I think most of them are homemade; I know a couple of them have built the frames and complete bikes. One of the riders is a paraplegic and has built his bike bending and welding the frame working from his wheelchair!

Chris

 

[allen-uk]

No, the shake isn't that bad - but as you say, the road surfaces aren't bad either.

I did get out of the estate this morning, purposely going over rough tracks and roads, main roads, etc., but got home to find the battery had clapped out after 20 yards. I'll have another go later, or in the morning.

One of the disabled parking bays is mine (plastic leg), but the proliferation is due to the fact that we're in the Wembley area (albeit 2 miles from the Stadium itself), and have all sorts of silly parking restrictions - so getting Blue Badges and a disabled bay is a Good Thing!

I prefer the Aussie clips too, but mainly because the sky is so blue (and the roads are SO flat).


A.

 

[morphix]

interesting camera..

Just discovered this on eBay earlier..

OmniCam - Mini Camcorder DVR Kit (Sony CCD) | eBay UK

Unusual design with the electronics separate from the camera, and the camera mount..

 

[kitchenman]

good spot! .. its like my PSP set up but better and cheaper ...

 

[kitchenman]

CAR DVR with padding

Here is my initial test result of the CAR DVR with padding. Here is the pic:


and the video:

YouTube - CAR DVR TEST-03 with some padding

Not bad . Still some shake.

 

[kitchenman]

Street Machine/car Dvr/front Mount

This is a test of the CAR DVR on my SM mounted inbetween the pedals (sorry about the right foot! ... need to sort the exact mount point. I think the main thing to notice here is how much better camera shake is when you have suspension!..

YouTube - CAR DVR TEST-01 Street Machine TEST

Here is the mount pic:

 

[kitchenman]

Street Machine/psp/seat Mount

This is a test of the PSP on my SM mounted on the seat.
The pic:


The vid:
YouTube - PSP CAM TEST-01 STREET MACHINE BUCKET SEAT MOUNT

Note. At the start I am looking at the LEDs on the CAR DVR. Even in good light you can see them - much better than the JESSOPs device!

Also note the false start - its been a while! - sorry about the light but is still ok for checking the shakes ...

Good w/e , lots of messing about with cameras and not much riding! // anyway .. needed the rest as I've got 4 days commuting to look forward to this week ...

 

[allen-uk]

Hello.

So, here's one around the more typical north London suburban streets:

YouTube - home for tea Computer

I'm going to copy Alan's version and bind a big lump of foam or rubber round the handlebars to soften the contact between the lighting bar and its mount, on the basis that the more rubbery bits betwixt camera and tarmac the better. The camera shake is acceptable (to me) at the moment, but a couple more bits of dampening won't do any harm.

Oh, one thing though: my crude mod (carving a few mill out of the top of the camera housing) worked fine - I could even see that the record light was flashing from two feet away, in sunshine. Might lessen its effectiveness as a secret spy camera, though, having a red light flashing like a beacon!


Allen.

 

[kitchenman]

JESSOPS/GOGGLE CAM TEST - nearly, nearly, ah! ..

I dont think USB charging is going to work. Need to get the mains/usb charger thing and see if that can charge the battery ..
For entertainment value only:
YouTube - JESSOPS/GOGGLE CAM TEST

"see if the web cam ..."

 

[kitchenman]

Cx700/car Dvr Tribar Mount Test-04

Not brilliant but will do. I'll go with this config for a while unless anyone can advise me how to improve ..

YouTube - CX700/CAR DVR TRIBAR MOUNT TEST-04

 

[kitchenman]

Nice one Allen. I think we've said it before but if you can get to the end of the video without feeling sick then its good enough! ... Good use of the bell round the bin men. (I must get one! ..) Be interesting to see if you can improve it.

 

[kitchenman]

Sorry I missed your post yesterday - too much excitement! .. . Just been going through them all again. I'll double check the mode but I don't think the battery is charged.

 

[morphix]

Here is my initial test result of the CAR DVR with padding. Here is the pic:
View attachment 1983

and the video:

YouTube - CAR DVR TEST-03 with some padding

Not bad . Still some shake.

That's really quite good alan, looks quite steady even on the uneven stoney road surface. Was the padding to help the mounting fit better, or to help dampen the vibrations?

 

[allen-uk]

Yes to the mounting, Alan - I'm going to copy the rubber wrapped round the handlebars asap. But the quality on the CAR wouldn't seem to justify its higher price (I'm assuming you paid about £40 for it).

Market the mounting: we'll buy some!

A.