Digital Video

Digital photography gave me idea to start studying digital video which presents different kind of challenges as you have to combine images AND sound of live action.

First dedicated purpose for camera would be as in-car camera while driving on track, either set on tripod on backseat or clamped to passenger seats headrest supports.

With bullet camera (connected to camcorders analog input) it is possible to get video outside of car also. Bullet cameras are cheap, small and light and they can be easilty placed on multitude of odd angles, for example just under front bumber to give a great sensation of speed. Perhaps the most impressive way is to use it as a helmet camera following head moves of the driver. Or rider in case of motorcycle.

See the Movie Theater!

[28.08.2004] The start

Lot's of surfing the net about digital video going on. I start to have a some of idea what kind of cameras there are available and what I want for my money.

Features I'm ultimately looking for:

• Good 16:9 image quality (true 16:9 CCD preferable)
• Manually adjustable audio recording level
• manua shutter, focus and iris
• DV in
• Analog video in (for bullet camera)
• Analog video "pass trough" digitizing (no need to record to tape)
• Physically as large CCD as possible

Most important feature is "true" 16:9 CCD for high quality wide screen video since that is what I'm going to film for. Still photo capability has no value for me whatsoever, I have digital camera for that job.

Some suitable cameras I have found so far:

• Sony TRV 33 (true 16:9 CCD)
• Sony TRV 60 (true 16:9 CCD, progressive scan)
• Sony TRV 900 (interpolated 16:9, 4:3 3CCD)
• Sony TRV 950 (interpolated 16:9, 4:3 3CCD)
• Canon MVX 3i
• Canon MVX 20i & MVX 25i

Sony VX 1000, 2000 & 2100, Canon MX 1 & 2 and LX 1 would be nice but bit too expensive for hobbyist like me, even as used. It seems that upper range single CCD Sony and Canon consumer cameras produce good enough results on normal lighting conditions. On dark the difference is really noticeable against 3CCD cameras.

The computer is ready for DV work having IEEE 1394 (Firewire) port, 768 MB of RAM and 120 GB of hard disk space. That should get me started nicely. DVD burner is under consideration.

[19.09.2004] Firewire harddisk

Yesterday I bought a external 3.5" hard disk box to act as a easily movable data storage for video. Box has both USB1.1/2 and IEEE 1934 Firewire connections, altough with Windows XP the IEEE 1934 does only allow reading of the data, not writing. Apparently there is a bug in the box's IDE - IEEE 1934 bridge that causes whole bus to freeze if write operation with data over 128 kB is attempted. Oh, the wonders of computer technology...

I'm going to buy USB2 adapter to my computer, it should be practically as fast as IEEE 1934. With USB1.1 the box is practically unusable. Oh, and I already did buy 5 miniDV tapes, just in case...

By the way, there is 3 Sony TRV 33 miniDV cameras on sale right now on german eBay, I'm going to get one of them, no matter what :)

[20.09.2004] The Deal is done

I just bought a Sony DCR-TRV 33E from ebay at price of 606€. Camcorder comes with high capacity battery and 17 months of guarantee. It will take about 2-3 weeks before it gets here so in the meantime I can spend some time re-reading reviews.

Camcorderinfo.com TRV 33 review
Camcorderinfo.com TRV 33 first impressions preview.

[08.10.2004] It's finally here

Camera arrived today. It's in perfect condition and all the equipment is there. Charging batteries right now and then I will prepare few tapes (record black to create continuous timecode). Tomorrow I will get firewire and s-video cables.

Size is ok, fits my hand perfectly. Image is much better than I anticipated (remember, this is my first contact with miniDV camera). Firewire connection worked straight away as does USB video streaming form Messenger.

[10.10.2004] First impressions

I have now used camera for two days, I went to wander around Copenhagen. Some things I have learned:

• If there is no background noise at all, internal mic will record barely audible whirring noise of camera's tape transport mechanism. External mic is needed
• Camera's widest angle is not wide enough. Wide angle lens needed
• Camera's lens shows some purple fringing on frame edges on extreme zoom, altough it was only visible on one occasion which was worst possible scenario
• Original battery is enough to perform around 30 minutes of recording.
• Performance in dark (artificial street lighting only) was better than I expected
• If you have dark subject and bright sky, you will either have burnt out sky or totally black subject due camera's dynamic range.

[30.07.2005] Preparations

No updates in a long time... I bought a bullet camera and some accessories from www.rfconcepts.co.uk. I did get three different focal lenght lenses, few spare protective glasses for camera and a battery box.

Bullet cam works fine but I haven't used it yet in anger. One drawback is that it outputs4:3 PAL image which must be cropped to 16:9 in editing, losing some resolution. I'm planning to go to Nordschleife in mid september and I need to build atleast one or two systems for mounting the camera, one suction cup stand that can be placed almost anywhere and one that allows filming in secret (it is forbidden in Nordschleife...).

I need external microphone too to be used with bullet cam, I think will build one myself.

[21.08.2005] First serious attempt on digital video

I went to BMW Club Sweden meet on Knutstorp and managed to record 45 minutes of video alongside taking 390 digital photos.

As this was first time I have tried my miniDV camera to record something useful, I again learned a few things:

• It is very hard to keep camera steady enough on maximum zoom (10x) when handheld. Steadycam would be very useful for filming on pits and sturdy tripod would be good for trackside action. Luckily I already have Manfrotto tripod with video head, thanks Anette! :)
• Bullet cam produces quite good image indeed! It's hard to tell miniDV native image from bullet cam image. There seems to be some difference on colour balance (bullet cam maybe being slightly yellowish) but that should be easy to correct on editing.
• shotgun microphone would be nice, on trackside when you are zooming to a car on the far side of the track you only hear engine noises of cars near you which sounds silly on video bacause you see a car driving on straight road but tyres are squeling and engine revs on redline!

[03.09.2005] Premiere Pro 1.5 tryout

I have been messing about with Premiere Pro 1.5 30 day tryout version. There is lot to learn but I'm getting hang of it.

[22.09.2005] Back from central europe, first bulletcam tests

Week and a half in germany and belgium! I took few hours of video in Spa F1 race and then on Nurburgring but mostly while testing bulletcam on car.

Video produced by bulletcam seems to be quite high quality, even if it is only composite video. There is some white balance pumping but nothing too serious and resolution is ok.

I did not have time or materials to produce any good mount for inside of car. Attaching camera to outside was very easy, I just took the standard mount, put a tape on it's bottom to prevent it from scratching paint and then taped it to car. Looks bit flimsy but I cannot notice any vibration from video.

One thing to notice is that car (or any large fixed colour surface) showing up on video affects automatic white balance circuit and may cause color errors.

I did not take any incar footage from Nurburgring since it is prohibited and black bullet camera would have been too easy to notice on yellow car... But come next summer and finnish trackday season opens...

Bullet cam attached to drivers side side mirror with black tape, smooth!