SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post - How to shoot bicycle "cockpit" video and turning it into a VR headset movie?

Skybird · 12-25-18, 10:53 AM

Finally I had the weather and opportunity to test it all in the real world, yesterday, and today. Yesterday it was a clear sky around noon, sunny, and blue sky with a few clouds. Today it was scattered, sometimes more blue, sometimes more clouds and grey. The camera is hard-mounted on the steering bar. Up and away into the Rieselfelder!

What they advertise, and what many people say - its all true! For my purposes and when driving on grounds like bicycles usually do, this cam is a gimbal killer. Adding a gimbal i, cannot add any more good it. Gift me a gimbal, and I happily sell it and take the money. I cannot imagine when and where, for my purposes, to need it. I do no mountain biking.

This cam is a stabilization wonder. I drove over

- fine & smooth asphalt
- old & broken asphalt with surface damages and rough tar seams from repairs
- through rough sections with gravel, small stones and and small tree branches/branchlings lying on the surface
- other broken-up sections with plenty of small potholes and tree roots having broken up the asphalt
- uneven grass, mud, gravel
- fine cobble stone
- coarse cobble stones
- passing over railroad crossings
- wooden planks and metal grids on the ground

The stabiliser ate it all. I tried my best to make it shake just one time - just once. I failed.

I tested under many different camera settings and viewing angles, in fact I went through the possible combinations quite systematically, like in a lab, yesterday 3 hours, today again almost 3 hours, and drove with each setting for 5-10 minutes or so, sun in my back, and into the sun. Then watched it unedited on TV, full HD, 80cm.

This cam is a beast and almost perfect for the task I bought it for.

With 1080p at 50 frames (PAL), sharpness set to medium, -0.5 exposure, the so-called "matt" colour profile, wide viewing angle (which is the medium one of the three available), the camera delivers image quality and colours and contrasts that are as life-like and realistic and professionally TV-like like as it can get. I never had a video cam before. This amount of visual quality I did not expect. I am blown away. Crispy and sharp contours from 20 cm before the lense out to the distant horizon.

The stabilised Timewarp mode, which is their version of time lapse, also delivers very good, smooth results. I only see it suffering from the fact that it uses the "GoPro" colour profile, which accentuates colours and high contrast, and sets sharpness to "high". The videos are supersmooth, I can see myself making use of the 2x, 5x and 10x settings quite some times (it goes up to 30x).

That "GoPro"profile could be improved in its usefulness, imo, the high contrast often leads to dark picture areas blacking out. The sharpness set to "high" makes areas with many finy details and lines shimmering. It may have its usefulness on higher resolutions 2.7K and 4K, I do not know - but for full HD, it is a counterproductive setting, not only not doing something good, but actually doing some mild damage to picture quality. However, as a general automatic mode, "GoPro" is okay and may work very well indeed for actual action movies at close range (sports etc) - while I focus on landscape documentation. Thats quite different stuff.

I am very happy and can full-heartly recommend this little magix box, it took my heart by storm. The 400+ coins they ask for, is imo okay and justified, due to the unbelievable picture and the good manufacturing quality. Their original addon stuff, however, is a mixed back in quality, and always overpriced, sometimes so excessively that I would call it a rip-off. Other producers however offer comparable or better stuff for the GoPro, sometimes for just a fraction of the prices.

If you look for a cam for projects like I described, or a good stabilisation, trust this one. I can fullly recommend it. Its great and excellent value for money, imo. And you can then draw faster than Wyatt Earp.

I have not even tried longer any object-filming, and experimenting.

P.S.

They wrote, in the beginning at least, that the camera freezes and must be unlocked, and not rarely, be removing the battery and putting it in again. Well, I had that just once, on day one, while sitting and testing it at the desk. That was while fiddling with the menu. I had one delay on reaction while shooting yesterday, keeping the main switch pressed for several seconds, solved it, and it worked on, and did not reboot. I had not a single failure so far while the camera was shooting and me not handling it. I have so far shoot around 8-10 hours of test material. When it films, it seems to be pretty fail-safe. One of the firmware updates they have had, seems to have done a good job. Also, sometimes the finger-wiping and wishing on the screen does not get recognised. Well, thjt happend some times to me yesterday, with a cold fingtertip that felt very dry (5°C outside), but it happened not often, and only then, and not different than with my smartphone screen as well. This is a non-issue, in my eyes. Power consumption goes up steeply with high resolution filming, with 1080p/50 I get one hour out of one battery, more or less, and an SD card with 64GB holds almost 3 hours of film. The thing can dive as deep as 10 meters without needing a diving cage. The microphones are - very good. The wind supression works well to really tone wind down (mono then, one mike in use: it tones wind down, it does not completely supress it), in stereo with all 3 mikes being used, the sound quality is imo very, very, very good for somethign of this size (if there is no wind...

)

The people I read complainig about this cam and mocking its stabilising, almost always were mountainbikers. I can imagine that under such expreme driving conditions a gimbal indeed works better, videos showing them shooting with the 7 Black while being on trail shows how extreme their movements are. But the word to watch out for, is "extreme". Ordinary bicycle drivers, race cyclists - you will find it hard to find conditions that defeat the digital stabiliser. I have not found the limit so far, and believe me - I really searched for it. I also tried it on chest mount, handwrist mount and head mount, also held it free in the hand, and then walked normally and climbed chairs. What should I say? - "Smooth".

Certain combos of high resolution and high frame rate and superview (the widest) viewing angle do not allow hypersmoothing, and will fall back to the standard stabiliser already used in the GoPro 6. They should not be mistaken. The GoPro 7 Silver and White are not just other colours, but technically different as well., They have not the hypersmooth stabiliser, for exmaple. Thats why they only cost half as much.

P.P.S.

If the cam has a weakness, then it is pitchblack night outside. The pictures become grainy quickly then. However, with ISO limited to 100-800, I shot great shots in my flat with candle light and 2000K LED lights on, some Henna-lamps on as well. The cam needs a bit longer to adapt to changing light conditions then, still the results I foudn to be convicning and fully satisfying, sometimes even being stunning, especially colour representaiton (with white balancing set to automatic...)

12-25-18, 10:53 AM	#3
Skybird Soaring Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: the mental asylum named Germany Posts: 42,679 Downloads: 10 Uploads: 0	Finally I had the weather and opportunity to test it all in the real world, yesterday, and today. Yesterday it was a clear sky around noon, sunny, and blue sky with a few clouds. Today it was scattered, sometimes more blue, sometimes more clouds and grey. The camera is hard-mounted on the steering bar. Up and away into the Rieselfelder! What they advertise, and what many people say - its all true! For my purposes and when driving on grounds like bicycles usually do, this cam is a gimbal killer. Adding a gimbal i, cannot add any more good it. Gift me a gimbal, and I happily sell it and take the money. I cannot imagine when and where, for my purposes, to need it. I do no mountain biking. This cam is a stabilization wonder. I drove over - fine & smooth asphalt - old & broken asphalt with surface damages and rough tar seams from repairs - through rough sections with gravel, small stones and and small tree branches/branchlings lying on the surface - other broken-up sections with plenty of small potholes and tree roots having broken up the asphalt - uneven grass, mud, gravel - fine cobble stone - coarse cobble stones - passing over railroad crossings - wooden planks and metal grids on the ground The stabiliser ate it all. I tried my best to make it shake just one time - just once. I failed. I tested under many different camera settings and viewing angles, in fact I went through the possible combinations quite systematically, like in a lab, yesterday 3 hours, today again almost 3 hours, and drove with each setting for 5-10 minutes or so, sun in my back, and into the sun. Then watched it unedited on TV, full HD, 80cm. This cam is a beast and almost perfect for the task I bought it for. With 1080p at 50 frames (PAL), sharpness set to medium, -0.5 exposure, the so-called "matt" colour profile, wide viewing angle (which is the medium one of the three available), the camera delivers image quality and colours and contrasts that are as life-like and realistic and professionally TV-like like as it can get. I never had a video cam before. This amount of visual quality I did not expect. I am blown away. Crispy and sharp contours from 20 cm before the lense out to the distant horizon. The stabilised Timewarp mode, which is their version of time lapse, also delivers very good, smooth results. I only see it suffering from the fact that it uses the "GoPro" colour profile, which accentuates colours and high contrast, and sets sharpness to "high". The videos are supersmooth, I can see myself making use of the 2x, 5x and 10x settings quite some times (it goes up to 30x). That "GoPro"profile could be improved in its usefulness, imo, the high contrast often leads to dark picture areas blacking out. The sharpness set to "high" makes areas with many finy details and lines shimmering. It may have its usefulness on higher resolutions 2.7K and 4K, I do not know - but for full HD, it is a counterproductive setting, not only not doing something good, but actually doing some mild damage to picture quality. However, as a general automatic mode, "GoPro" is okay and may work very well indeed for actual action movies at close range (sports etc) - while I focus on landscape documentation. Thats quite different stuff. I am very happy and can full-heartly recommend this little magix box, it took my heart by storm. The 400+ coins they ask for, is imo okay and justified, due to the unbelievable picture and the good manufacturing quality. Their original addon stuff, however, is a mixed back in quality, and always overpriced, sometimes so excessively that I would call it a rip-off. Other producers however offer comparable or better stuff for the GoPro, sometimes for just a fraction of the prices. If you look for a cam for projects like I described, or a good stabilisation, trust this one. I can fullly recommend it. Its great and excellent value for money, imo. And you can then draw faster than Wyatt Earp. I have not even tried longer any object-filming, and experimenting. P.S. They wrote, in the beginning at least, that the camera freezes and must be unlocked, and not rarely, be removing the battery and putting it in again. Well, I had that just once, on day one, while sitting and testing it at the desk. That was while fiddling with the menu. I had one delay on reaction while shooting yesterday, keeping the main switch pressed for several seconds, solved it, and it worked on, and did not reboot. I had not a single failure so far while the camera was shooting and me not handling it. I have so far shoot around 8-10 hours of test material. When it films, it seems to be pretty fail-safe. One of the firmware updates they have had, seems to have done a good job. Also, sometimes the finger-wiping and wishing on the screen does not get recognised. Well, thjt happend some times to me yesterday, with a cold fingtertip that felt very dry (5°C outside), but it happened not often, and only then, and not different than with my smartphone screen as well. This is a non-issue, in my eyes. Power consumption goes up steeply with high resolution filming, with 1080p/50 I get one hour out of one battery, more or less, and an SD card with 64GB holds almost 3 hours of film. The thing can dive as deep as 10 meters without needing a diving cage. The microphones are - very good. The wind supression works well to really tone wind down (mono then, one mike in use: it tones wind down, it does not completely supress it), in stereo with all 3 mikes being used, the sound quality is imo very, very, very good for somethign of this size (if there is no wind... ) The people I read complainig about this cam and mocking its stabilising, almost always were mountainbikers. I can imagine that under such expreme driving conditions a gimbal indeed works better, videos showing them shooting with the 7 Black while being on trail shows how extreme their movements are. But the word to watch out for, is "extreme". Ordinary bicycle drivers, race cyclists - you will find it hard to find conditions that defeat the digital stabiliser. I have not found the limit so far, and believe me - I really searched for it. I also tried it on chest mount, handwrist mount and head mount, also held it free in the hand, and then walked normally and climbed chairs. What should I say? - "Smooth". Certain combos of high resolution and high frame rate and superview (the widest) viewing angle do not allow hypersmoothing, and will fall back to the standard stabiliser already used in the GoPro 6. They should not be mistaken. The GoPro 7 Silver and White are not just other colours, but technically different as well., They have not the hypersmooth stabiliser, for exmaple. Thats why they only cost half as much. P.P.S. If the cam has a weakness, then it is pitchblack night outside. The pictures become grainy quickly then. However, with ISO limited to 100-800, I shot great shots in my flat with candle light and 2000K LED lights on, some Henna-lamps on as well. The cam needs a bit longer to adapt to changing light conditions then, still the results I foudn to be convicning and fully satisfying, sometimes even being stunning, especially colour representaiton (with white balancing set to automatic...) __________________ If you feel nuts, consult an expert. Last edited by Skybird; 12-25-18 at 11:33 AM.