Who manufactures your camera for filming tandems?

[juniorflys 0]

Just a bit of market research. Cheers.

[velocityphoto 0]

I think this one is a no brainer!

A friend will bail you out of jail , a REAL friend will be sitting next to you in the cell slapping your hand saying "DUDE THAT WAS AWSUM " ................

[base851 0]

Now we need a poll of the various Sony cam models to help us noobs choose the right one. I'm leaning toward a CX110.

[jimmytavino 16]

well, i have No brain...
so i use SONY

the one and only

jmy

[jmpnjeff 0]

sony cx-100 pentax k110d
odd combo hey!

[rhys 0]

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I think this one is a no brainer!

Used to be a no brainer, not anymore.

snce they got rid of the recording light and the lanc, you cannow spend more money on swtches than on the camera itself.

personally i use go pro for handicam and I very much like to look of the contour hd for outside camera. I will get ne of those

why pay as much for a lens and switch for your camera as a camera that already has these things and much better quality?

thats a no brainer!

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

[Hellis 0]

As it is today this poll is a no brainer, BUT im sure that in a few years you are correct.

Dont get me wrong i own a Contour myself, and have friends with GoPros and i love the quality.
When the circumstances are good i might add.

In good weather these cameras performe well, but in low light conditions im not that impressed.
My camera has problems with clouds, when i can "see the sun" i get good colors and a picture that looks alive.
But when im below clouds i get a very booring flat image that lacks colors.

As for the Contour its not as simple as just buying the camera and beliving everything works perfect.
I actually had to spend more money on "extra stuff" for the camera than i imagined.

First the camera itself
A good mount (i bought the xvusa.com mount)

and then i realised i needed more wideangle (when shoting in 1080) so
a lenskit to mount a wideangle lens
a wideangle lens

For me, it got more expensive than i thought.
But i didnt have to buy a special helmet, camerabox and hypeeye.
And my camera i more versatile than a sony because i can mount it at other places than the helmet and i dont have to pay for all the extra stuff a sony has that i will never use (zoom, video output etc)

[Waldschrat 0]

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I think this one is a no brainer!

Used to be a no brainer, not anymore.

snce they got rid of the recording light and the lanc, you cannow spend more money on swtches than on the camera itself.

Why is that a no brainer? The only disputable thing i see is mass production vs. bulk production and both have pro and cons....

[Jonntis 0]

For tandems there's no need for extra WA, however it's an interesting project. Did you manage to find a WA thats not vignetting on the contour?

I'm more than happy with how the Contour works out of the box. I glued the original T-rail mount to my helmet and so far, 10 jumps or so it works good. And I honestly dont see the point with the XV mount. It seems to bring down the major advantages of this camera: price, size and weight.

The two major downsides I've found with the contour is the really annoying lensflares you get when shooting towards the sun. According to the manufacturers, a UV filter should fix that (so I'm probably gonna spend some more money on it too...) It also produces a loud click when you stop recording as there is a short delay between sliding the switch and the recording stops. So if using it for tandems, you'd want to cut a sec or so at the end of each clip with sound.

[DSE 3]

it's not a "no-brainer" IMO.
Contour/Go-Pro don't begin to approach the compression quality of any of the AVCHD cams. Put on a large flatscreen the difference is immediately noticeable.
AVC at very high bitrate can sometimes compete with AVCHD at low bitrate...but I suspect most videographers want to be proud of their work rather than apologizing for compression artifacting.
Not to mention that AVC takes much longer on most editing systems when it comes to rendering, as opposed to AVCHD, which is a fixed standard.

[Hellis 0]

I have not videod tandems (yet) but i would belive you have be at some distance if you are videoing in 1080.

No didnt find any that is completly without vignetting, but im happy with the lens i have (raynox 0.5).
The difference between 0.3 and 0.5 with the contour is not worth it (atleast when its raynox) you will only end up with more vignetting.

The reason i like the xv mount is that i can mount the camera in a different angle and position if i want.
If i would like to video the opening of my parachute i place the camera on my forehead aimed up (back).
And if i want to place the camera on the airplane i can easily just stick it on there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXj_Hd_n9_U
This shot would be almost impossible without wideangle lens)

There is one downside with the xv mount
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwbzcrdrfZQ
The record button can get slapped by the raisers

[Jonntis 0]

I compared the contours 1080 FOV to 28mm eq on a still camera, which I guess is what most or at least a lot of people use for tandems. The contour slightly wider, so it should work. Since everything ends up in SD on the DVD it should be fine to use the wider low res modes too.

Cool shots the airplane mount. Just some 3M velcro on the plane and the XV mount? Quality looks good to me with the raynox on it. To get rid of the vignetting it seems you'd have to look into converters for still cameras, there are a few options with 43 mm threads and severeal with 52mm and up. I have no idea if focusing issues would occur though. Or maybe a 37mm single element such as the century would do it?


I use a soft forehead helmet so I guess Ill have to bend my neck to get the opening shots anyway.

[Hellis 0]

28 mm on a full size camera or a 1.6x (canon 350, 400, 450 etc)?
I would say it sounds much even if you are talking about a canon 450 with 18-55 mm lens (that would be about 28mm fullsize).

Yes velcro on the plane and just stick it on there.
It will give tandemvideos a nice shot to i belive while the cameraman climbs out.

Usually the 43 mm lenses are only a 37 mm lens with a adapter ring.
I have not seen any "real" 43 mm lenses yet.

I tried the liquid lens, but the camera could not focus trough it.


EDIT: and before anyone comments on the lack of seperation on the second video.
I was videoing a 3 way RW jump and by the time i noticed the guy in the picture did not track off enough i thought i would pull before him so we would atleast have vertical seperation.
That didnt work. Everything worked fine after that, we did not even get close to collision.

[Hellis 0]

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Since everything ends up in SD on the DVD it should be fine to use the wider low res modes too.

Maybe its me thats missing something here.
Why?
If you would render a video in 1080 and burn it on a DVD, why would it be SD?
I can understand that the DVD-player/TV cant handle it, but if i would play the DVD on a PC?
Or is it the DVD-disc that cant handle the bitrate needed to play a 1080 video.

[DSE 3]

Hellis (and Jontis) I'm confused by your comments about "being further back" for 1080 resolution shooting.
Distance and resolution are not related at all.
If you have a 1080 camera or a 480/DV camera and say....a .5 lens on an equivalent width camcorder, and are 6' back from the subject, the FOV is exactly the same. The resolution will be different (more pixels per block), but that doesn't affect FOV, it merely affects resolution.
I'm wondering if you're confusing that some SD cams have a wide FOV equivalent to 32mm while many small HD camcorders have an equivalent of 38mm?

Given identical sensor size, lens adapter, and fixed FOV width, the image width/corners will have the same net result regardless of resolution.

[Hellis 0]

When you are shoting in 720 you get more wideangle than when shoting in 1080.
So if i would use 720 resolution i would get about the same field of veiw as i get with 1080 and a wideanglelens

[Jonntis 0]

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28 mm on a full size camera or a 1.6x (canon 350, 400, 450 etc)?
I would say it sounds much even if you are talking about a canon 450 with 18-55 mm lens (that would be about 28mm fullsize).

Yes, I was referring to 28mm on a fullsize. Only checking horizontal FOV though, might be different vertically.

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Usually the 43 mm lenses are only a 37 mm lens with a adapter ring.
I have not seen any "real" 43 mm lenses yet.

I believe Ricoh DW-6 and Konica-Minolta ZCW-200 are "real" 43mm WA converters, altough the latter is not being made anymore. If any of them works with the Contour, or with any camcorder, I have absolutely no idea.



Regarding the DVDs, if you're burning something to be played on a PC of course you can pick the resolution. I was referring to standard tandem DVDs, which is usually to be playable on any DVD-player, hence delievered in SD.

[DSE 3]

most camcorders don't shift FOV based on resolution because the width shouldn't be impacted by resolution. Width is a function of glass and its relationship to the sensor.

Here is a Sony EX5 in 720p30 mode and a Sony NXCAM in 1080p30 mode. Both at full width (no adapter) both locked on the same tripod at same distance.
HTH?

[Jonntis 0]

Yeah I have no idea how it works but the camera does that. On the previous version the SD mode was simply a crop of the 720p mode, giving it a narrower FOV. How they put more pixels into a narrower field view I cant explain.

The 1080p is 110° while the 720p is 135°. I believe the gopro has different FOV in different settings too.

Samples attached. Sorry I dont know how to prove they're authentic, youll have to trust me, theyre at the same distance from the fridge.

Its all on the vholdr webpage too.

[Hellis 0]

http://www.vholdr.com/contourhd/techspecs
I dont have time to do testvideos now, have to get to bed soon

[DSE 3]

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How they put more pixels into a narrower field view I cant explain.
.

They change the aspect ratio of the pixels, is how it's done. I understand how it's done, my point was that all things being equal, it should be the same width (same size imager, same lens, same PAR).
The cheap/small cams (and HDV, DVCPro) cams screw with with the PAR, whereas that's not "standard."
My original point was that resolution doesn't normally impact FOV except in very unusual circumstances where manufacturers screw with the PAR and/or cropping.

All that said...if you're good with how these cams work...that's terrific! They accomplish the objective just fine!

[Jonntis 0]

Hehe they sure do. Thank you sir. An honour talking to you.