Wow!
Dirk and Simon thanks for all that really interesting advice.
Dirk, I don't actually have a Standard Laser, My Laser EPS is a bit more
like a Blaze - not that many were made so it isn't so well known but
thanks for the in depth advice. :)
I had thought about mounting on the mast, but so much seems destined to
go wrong (breaking the boat is potentially more extensive than losing
the camera) that, for me, it's not worth putting it in that situation.
My Camera is a consumer grade Sanyo Xacti VPC-WH1 which claims to be
waterproof to 3m. I'm fairly certain it could manage submersion to 3m in
calm conditions but being unceremoniously smacked into the surface at
speed would probably take it out I suspect. It's freshwater I'm sailing
on, but the camera has fantastic battery life so it would probably get
fried.
I'm not too worried about class and racing rules for several reasons:
a) I'm really bad at racing and am usually following the fleet or come
near the bottom on handicap.
b) my sailing club is full of people who like sailing but who aren't
obsessed with it from a competitive sense.
c) my boat is from a fairly extinct class and the class rules are far
from clear :P
At the moment I'm shooting in 30fps, 640x480 because:
a) my 32GB memory card hasn't arrived yet
b) embarrassingly, none of my machines have good enough graphics cards
(etc!) to play HD video... yet (I sense an upgrade on the horizon!)
c) I also need to invest in more storage!
If HD is too immersive due to lack of motion steadying kit.... well that
someone else's problem... the video can be later downscaled if needs be...
Just to be clear, I'm doing from the point of view of someone who loves
sailing and watching video of people sailing but finds it hard to relate
to 99% of the videos or bits of video on youtube I see...
I intend to release all the footage I capture under Creative Commons
Attribution or Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike Licences and am
certainly not looking to make any money out of it.
(The idea being that I certainly can't be bothered to do that much
editing, but hopefully someone else can!)
Cheers for all the really encouraging advice,
I'll get some video up soon,
Tim
Simon Thompson wrote:
Dirk-Willem van Gulik wrote:
Tim Dobson wrote:
So basically I've just acquired a small waterproof HD video camera and
I'm looking for the best way to mount it onto my Laser EPS[1] sailing
dinghy.
It has a standard tripod mount so I was wondering about tying it on with
desk tripod near the mast foot or something but I wondered if anyone had
any prior experience or thoughts on how they'd do this.
There are a few issues with mounting cameras on boats.
1. Mounting the camera unit high up has it's difficulties
1. by adding weight to the top-hamper (camera, mount and
cabling) you decrease the stability of the boat
2. the fixing point can weaken the spar section
3. the higher up, the greater the arc of movement
2. If you're talking a dinghy, then you don't want the camera or
mount to impede your exit from the boat in event of a capsize
3. The dinghy will probably have class rules - by adapting it, you
may not be allowed to enter any events with it.
1. Contact the Principal Race Officer and the Scrutineer/Measurer
4. Make sure the camera is waterproof first.
5. HD video played an a large-ish screen is more immersive than SD on
a box in the corner - you may feel motion sickness
http://www.hqda.army.mil/ari/pdf/RR%201832.pdf
Best I've seen is the Horizon True system
http://www.youtube.com/v/s67s7ZHbsi0
http://www.horizontrue.com/sections/order.php but they're expensive for
non-broadcast purposes. A colleague has also experimented with OpenGL
motion-stabilising - perhaps an area for backstage to look at?
If you're really interested, there's an Olympics test event at Portland
in September called Sail for Gold
http://www.sailracer.co.uk/events/event-v2.asp?eventid=18401 where I'm
sure there'll be mounting systems in action.
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Simon Thompson MEng MIET*
Research and Development Engineer
*BBC Research and Development*
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