Helmet cam?

[Tails]

Has anyone tried using a helmet cam to get some fighting footage? I'm considering getting one and was wondering if anyone else has done it. If you have, was it an epic failure? Did you get some good footage? If not, do you think this is a good Idea? They make these camera shock resistant, but how much shock can these things take?

[Magpie Saegar]

Someone did it -- pretty sure it was V-Hil. The results seemed rather choppy. Someone else might know better.

[tvetree]

There is a Shield cam vid from the sca on u tube.


Not really very good,but worth looking at.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_t ... d+cam&aq=f

[Tails]

I just thought it would be better on a head with our sport because it is a place that shouldn't be hit.

[Black Cat]

Oznog has successfully done the exact kind of footage you're looking for, though he is an Amtgarder. I'm sure the concept could apply to Belegarth as well, but getting shield-bashed onto the ground isn't exactly good for cameras. (attacking with your shield is not allowed in Amtgard)

Oznog on Youtube

[tvetree]

I just thought it would be better on a head with our sport because it is a place that shouldn't be hit.

I agree.My post was for refence.

[Judas]

There is a Shield cam vid from the sca on u tube.

Not really very good,but worth looking at.

That's what it looks like inside my helmet.

[tvetree]

There is a Shield cam vid from the sca on u tube.

Not really very good,but worth looking at.

That's what it looks like inside my helmet.

You move pretty good for someone with tunnel Vison.

[Judas]

I generally only see the grey circles after Vitus smashes me in the head.

[Slagar]

Yeah, V-Hil just did this like two Spring Wars ago. The results were... interesting. I think the vid ended on a nutshot. It's posted somewhere, facebook or youtube or the UH boards, or something. If you PM Madog, he'll probably be able to point you at it.

[Oznog]

Oznog has successfully done the exact kind of footage you're looking for, though he is an Amtgarder. I'm sure the concept could apply to Belegarth as well, but getting shield-bashed onto the ground isn't exactly good for cameras. (attacking with your shield is not allowed in Amtgard)

Oznog on Youtube

I use a Canon ZR10 in a big * pack padded with Funnoodle. The * pack is actually pulled up to the small of the back where it's less likely to fall on it, because usually you end on on your * or shoulder. (LOL your word filter! It's a f-a-n-n-y pack)

The bullet camera is not likely to be damaged. It's a solid housing. Pulling on the cord is the vulnerable part. I wish I could make a breakaway cord but it ideally needs 6 pins. I route it off my ear and actually in front of my right shoulder and under my right armpit the camera pack. When it ran straight down to the pack there was much more loose cable to catch. It's not extremely expensive either, like under $200 for top-of-the-line.

A working ZR10 costs like $75 on Craigslist. If it breaks... so?

I am not impressed with any of the digital solid-state recorders, almost all of them resolve the interlacing field problem by simply dropping the upper field. That means the picture drops half its vertical resolution (every other line) and it's only taking 30 frames/sec instead of 60 frames/sec. Some of my Clan videos were taken with one of those and the quality is less. Recorders which don't do this still cost a bundle.

The head is way, way more stable than shield or weapon camera. Your brain naturally stabilizes your head while walking or running. You will notice my videos do a funny thing where the margins jump around. That's actually a postprocesser called "Deshaker" which is da bomb. It parses the video and actually moves the picture around to compensate for small, sudden camera motion. This makes it significantly less "Blair Witch"-y and also makes the compression much more effective. Which is another thing- the solid state recorders apply MPEG4 or h264 before I can apply Deshaker. That compression can go sort of blocky on lots of motion and the info is lost. MiniDV is MPEG2 which is a very weak form of compression which has no time domain- each frame is compressed separately without regards to the other frames. So it doesn't have any problem with motion at all. You'll generally still apply a compression because you want it on YouTube, but you get to apply Deshaker to cut way down on the motion problem.

I designed a special LANC controller which works with the ZR10 or any LANC-capable camera. This has been a godsend, actually. See we tend to mill around never knowing when the battle's ACTUALLY going to start until it starts. I can't leave the camera recording forever. I had to get the camera out of the pack, turn it to VCR mode, open the side window, press Rec-in, press Pause, wait for it to start to verify it's going, close window, put back in pack, repack the cables, zip up and turn the pack around behind me again. No, the LANC was designed as a hotswitch remote. It puts the camera in a low power Sleep mode when the switch is snapped into the off position. When it's in the on position it wakes it and puts it into record. It beeps to confirm the record command was successful and constantly verifies that it's recording and will sound an alert if it ever stops recording, and keeps trying to put it back into record mode if that happens. Actually quite a smart piece of hardware and I love it, I can just click the camera on and off anytime and never remove it from the pack. Also the ZR10 sucks anyways because they put the control buttons on the outside. I lost several early pre-LANC videos when I accidentally pressed those buttons trying to get it into the pack. The video showed me taking my finger off the Record button, handling the camera into the pack, gripping it on top which put my fingers across the button area, and... no more video. Plus I went out of my way to make sure it was a "hard" switch with 2 physical positions, not a clicky button. Switch is up, it's off, down, recording. Button you'd have to look at the LED, and if it somehow became unplugged and lost power and then reconnected, it would forget the button state and have had to go back to Stop. I can feel its state and don't have to go "did I press the button hard enough? did I accidentally press it twice or bump it which would mean to stop again?"

[Tails]

I'm looking at getting a tachyon xc. I have looked at all sorts of helmet camera types and I like the video quality this one pumps out. Do you have any videos of your expeditions?

[Spike]

lrn2srch

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 2732&hl=en

[Oznog]

I'm looking at getting a tachyon xc. I have looked at all sorts of helmet camera types and I like the video quality this one pumps out. Do you have any videos of your expeditions?

I've not been impressed with the digital qualities I've seen. Put that Tachyon video in fullscreen in HD and compare with my miniDV fullscreen in HD and pause it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb1jeOv4xDk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ3bAFygsqs

This one was done with a solid state Aiptek 1080P recording video-in off the same camera (under better lighting conditions), as are all the Clan2008 videos except the "Brennon" labeled ones:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uZEkSUjgv0

Which isn't bad, but the frame rate is halved and the arrows' flight doesn't show up as well. The vertical resolution is also halved and if you look at straight lines like walls or polearms you see a certain amount of "stairstepping". It's more obvious when comparing raw footage before the YouTube compression which is more important if you want to put it on Vimeo or on a DVD.

The Aiptek was somewhat "buggy" super-cheap HD camcorder (but it's not HD using the video-in of course). If the cable pulled out a little bit, it glitched the video and the * thing stops recording and won't come back on. Later Aipteks left off the video-in which was the best feature. Idiots. BTW, the Aiptek and many other cheap recorders use a solid state CMOS imager which causes an odd slanting "rolling shutter" effect on the video when the camera is panned or there are fast-moving objects. It's not suitable for a headcam since it distorts everything and can only be partially compensated for in postprocessing.

[Cib]

Just curious Oznog, what did you use for image stabilization (AE, Shake?)? It must have taken a long time to run through that much footage!

[Oznog]

Just curious Oznog, what did you use for image stabilization (AE, Shake?)? It must have taken a long time to run through that much footage!

Gunnar Thalin's Deshaker. Requires VirtualDub and I use the x264 codec for transport to YT. All 100% free. Deshaker is kick-ass effective.

Deshaking is a 2-pass process and the second pass you set up for compression and division into 10-min segments to meet the YT limit. This takes like, I dunno, 2 hours for every 10 min clip. VirtualDub supports deferred batch jobs so start it when you go to bed.

I put a fairly wide-angle lens (but not fisheye) on that bullet camera and actually set up stereo mikes (miniDV takes stereo, Aiptek does not). Wider is better for framing the action as a whole. Stereo sets up an excellent ambiance. You must wear a dewrag to keep hair out of the camera unless you're bald. With a wide-angle, the field of view comes up right past your temple so no hair or hats or anything.