...The early bird gets the grainy footage.
Couple of weeks ago something amazing happened....I set the alarm at 6am for an early morning ride and then come 6am, managed to get my arse out of bed and up into the hills to the undisclosed Dirt Box downhill training grounds (no, not Allestree). Normally an exclusive night-ride location, I was keen to hit the down hill under first light to film the track following a couple of failed attempts to film at night using a copious amount of torches. So the benefit of a bit of light but with the problems of added dog walkers and golf course groundsmen.
So, just before 8am and just before sunrise but with reasonable viability I set off from the peak. Camera was preset with +2 contrast on 'dusk' setting to get as much clarity out of the low light. Not the fastest run ever with a slow midsection leading to a bit of tic-tac-ing just before the final 'left-right' hander but got to the bottom just in time to see the first golfers of the day teeing off and home for breakfast.
On playback I found that levels were poor especially when passing trees in shadow, and when dipping my head towards the ground. As a result, I've had to boost the exposure in post production and made a note to angle the camera up a bit on the next filming trip. Still definitely easier to ride unimpeded at night but I will be back for some filming, probably in the Summer when the sun rises earlier.
Either way, excuse the film quality but enjoy and give me a shout if you want to go for a ride sometime, cheers!
Showing posts with label contour hd. Show all posts
Showing posts with label contour hd. Show all posts
Sunday, 25 December 2011
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Movies, Movies, Movies!
If a picture paints a thousand words, then video must be a whole dictionary or something, and something I hope to be doing a bit more of now that my Contour HD has arrived!!!!!
Been thinking of buying one for a while and in all honesty, liked the look of the GoPro, but did get a bit confused by the various options - I still don't quite know what the 'naked' model involves. On-line opinions between the GoPro and the Contour seem a bit Marmite but I do think the GoPro comes out on top on many of the youtube comparision videos. However, the GPs do seem to be generally more expensive and not being the most flush for cash right now, I needed to hunt around.
Contour 1080p's seem to be reasonably cheap right now with three newer models available: the 'Roam' that seems to be a bit more automated but doesn't offer 60fps, the 'GPS' that tracks your route simultaneously, and the '+', a higher end camera with more professional features such as HDMI output. The 1080p spec looks pretty good and most come with 2 Gig card as standard, which would do me for starters.
http://jtote.com/product_info.php/contourhd-camera-p-10466
Jane's Tote seemed to be the cheapest with the price fluctuating on an almost daily basis, but I was able to buy at £117 with a maximum price observed over the past two weeks of £130. Although based in the USA, Jane's Tote will post to the UK for free so this didn't need to be considered, though there is always the possibility that I'd be stung for Import Tax when it arrived in the UK. Only a possibility though because I don't know quite how these things really work...... Anyway, as a comparison, the cheapest that I've seen the same model for sale in the UK is £149. So question is, do you want it quicker, or cheaper?
Cheaper of course! Made the purchase through JT who accepted payment by Paypal. This made me pretty optimistic that should items not arrive or should the wrong items be delivered then hopefully my money would be safe. Put the order in on the 6th of this month and it arrived today on the 19th - just under two weeks, which considering it came from Los Angeles for free, is not bad I reckon.
Tracked delivery (included in the free postage) gave me confidence that things were moving and informed me of delivery. A nice touch was writing the Customs Declaration form stating that the total value of the goods was $16, the main reason I think that I wasn't charged any additional postage by Parcel Force.
So, so far so good and I hope to have some moving footage for you all soon. Lets just say the the test footage shot so far looks pretty good, but I'm not going to share shots of the office! I'll update this post with any issues should they happen (non touch wood) so watch this space.....
Been thinking of buying one for a while and in all honesty, liked the look of the GoPro, but did get a bit confused by the various options - I still don't quite know what the 'naked' model involves. On-line opinions between the GoPro and the Contour seem a bit Marmite but I do think the GoPro comes out on top on many of the youtube comparision videos. However, the GPs do seem to be generally more expensive and not being the most flush for cash right now, I needed to hunt around.
Contour 1080p's seem to be reasonably cheap right now with three newer models available: the 'Roam' that seems to be a bit more automated but doesn't offer 60fps, the 'GPS' that tracks your route simultaneously, and the '+', a higher end camera with more professional features such as HDMI output. The 1080p spec looks pretty good and most come with 2 Gig card as standard, which would do me for starters.
http://jtote.com/product_info.php/contourhd-camera-p-10466
Jane's Tote seemed to be the cheapest with the price fluctuating on an almost daily basis, but I was able to buy at £117 with a maximum price observed over the past two weeks of £130. Although based in the USA, Jane's Tote will post to the UK for free so this didn't need to be considered, though there is always the possibility that I'd be stung for Import Tax when it arrived in the UK. Only a possibility though because I don't know quite how these things really work...... Anyway, as a comparison, the cheapest that I've seen the same model for sale in the UK is £149. So question is, do you want it quicker, or cheaper?
Cheaper of course! Made the purchase through JT who accepted payment by Paypal. This made me pretty optimistic that should items not arrive or should the wrong items be delivered then hopefully my money would be safe. Put the order in on the 6th of this month and it arrived today on the 19th - just under two weeks, which considering it came from Los Angeles for free, is not bad I reckon.
Tracked delivery (included in the free postage) gave me confidence that things were moving and informed me of delivery. A nice touch was writing the Customs Declaration form stating that the total value of the goods was $16, the main reason I think that I wasn't charged any additional postage by Parcel Force.
So, so far so good and I hope to have some moving footage for you all soon. Lets just say the the test footage shot so far looks pretty good, but I'm not going to share shots of the office! I'll update this post with any issues should they happen (non touch wood) so watch this space.....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)