Robb, What Kind Of Video Camera Do You Use?

Ok. I was gonna say, iMovie that comes on the Mac is pretty capable. Then there is also Final Cut Express that does a very good job. Of course, this info only matters if you do end up getting a Mac. I used to use Premiere on the PC but had way too many issues with it. Now I use Final Cut Studio 2 for everything.

Get Adobe Premiere Elements 4. I have it and it works great. Of course it is not good for professional video editing, but for my use (editing random park segments) it works great. I believe it runs about $80-$90.

I just bought Premiere. I love it. It can be quirky at times, but I'm writing that off on the large size of some of the files I'm working with. As for not being "professional," I'd say that's more of a user issue. I'm panning sound from channel to channel, using opacity, etc, etc. You can make it as "professional" looking as you want it to be. It just takes time.

I have a Kodak Easyshare, and if you use it for random park photoshooting and/or taking short videos, it's almost unbeatable. It has different modes that set up the lense to different conditions. For example, it has Auto for normal picture taking, sport for when your moving or when the subject is moving, video if you want to take a video (limited only by the space on the memory card), and a few modes that I haven't used yet. And you can change them at the spin of a small wheel. It is a bit expensive, $300 for the model we got, but it is fantastic for TR's.

I just bought the Panasonic P2 200 for home, I use the P2 500 and 2000 at work, they all work great. The 200 has a built in lens, but it's great for shooting around the parks. The 500 and 2000 are too large to take in a park, plus they are broadcast cams, so security would have a cow. The 200 is the DVX100B's step up to 1080i shooting.

I have Avid 3.0 at home, Nitris at work. In my opinion, AVID is the way to go, yes it's expensive, but it's the best. AVID now owns Pinnacle, I've read they've really upgraded the versions you can buy at Best Buy and other similar stores, so that might be a great program to get without taking a loan out.

I also use After Effects, but that's for a lot of post.

^ What kind of editing work do you do?

I use the Casio Exilim S10. It's really lighweight and thin so if you can't film on a ride its easy to slip in your pocket. It has a great battery life and has special fetures for filming videos for You Tube and fireoworks. Even though it's a digitial camer it's ment for filiming. It has a little bit of video editing you can use on the camera. It comes with a downloadable You Tube uploader where you can upload videos on to You Tube without opening the internet. I really love mine. It even has smile option where it won't take the picture until the person it's on is smiling. How cool is that?

I've been trying out the DSi camera on the new handheld system. It's pretty good for taking pictures. If you have a still hand, it takes really clear pictures, and you can edit them to make certain moments better. Really, it should be TPR's official "Do it all handheld camera-gaming" system of the year! Ok, maybe not THAT good, but it's pretty darn fun!

Do you guys use a seperate camera to take your still pictures or do you use one of your video cameras and take stills with that or do you extract stills out of the footage at all?

I ask because i'm not sure about whether to get a video camera to take with me to Korea or stick with the 7.2 megapixel camera and take that with me, I will probably end up taking more stills than videos, but would probably like the option of shooting footage if i feel like it or even shooting footage then extracting stills from it if that's possible.

Many thanks,

Rob

If you are gonna be taking more stills than video, I'd suggest you'd get a camera that is primarily for stills but has video as a (super) bonus. I have a Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z2 that can take nice large images and nice video.

However, if you think you're gonna be doing alot of filming in the future (producing your own movies), maybe get a fancy video camera that can take large frames at super speeds and then just extract one frame here and there. Heh, go through hours of footage at a park and say "That's good! Oh, that's nice as well! Oh, if only I was more steady that would've been cool too." and after all of that you start cutting together your own Video Trip Report or Coaster Art and upload that.

That's the tip I can give you. Hope your Camera hunting goes well.

/Edward

PS. Don't forget to look up reviews on the different models so you can pick just the right thing for what you need.

Thanks for that advice, I will probably only use it to shoot some culture as I explore Korea so I think I will stick with my current camera and use its video setting put the money away to some better travel insurance, and if i do make it to Lotte World or Everland i'll just shoot with that ala shaky-cam style.

Rob

Does anyone know how a Flip cam would work, as for blurryness and maybe POV? I'm kind of thinking about making some videos. Thanks!

Does anyone know how a Flip cam would work, as for blurryness and maybe POV? I'm kind of thinking about making some videos. Thanks!

Flip cams and others like them are not the best at fast action shots. I have a all the flips, the three Kodaks, and some no name. I prefer the Kokak Zx1 because of the mic input as well as it's 1080/60 fps, where the flips only do 30 fps. Being able to shoot 60 fps really helps the quality. Also with the Flip cams, the part that "flips out" to connect via USB breaks on a lot of sets and it's not part of the warranty, so wasted money there.

As for using them for POV on a coaster... DON'T! Not safe and it's against park rules almost everywhere. If you want to get a good POV, the camera has to be bolted to the device that you're trying to get POV from. Holding it still doesn't work on rides, in cars, boats... Catch my drift?

As for shooting fun little movies, the flip cams are great. You also need an editing system that can edit video that's in 720 or 1080. Microsoft Movie doesn't do this. No clue if Mac Movie Maker works well, I hate Macs. I use my AVID Nitris System to edit everything, but that's about $50,000 to get up and running. The supped up Pennicle Program is now made by AVID and is a great home editing piece. It's only around $100.

I recently got a Sony MHS-PM1 HD Camcorder. Good for taking videos, just ok for taking pictures.

For my offride videos, I use a Sony Cx550v.

Robb, I have just seen a new camera you might want to consider using for POV stuff, the oregon scientific atc9k actioncam $400RRP.

•1080p = 1920x1080 pixels (16:9), 30 fps, ~12 Mbit/s data rate

•720p = 1280x720 pixels (16:9), 60 fps, ~12 Mbit/s data rate

130-degree field of view

Waterproof down to 20 meters/60 feet so would be good on splash rides too.

Records to microSD/SDHc cards up to 32GB, so no moving parts to get jerked around.

It has a GPS Plug in available

But most interesting for coaster porn videos is that it claims to have a G-sensor built in which embeds G-force data on the video recorded.

It might be fun to show the G forces around the track on your fixed POV shots. Unfortunately details about this G-Sensor are pretty thin on their website, but the user manual shows that it does record G-Force in all three axis, but does not give any details about what intervals measurements are taken.

Just thought you might be interested.

Peter.

Hey Robb, I'm going into the Steadicam business and my business partner and I would like to know what you use as a recording deck.

We're looking for a deck with a playback screen we can use as a quick reference when practicing running the Steadicam on a RED or other high end digital or 35mm cameras. I'm thinking something along the lines of a HD camcorder with a video in would be fine, what do you use right now?

Although, I don't film coaster POV's (I leave that to the pros), I recently (read today) purchased a Contour GPS camera for filming my offroad driving exploits. I previously used my iphone 4 with a number of rubber bands attached to my rear view mirror for filming. As ghetto as this sounds, it made for great, relatively high resolution films. I purchased suction cup mount for the contour camera as well as a couple of fixed mounts. The image stabilization appears to be terrible with this camera (worse than my iphone 4) . After a few hours of test and adjust today, I've found that the robb alvey method of duct-tape to a surface far surpasses the fixed mounts I've purchased in regards to vibration and image stability. I guess my question is, has anyone used a contour camera for filming pov's of any type and Robb, would you be interested in testing this camera with your pov's to at least show me if "I'm doing it wrong?". I'll fedex you the cam if you are interested..

Chris "just want's to make my off roading look sexy" Connolly

My mom says I'm cool because I reply to my own messages.. I've realized today that 60fps is what you need for super smooth non jerky pov video. Unfortunately the contour gps doesn't support 1080p at 60fps, but at 720p it looks sweet.

hey Robb , I just got a hauwei ascend android phone with a 3.5 mega pixel cam with video recording any tips for taking photos for trip reports email me at matthewromine46@gmail.com

Bringing this back..

Just wondering, Robb, what kind of camera are you using right now? I was hoping to head to Cedar Point this year and take some off-ride videos of some of the coasters and was wondering what you use.

For a good high quality video, would an iPhone be enough? Just wondering if I can get some good clips of coasters using it or if you've ever used an iPhone or any phone of its type for videos. If any one else has ever used an iPhone too, it would be great if you could help.

Thanks a lot!

^ It depends on which version. My iPhone 5 records great 1080p videos, it's just hard to hold most of the time.

Looks like this thread hasn't gotten much love in recent months (and potentially years), so we figured we'd redirect much of it and find out what everybody's thoughts are on video recording equipment are.

What equipment and accessories do you use? Why did you get those verses others? And, have you bought any recent equipment that you just simply found over-hyped and hence regrettable?

Thanks in advance!

Looks like this thread hasn't gotten much love in recent months (and potentially years), so we figured we'd redirect much of it and find out what everybody's thoughts are on video recording equipment are.

WTF?!?!

It's not YOUR place to "redirect" the thread and start asking everyone questions about camera equipment. Honestly, your posts and questions have been weird and creepy. I think I'd prefer it if you didn't post to our forums anymore.

--Robb

Robb those 4k onride video's, is that GoPro u used for them ?

Robb those 4k onride video's, is that GoPro u used for them ?

Sure is!