Camera Test

Yesterday being a dry but "unfrozen" day, I mounted my never-before-used "GoPro" video camera to the Harley's crash bar and took a spin around town. The default resolution is 1440 at 48 frames per second. I'm not sure if that frame count is what makes me look like I'm traveling about three times as fast as I actually was?  Honestly, I wasn't speeding.

In rendering a video for online upload the resolution is cut in half, diminishing the quality and that is noticeable in the shimmering edge affect, such as the powerlines and bottom edge of the motorcycle fender. The camera did fair going against the sun and shows great color in side angled sun and when the sunlight is coming from behind.

I hope to make good use of this camera on the upcoming Florida Ride, although I might have to rethink my mounting options. The mounted camera can be seen in the motorcycle's shadow shown in the video. At each end of the "stem," on top of which the camera is attached, is a ball-joint connection allowing unlimited rotation of the stem and camera. I have the stem positioned vertically to prevent obvious "sideswiping" of objects in close quarters. In actuality, the camera could be mounted on the horizontal portion of the crashbar but would need a shorter stem, which is probably what I should have bought in the first place. Naturally, all the acessories are sold separately.

I am also experimenting with the video website "Vimeo" to house online videos as opposed to the traditional Youtube. Although the "free" use of Vimeo only allows one video per week (seems to take me that long to upload one anyway), and I don't like the seemingly permanent display of the smiley face and file name when the video is at rest, it still impresses me more than the smaller blog display of Youtube. My main complaint about Youtube is the checkerboard of advertised videos that pop up at the end of your video, and you never know what those might be. Some are pretty crude.



On The Street in Oakridge (Jan 24, 2013)






2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glen, its me R. Don't know if this will post but will comment. Good work. Anxious to see the final outcome of all this that you are going through for this trip.

Anonymous said...

Hello Glen, Leon here...You are in the "zone" man. Your latest two videos are amazing. Your blog is amazing. Can't wait to see more as you head out on your adventure. Great stuff.