camera recommendations?
- Thread starter stricken6
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StreetzKing
Registered
i cant speak for anyone but if you want compact and easily mounted then theres no reason a gopro wont work for your situation.
True, but Go Pro cameras are $200-$400+. Go to a pawn shop and buy an inexpensive HD camera for $50-$100. You can buy a bracket to mount it for a few dollars.
Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com
Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com
I loved my kodak zi8. It's small enough with a mini tripod mount to fit in my cue case. When that model was discontinued I bought a zi10 for $60. If I had to buy a new one again, I would look to see the current model Kodak has for that series.
Here is a sample from a zi8 standing on top of a whitten case.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeJkKtpej9Y
Here is a sample from a zi8 standing on top of a whitten case.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeJkKtpej9Y
I'm on my 3rd camera/recording setup. I'm by no means an expert, but I would recommend a few things to think about:
1) Are you looking for a permanent setup in your home? Or something to take to the poolroom with you occasionally?
2) How will you turn the camera on and off? Will you climb a ladder each time, get a remote control, etc. I have mine hooked up to my Mac computer, and control it from the computer keyboard that I placed on a shelf right next to my table..
3) What will you do with the footage you record? Will your play it back on your TV by hooking the camera up to your tv with its supplied cables? Will you put the footage on youtube/facebook? If you put in online, will you do that frequently, or once in a blue moon?
4) Its best to get a camera that has manual focus and manual white balance exposure controls. The $200 models (new street price) do not. The $400 models do. If your camera only has auto focus and exposure, every time your body walks in the camera frame to get on a shot, you will cause the camera to adjust. You can see this in most amateur videos posted on here and youtube. Its really bad when the camera angle is low, and the player blocks the overhead table light from the camera when he walks in front. This causes the whole picture to change colors and have a huge hot spot on the picture.
Below is a recording I made today from my setup, playing a WWYD thread scenario.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jmrDq32eQ8&feature=youtu.be
1) Are you looking for a permanent setup in your home? Or something to take to the poolroom with you occasionally?
2) How will you turn the camera on and off? Will you climb a ladder each time, get a remote control, etc. I have mine hooked up to my Mac computer, and control it from the computer keyboard that I placed on a shelf right next to my table..
3) What will you do with the footage you record? Will your play it back on your TV by hooking the camera up to your tv with its supplied cables? Will you put the footage on youtube/facebook? If you put in online, will you do that frequently, or once in a blue moon?
4) Its best to get a camera that has manual focus and manual white balance exposure controls. The $200 models (new street price) do not. The $400 models do. If your camera only has auto focus and exposure, every time your body walks in the camera frame to get on a shot, you will cause the camera to adjust. You can see this in most amateur videos posted on here and youtube. Its really bad when the camera angle is low, and the player blocks the overhead table light from the camera when he walks in front. This causes the whole picture to change colors and have a huge hot spot on the picture.
Below is a recording I made today from my setup, playing a WWYD thread scenario.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jmrDq32eQ8&feature=youtu.be
Dustry
Banned
not very expensive for the quality return it gives.
Attachments
I have basically a streaming setup, but I don't stream live. Instead, I record directly to my hard drive. What the streaming setup allows one to do, is use the computer to "on the fly" make the video youtube friendly. When you use a camcorder/iphone/gopro, etc, it records HUGE HUGE files. 5 minutes is like 2 GB of data. Its impossible to do anything with this footage online, unless you edit it in a movie editor, and then export it in a web friendly format. This (to me) is a pain in the ass and takes several hours for just a few minutes of footage.
When you have a streaming setup, the file size is like 300 MB for an hour of footage. And its good enough quality. And, its ready to go right to youtube. Its already in the right format.
The downside to the streaming setup is the learning curve, and the cost. Here is my setup for a Mac. I'm not familiar with what would be required for a Windows based setup.
1. Computer: Used 2011 iMac from ebay ($500). Must be quad core i5 or better, seriously. Must have Thunderbolt. This is the cheapest used Mac model that does.
2. Camera: Panasonic HC-V720 ($470 new) Any HD camera will work as long as it has HDMI output, and preferably manual controls for focus and white balance.
3. Blackmagic Mini Recorder ($145): This gets the signal into your computer from the HDMI output to the Thunderbolt input
4. Wirecast (cough, $500, cough ("free..."): This is the streaming software that will control the camera and what file size and quality you record at. There are other free software packages that do the same (Flash Media Encoder), but for an unknown as of yet reason to me, I have not been able to get the free ones to work for me.
When you have a streaming setup, the file size is like 300 MB for an hour of footage. And its good enough quality. And, its ready to go right to youtube. Its already in the right format.
The downside to the streaming setup is the learning curve, and the cost. Here is my setup for a Mac. I'm not familiar with what would be required for a Windows based setup.
1. Computer: Used 2011 iMac from ebay ($500). Must be quad core i5 or better, seriously. Must have Thunderbolt. This is the cheapest used Mac model that does.
2. Camera: Panasonic HC-V720 ($470 new) Any HD camera will work as long as it has HDMI output, and preferably manual controls for focus and white balance.
3. Blackmagic Mini Recorder ($145): This gets the signal into your computer from the HDMI output to the Thunderbolt input
4. Wirecast (cough, $500, cough ("free..."): This is the streaming software that will control the camera and what file size and quality you record at. There are other free software packages that do the same (Flash Media Encoder), but for an unknown as of yet reason to me, I have not been able to get the free ones to work for me.
I use my Canon Vixia HF10. It's your basic SD-card video camera. The most important feature is to make sure your camera has a remote control. Constantly walking to and from the camera to turn it on and off really kills the rhythm of a practice session.
I'd use my iPhone's video camera if it had a remote control. It's a great video camera and they don't come any smaller. But alas, no remote.
I'd use my iPhone's video camera if it had a remote control. It's a great video camera and they don't come any smaller. But alas, no remote.
Do all GoPros have fish eye or super wide angle lenses such that you can't use a normal lens? I'm not that familiar with them.
Yes they hava pretty broad field of view but you can buy other lenses.
thanks for the all the info guys.
should have noted this will be used in a pool hall. gopro's are out of the question for me because of cost and the wide angle. pretty much looking for a basic set-up with a harddrive/card. doubt i'd be uploading files online often. and something small without a tripod to avoid bringing attention to myself.
i'm sure I could have just googled what i'm looking for but didn't know if there was a GO-TO that's worked well for everyone.
:thumbup:
should have noted this will be used in a pool hall. gopro's are out of the question for me because of cost and the wide angle. pretty much looking for a basic set-up with a harddrive/card. doubt i'd be uploading files online often. and something small without a tripod to avoid bringing attention to myself.
i'm sure I could have just googled what i'm looking for but didn't know if there was a GO-TO that's worked well for everyone.
:thumbup:
I already have a setup I'm happy with, but wanted to try a cheap webcam just for the hell of it. I got this one on Amazon for $25. I just tried it for a few minutes thus far, but its not bad at all. It has a manual focus ring so you can lock it in. I didn't find a manual white balance setting on it though, at least not yet.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003VOEENG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
iusedtoberich brought up excellent points, super excellent point.
someone else said the iPhone, good call. iPhone/ipod take great quality, i've used it.
I do the camcorder thing now cause i use it to capture stuff with my daughter doing stuff (self defense, school plays, vaca's) and i use the tripod an 72" and it works flawless. I have a cannon vixi a HFM500 and that thing rocks, it's available with a remote plus you can get a wifi SD cards so you don't have to go pulling out the card to up load. It also shoots in mp4 which would save you on that file size issue like usetoberich mentioned, but it's really not that big of a deal to stick it in "handbreak" (video conversion program) and drop more than have the size not to mention have the out put be mp4.
but if you looking for a more permeant setup in the house that even more micro that the iPhone, has a remote, streams and shoots in 720 (good enough for average joe) then try this. Oh, and it mounts on a tripod if you want.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkoI6AxvgXY&spfreload=10
someone else said the iPhone, good call. iPhone/ipod take great quality, i've used it.
I do the camcorder thing now cause i use it to capture stuff with my daughter doing stuff (self defense, school plays, vaca's) and i use the tripod an 72" and it works flawless. I have a cannon vixi a HFM500 and that thing rocks, it's available with a remote plus you can get a wifi SD cards so you don't have to go pulling out the card to up load. It also shoots in mp4 which would save you on that file size issue like usetoberich mentioned, but it's really not that big of a deal to stick it in "handbreak" (video conversion program) and drop more than have the size not to mention have the out put be mp4.
but if you looking for a more permeant setup in the house that even more micro that the iPhone, has a remote, streams and shoots in 720 (good enough for average joe) then try this. Oh, and it mounts on a tripod if you want.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkoI6AxvgXY&spfreload=10
I'm in the same situation. I'm going to give my IPhone a try tonight and see if I can position it to get the whole table layout but I'm not going to be bringing a tripod and camera in to a pool hall and have everyone questioning wtf I'm doing.
I really need a table at home..personally i feel that you're off to a bad start if you are worried about what others think while you're trying to make some progress. I started with an iPhone and tripod setup before i got the camcorder, even used it to recorded my daughter belt test is self defense. I don't know if you've ever recorded yourself or seen you play or making set shots but let me tell you, there is no substitute for video of you practicing or playing.
before the camera and even now (with the iPhone i used it to stream to Ustream and then watched it there so no space is used on the device) I have friends who ask me to record their practice or match. That came about because i recorded a few matches and put on dvd and gave to the people that i played (this was 14.1 btw).
The iPhone is a great way to start/started kit IMO.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-iPhon...2106?pt=US_Mounts_Holders&hash=item3f36c815da
before the camera and even now (with the iPhone i used it to stream to Ustream and then watched it there so no space is used on the device) I have friends who ask me to record their practice or match. That came about because i recorded a few matches and put on dvd and gave to the people that i played (this was 14.1 btw).
The iPhone is a great way to start/started kit IMO.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-iPhon...2106?pt=US_Mounts_Holders&hash=item3f36c815da