Overhead camera for pool table?
- Thread starter mohrt
- Start date
Best bet is to buy a few you think might work on Amazon prime with free returns. You are specifically looking for “wide angle lens” if you want an overhead camera on the center spot of the table, and you have less than 15’ tall ceilings.
Also an iPhone 11 and up will work in its wide angle mode with 9’ high ceilings. I tested this personally.
rack runner
Registered
hows the length recording on the iphone? also im wondering if a gopro w a ultra sticky thing on it could be rigged. idk, id be interested in seeing if something could be set up for poolrooms with no standalone lights. lol, removable sticky mount on the wall.
I just rigged up my iPhone 15 Max Pro above my table, centered under my light, and am pretty happy with the first test video. Switch the video to 4K if it doesn't default to that, and ignore the slight movement - I didn't wait for the light to stop swaying after mounting the camera:
Here’s my 9-ft Centennial with my homemade LED light (two 2x4 LED light panels in a 3” stained oak frame, with Diamond parabolic louvers directing the beams):
The extendable bracket off the left end of the light is for my GoPro Hero 12 camera. The bracket folds and pivots to lay on top of the light out of sight when not in use. The GoPro is great from that angle, but isn’t wide angle enough to mount under the light with its linear lens setting (straight edges), even with the Max Lens Mod 2.0 ultrawide add-on lens. It works fine under the light with the fisheye view of the MLM2, but then I’d have to post-process the videos to remove the fisheye and that’s a pain.
Anyway, here’s the mount for my iPhone - it’s simply two zip ties through the louver holes. Since you can’t see the screen when the phone is slid into place, you need to mirror the iphone screen to a TV or PC nearby, to adjust its alignment, and start the recording then before mounting it too. I have a TV on the wall that works great for the mirrored display; a bonus is that the top-down view can be left on the TV for you to check out (or guests can watch it while you’re shooting).
A note about iPhone lenses - the iPhone 11 was the first to have the dedicated Ultra-Wide lens, which is 13mm equivalent - same as my iPhone 15.
I hung my light at the perfect height for that lens - the bottom surface of the camera ends up at 49.5” above the table surface.
Of course, with an ultra-wide lens on any camera there is some distortion of balls near the corners of the table (they look a little oblong), but the only way to avoid that is to mount the camera significantly higher and use a longer lens - impossible with a solid light panel like this. A perimeter light would work better if you want the ultimate view from above without distortion - but then you need a camera way up there that is remote-operable, which iPhones aren’t.
The iPhone 15 takes very high quality video - 4K at 30 fps by default, switchable to 60 fps (which doubles file sizes). My test videos at 30 fps were just under 1GB per 5 min of recording. There is no time limit to the recordings; you’re limited only by your available storage on the phone. You’ll want it plugged in to power in that case - I have a power adapter on top of my light.
I may pick up a used unlocked iPhone 12-14 to dedicate for use above the table, connected on WiFi only, so I’ll be able to still take calls or whatever while recording.
Hope this helps someone!
Here’s my 9-ft Centennial with my homemade LED light (two 2x4 LED light panels in a 3” stained oak frame, with Diamond parabolic louvers directing the beams):
The extendable bracket off the left end of the light is for my GoPro Hero 12 camera. The bracket folds and pivots to lay on top of the light out of sight when not in use. The GoPro is great from that angle, but isn’t wide angle enough to mount under the light with its linear lens setting (straight edges), even with the Max Lens Mod 2.0 ultrawide add-on lens. It works fine under the light with the fisheye view of the MLM2, but then I’d have to post-process the videos to remove the fisheye and that’s a pain.
Anyway, here’s the mount for my iPhone - it’s simply two zip ties through the louver holes. Since you can’t see the screen when the phone is slid into place, you need to mirror the iphone screen to a TV or PC nearby, to adjust its alignment, and start the recording then before mounting it too. I have a TV on the wall that works great for the mirrored display; a bonus is that the top-down view can be left on the TV for you to check out (or guests can watch it while you’re shooting).
A note about iPhone lenses - the iPhone 11 was the first to have the dedicated Ultra-Wide lens, which is 13mm equivalent - same as my iPhone 15.
I hung my light at the perfect height for that lens - the bottom surface of the camera ends up at 49.5” above the table surface.
Of course, with an ultra-wide lens on any camera there is some distortion of balls near the corners of the table (they look a little oblong), but the only way to avoid that is to mount the camera significantly higher and use a longer lens - impossible with a solid light panel like this. A perimeter light would work better if you want the ultimate view from above without distortion - but then you need a camera way up there that is remote-operable, which iPhones aren’t.
The iPhone 15 takes very high quality video - 4K at 30 fps by default, switchable to 60 fps (which doubles file sizes). My test videos at 30 fps were just under 1GB per 5 min of recording. There is no time limit to the recordings; you’re limited only by your available storage on the phone. You’ll want it plugged in to power in that case - I have a power adapter on top of my light.
I may pick up a used unlocked iPhone 12-14 to dedicate for use above the table, connected on WiFi only, so I’ll be able to still take calls or whatever while recording.
Hope this helps someone!
Last edited:
boogieman
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that ping.
Damn, I'm on an 8+. Do you think those aftermarket stick on lenses would help or would that just fisheye things?
I wouldn’t waste money on one. They’re typically low quality, and would very likely fisheye.
You can pick up a nice refurbed iPhone 11 or 12 for $250 or less. I’m picking up a 12 with a cracked screen off Facebook Marketplace tomorrow for $175 that I can dedicate to the pool room.
You don't have to worry about file size if you live feed into YouTube and you can have the video/account set to private so no one is seeing the live feed.
When finished you can download the video if you want.
Haven’t tried that, but I like my YT videos to be 4K. Can you live stream at 4K? I did some googling and a lot of folks talk about glitches and problems even at HD res.
I also like to edit my videos prior to uploading, so I’d end up pulling them down then pushing them back up. And it looks like YT only allows pulling them down at 720p.
At 1GB per 5 min, I don’t worry about file size with my 512GB phone which has about 300GB free. That’s enough for about 125 hours of 4K/30fps video.
Side note: I bought a used iPhone 12 to dedicate to the pool table, but it’s been overheating and stopping after 30-45 min, so that may be a bust. Haven’t had that problem with the 15 Pro Max.
I honestly do not know the answers to your questions, sorry! I'm not a YouTube pro by any means!
I just recall I needed someone to do some work on my basement, i created a HD video walkthrough of what I needed to save him a physical trip. It was actually a 20 min video.
I know I can't email a file that large, so I just sent to my account in YouTube and clicked upload or create content, something like that.
I streamed it to the upload and marked it private, so I think they needed a direct link to access it, I just texted the link, but it won't show up in public searches, etc. I Believe.
I suggest experimenting and giving it a try, if you know what you are doing, you can let me know the facts!
rack runner
Registered
nice! still trying to find out if i can make a setup for a poolhall w no table lights. The one i play in is a general room. Too well lit. higher ceilings lol