Recording with an iPhone

[Aten]

I'd like to start recording myself when I'm at the table but I don't have a camera/camcorder and I'm a bit short on cash right now so all I've got to work with is an iPhone.

Have any of you tried recording your practice with the iPhone's camera? I don't have a table at home, so I shoot at my local hall and so my main ???? comes from how I can even set up this makeshift recording device to be able to capture a clear and stable result. Any tips/experiences?

 

[scottjen26]

I use my iphone periodically - no table at home, and using my slightly older video camera is a pain, having to download the video to the computer, convert it, etc.

I still have an iphone 3gs, about to upgrade to 4s or wait for the next gen, so the recording is a little grainy, I'm sure the newer ones are even better resolution. The lights over the table can product a glare, but if you get it propped up at a decent angle it's not bad. I usually balance it in the ball rack with a few balls or pieces of chalk to support it and I get a nice view of the table. And I can quickly upload to Youtube to show to others if necessary.
Scott

 

[Aaron_S]

Haven't tried it with my iphone, but a friend of mine recorded a match on his HTC Evo and it turned out pretty doggone good. Mine is just an iphone 4, but I think the 4s has a camera comparable to the Evo.

Aaron

 

[JoseV]

Just try it out the worse that can happen is it blury the best that can happen is it comes out clear give it a shot and let us know

 

[suprnva]

I've recorded myself and my friends using my iPhone 4 quite a few times. I just found a good place to prop it, hit record and let it go. Got quite a bit of footage and all good quality.

I also have a video of a match I recorded between Larry Nevel and Jesse Bowman last year at a tournament. I held my phone and recorded each rack individually to give my arms a quick rest while they would rack. I then used an app called Splice and edited all the racks together with the score showing between each rack. One of these days I'll post that video for people to enjoy.

 

[Jude Rosenstock]

I think you're going to run into two different problems which I'm sure you're aware of (or will be). First is propping up an iPhone for filming. If you have a friend holding it, great, but you're sure to have some Blaire Witch camera action going. If you can solve this problem, your next issue will be zooming. These phones don't REALLY zoom. They just make the picture bigger and lower the resolution.

Put these obvious problems aside, I've actually been very impressed with my iPhone 4's videos. Try to avoid using the flash as much as possible. Be mindful of the camera's auto-focus feature.

 

[keith@greatbilliards]

record I-Phone

I have an app called V1 Golf. It cost about $2.99 this is a great app for recording. You can draw lines to check if you have head movement, body movement and more. You can see if you are dropping your elbow, stick alignment etc. What makes this better than just recording with you phone you can play it in slow motion.
I use this for golf and for pool.
Oh, another thing you can do is send your recording of your stroke to a pro or firend for them to see.

 

[wigglybridge]

i've done this for a while with my iPhone4, and it works great.

i've got a GorillaCam tripod, one of those flexible little ones, cost less than $20, and i made a mount for the iPhone to go on it by glueing a 1/4-20 nut to an office butterfly clip; cost: $0.00, and works great. fits in my cue case pocket easily, and allows me to position the camera usefully in every situation i've found, including those narrow shelves for drinks around the wall in many rooms.

there's no autofocus in video mode on iPhones, at least not on my 3G and 4, nor my gf's 3GS, so contrary to an earlier post, you Don't need to worry about it. what you Do need to do is make sure when you click the shutter that you're not standing in front of it, or it will focus on where you're standing rather than the table (and remain focused there for the rest of the video).

one trick you may or may not like: there's more resolution than you really need from the iPhone4 or 4s, and depending on your pool hall's layout, it may be difficult to get behind the phone to aim it right. but if you use the front-facing camera instead, it gives plenty adequate resolution, the files are much smaller, And it allows easy aiming and framing of the shot, because you can See the result on the screen.

the videos i've made have been good enough that others in the 14.1 forum have asked how i made them.

 

[Jude Rosenstock]

there's no autofocus in video mode on iPhones, at least not on my 3G and 4, nor my gf's 3GS, so contrary to an earlier post, you Don't need to worry about it. .

lol, I'm using it now and all it does is focus. That little box that appears on screen is the iPhone finding a focal point. I've ruined a few video moments because I was out of focus.

 

[wigglybridge]

lol, I'm using it now and all it does is focus. That little box that appears on screen is the iPhone finding a focal point. I've ruined a few video moments because I was out of focus.

yeah, but as soon as you click the shutter button, it will lock on what the last thing in the box was, and remain locked for the duration of the video.

that's not video auto-focus, which continually re-locks focus as the scene changes during video. many video cameras have this feature, which Does get in the way of attempts to video pool every time the player steps in front of the camera. the iPhone does not.

again, you just need to make sure it's focused on what you want to shoot when you hit record.

 

[Jude Rosenstock]

yeah, but as soon as you click the shutter button, it will lock on what the last thing in the box was, and remain locked for the duration of the video.

that's not video auto-focus, which continually re-locks focus as the scene changes during video. many video cameras have this feature, which Does get in the way of attempts to video pool every time the player steps in front of the camera. the iPhone does not.

again, you just need to make sure it's focused on what you want to shoot when you hit record.

Okay, I just read about this and we're both going to learn something today. Hitting the shutter button does not lock the Auto-Focus however, you CAN lock it. Hold your finger down on the screen for a few seconds. When you do, you'll see "AE/AF Lock" at the bottom. I just did this and it's very easy.


If you want to see a walk-through on how to do this, click this link:

http://www.imore.com/2011/11/08/daily-tip-aeaf-lock-iphones-camera-ios-5/

 

[pooln8r]

Okay, I just read about this and we're both going to learn something today. Hitting the shutter button does not lock the Auto-Focus however, you CAN lock it. Hold your finger down on the screen for a few seconds. When you do, you'll see "AE/AF Lock" at the bottom. I just did this and it's very easy.


If you want to see a walk-through on how to do this, click this link:

http://www.imore.com/2011/11/08/daily-tip-aeaf-lock-iphones-camera-ios-5/

Thanks! I was also wondering if that was available on my 4S and now I know.

Kevin

 

[stuckart]

You all need to get the Free App, USTREAM Broadcaster!

You can stream live video directly from your phone and it will broadcast live on Ustream, in addition to recording the footage. If you don't want to broadcast to the world, you have the option of adding a password or making the viewing private.

The quality has gotten a lot better than when I first recorded with it 2 years ago: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/4788377

If you have a site like AZPoolScene or OTR and some action breaks out, you don't always have the time to setup the full streaming equipment, but this will allow you to broadcast to all your followers within 10 seconds.

I know I'm going to record some BCAPL matches and have them live for people at home without leveraging the Wi-Fi or Casino Bandwidth in Vegas.

 

[TheOneGnat]

I record with my phone quite a bit (Android). While I can't say the quality of the iPhone's recording, I did find this neat little stand to prop-up or hang just about any kind of phone for multiple uses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwgOAwawAWQ

Hope it helps!

 

[wigglybridge]

"Okay, I just read about this and we're both going to learn something today. Hitting the shutter button does not lock the Auto-Focus however, you CAN lock it. Hold your finger down on the screen for a few seconds. When you do, you'll see "AE/AF Lock" at the bottom. I just did this and it's very easy."

hitting the record button absolutely Does lock the focus. just try it: hold your finger in front of the lens, let it focus on your finger, then click the shutter, then pull your hand out of the way: your video will be hopelessly fuzzy. and it doesn't matter whether AE/AF lock is on or not, because as i said, the iPhone camera doesn't have the ability (or liability for us) of varying the focus during video.

now, you Can use the AE/AF box to select a particular focus for your video Instead of just hitting record when it's centered on what you want to shoot. but it's an unnecessary extra step, unless for some reason you want to focus on something in some odd corner of the field, which is not the case when we're videoing a pool table.

so one more time: whatever is in the focus field when you hit the shutter in video mode will Remain in focus throughout your video.

the only ways you can screw this up when videoing a pool table are to put you or some other object in the shot when you hit the record button, or grossly mis-aiming the camera. well, i suppose you could also miss the record button, hitting the screen and activating/moving the focus box, and then swiping down onto record... but that's a pretty far-fetched bit of clumsy for anyone deft enough to shoot pool.