Onboard Video Cameras
A few weeks ago I was reflecting on the videos we've made during our trips, and how they could be better. The videos, although amusing, seem to be much inferior to the photography we shoot.
Here are some of the common problems that seem to stricken our footage:
- White balance gets thrown off, which washes out the landscape. This struck a few times in Death Valley while we were crossing the Saline Valley on our way to climb the Lippincort Trail.
- Audio suffers from a lot of wind noise
- Inane, incessant background chatter. I always most appreciate what a dork I am, and what a shit-stream I babble, when I hear myself in these videos.
- Camera jerkiness. Not so much bouncing of the camera, but just very crude, excessive zooms and pans. Seems like you need to move the camera much, much more slowly than you'd move your head to see the same scene.
- When filming from the car, way too much dashboard in the scene, and just a lot of bad aiming in general. Often something exciting comes up, and I am so excited by it, I neglect the camera and start filming the glovebox.
- Sun dazzle.
- Allowing the camera to focus on the windscreen
Some ideas for making the videos more interesting:
- Outside-of-car shots of the car travelling
- GPS telemetry being shown on top of the video.
I'll have to think about some solutions to these problems. Solutions for some of them would be as simple as being aware that I should shut up, or should move the camera more slowly. Others will just take some manual reading and technical adjustments (White Balance). I have also briefly looked around for camera rigs to mount to the car. So far I have just found expensive crap, but I am sure there are some interesting devices around.
Posted by Nils Blutig at February 16, 2003 10:03 PM
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