Mark's Open Motoring on the Dragon video. (Needless to say this is a lower res version I made for the web.)

Oh and I'll save a few folks some time. This is NOT a drive dangerously and over the yellow line video. If you're looking for that save your bandwidth 'cause you won't be happy. In fact I was trying to be smooth above all else on the runs that I taped.

This video is shot from a mounting platform bolted to the rear roll bars, and raises the cameras about 10 inches above the roll bar. The video camera also has a supplementary wide angle lens.

My goal was to get video where you could see the driver and cockpit, but the camera view of the road ahead would be over the top of the windshield frame and unobstructed.

After trying with and without the cars antenna attached I liked it best with it in place. I like how it adds to the sense of the car being a foreground and the feeling of depth. I also had a 35mm camera with a 19mm lens next to it also on remote control and with a motor drive.

For the next trip I want to shoot in 16:9 for more peripheral vision and a greater sense of motion. I'd like to capture the exhaust sound too instead of just wind noise. My camera has a limitation though in that the only way to use a external mic is to also use a external video source. I was not happy with the little CMOS cameras I bought so I just went with this setup for MOTD. So some equipment changes are needed.

Wonder if anyone rents HD cams...

 

Great work Mark. I was amazed at how rock solid the picture was. I thought you would get at least some road vibration. Can you shoot a picture of your camera set-up/platform?
I agree that the antenna on gives you a little more perspective, but you need to get a stubby. Also a wider angle would be great (16:9 HD).
I found myself leaning into the curves with you!

 

Sure, I'll take a picture this weekend. The camera has image stabilization. You can see it slew to recenter occasionally. It looks like the camera moving but is really the the camera re centering the image I think.

And yes, 16:9 HD would be awesome! My current camera will do 16:9 SD so I'll try that next.

 

Mark,

That was the BEST video of the dragon I have every seen.

Kudos to you

You did a GREAT job ... It really showed what driving the road was like.

That road is too scary for me I wouldnt get out of first gear

BTW ... you might want to warn ppl the file is pretty big to download

 

Made me nauseous just watching the video!!!

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you! You're too kind. The first time I was there I bought a motorcycle DVD of the Dragon at the Crossroads of Time and really liked the open, not "through the windshield" effect. That was my 'inspiration'. I'd like to do much better next time, perhaps this fall.

Sorry it took you a while... It should have buffered for a while then played while it downloaded. If not and one has to wait for it, it'll be a while at 70 MEG... Of course the high quality DV-AVI file is 2 Gig!

It's available at even lower quality than the link above here at YouTube

And it'll be running on some TV at the cookout too of course!

 

That's amazing!!! I can't wait for my first MOTD! You should work for the tourism bureau!

 

No, No, it's my 'Art'. It's not for commercial... Umm, wait, did you hear someone make a offer?

 

You deserve the kudos ... seriously. If you had a high quality one you could make a DVD!

Oh, I'm not complaining about the size, I was just warning ppl on slow connections. It downloaded quick since I get more than 10 Mb down but it downloaded and then opened up MS media player. You do know, I'm sure, you could have made a lesser quality wmv but I'm sure you know that

You ought burn some DVDs and sell them for a nominal fee to DCMM members

Great Job Mark ...

 

Great video Mark !
I actually had to pause in between (so after 6 min), got a little dizzy
Never been there, seems like a lot of fun !
That was during MOTD right ? Guess that explains the lots of MINIs along the way (at 2:10 and 5:10)...
Can't wait to get our vert next weekend.
May I ask you what cam you used ?

 

Thanks again! I do indeed have a MUCH higher quality one which I've authored a DVD from. I created three different quality files.

File #1. DV-AVI highest quality, 2 Gig File but it still doens't look as good to me as the pre imported video. This I burned back to a DVD.

File #2. A medium quality that is 208 MB, 640 x 480 for 3000 kpbs rate.

File #3. The file you just saw, is a 'minimal' quality 70 MB, 640 x 480 for 1000 kpbs which is what I linked to on my web server and what you saw. Oddly in the new Windows Movie Maker on Vista this is the lowest quality available. There aren't as many choices as on my XP machine. This same file I posted to YouTube which further compressed it to aweful quality and is the second link.

I plan to burn some DVD's to give away at my cookout, no charge. I need to look for some more Lightscribe blanks tomorrow.

IF I shoot a 16:9 with decent sound, and get some public domain music to mix then I MIGHT try selling some of those this winter. I gave MINI of Sterling a DVD at the breakfast last weekend which they ran. It's the best output but isn't edited as far. I had it down from 3 hours or raw to 23 minutes when I made theirs. I've pared it down to 9 minutes and change now.

Hi Volker,

Congrats on the impending convertible! The video camera is a Sony DCR-HC32 digital. It was bought primarily for the ability to use external video camera sources and record from those other cameras. Turns out the quality is too much better through the cameras own imager and the image stabilization is great. So this one is shot right from the camera, but with a Sony .6x wide angle supplementary lens added for a wider angle view.

It was during MOTD. You only see a couple MINIs because I shot most of the video on Wed and Thur. By the time there were lots of MINIs around on Saturday I had already filled 4 1 hour tapes and just said that's enough!. I feared I'd never get it all edited.

In hindsight I wish I had shot more behind other MINIs and had shot in in 16:9 instead. I won't bore you with the reasons I didn't at the time. But hindsight is 20-20.

 

That was great, thanks

 

My pleasure. Tomorrow I'll take the full quality file, and snip off just 15 or 30 seconds and see if I can't make a full quality snippet of manageable size for people to see what that's like.

 

OK, I've just uploaded another big file. This one about 62 MEG for only 30 seconds. But it will let folks see what the higher quality file looks like since it was being discussed.

You probably need to right click and save this, I don't think anyone will have the bandwidth to stream it down. Short clip at higher Quality

 

Now we are talking
Thanks for the 2nd sample, shows really off what the cam can.
I'm looking into one of the new HD cams from Sony that just came out.

 

I'm happy for the moment with my camcorder, till the HD's come down a lot more. Except...

It has no microphone jack. So when I mount the camera as in this video all I get is wind noise. I can use external audio with a audio and video input jack, but to use one you have to use both. If I do (use a external camera and external mic and use the camcorder as a recording deck) then I lose the 16:9 and image stabilization in the camera's imaging system.

Perhaps the solution for now could be a seperate audio recorder? If I start and stop em together, and do a old school 'clacker' like trick to get the sync close I could add the audio from the other source to the video. It's not like talkies where the sync has to be perfect, lips to dialogue.

With a video like this if it's really close I'd think that would be close enough. Thoughts? Anyone? Bueller?

 

Absolutely, improvised clapper sticks would be close enough.

 

I just read the review of your camera and the hot shoe is cold?

Thats weird I have an older sony DV with image stabilization and the shoe lets you put on an external mike or video lights or whatever.

Hmm ... thinking

 

Yup. 'Cold' shoe. It has a video in jack that excepts rca vid and audio, and s video too I think. At the time, I thought I'd be using the 3 CMOS cameras, switcher, and suction cups for mounting I bought. I even got ones with switchable wide angle lenses. But it seems to be all or nothing, both internal or both external on vid and audio. Short of opening the thing up and soldering. But I don't want to do that as it's under warrenty.

Alas as I guessed might be the case the video quality is marginal with the cmos camera heads. I could buy better external cameras, but I'd still lose the 16:9 and stabilization. Well, I assume I'd loose the 16:9 better check that with a experiment. I'm sure I'd lose the stabilization but again testing would reveal how important that is.

When the life slows down in a few weeks I'll have to do more testing. I was also planning on sticking the little camera heads up the mast and out at the end of a wisker pole pointed back at the boat etc for some neat sailing shots.

 

Great Footage - well done!

 

Oh yeah, I bought the wide angle and super telephoto lens but never used them But the directional mike on the shoe works great and the "night vision" is pretty cool

Stabilization is VERY important in a car. I've tried handheld (well the wife holding it) with stabilization and it still bounces all over the place. You had it mounted which is always better

 

I didn't initially think the image stabilization would keep up with the road vibration. Now I'm wondering if it did it that well, or if the wide angle is covering up a lot. Of course the wider angle the view the less vibration will show.

Hmm. I just need to go do that testing don't I?

 

Wow, nicely done. And you know the cool part? There was nobody in front of you!

...Les

 

I played it on my large monitor witht the room lights off and dame near fell out of the chair. Fantastic!

 

that was awesome mark! in fact it gave me a few tips for the next time i'm taping the twisties (as seen here). thanks for posting!