Samsung digital-only sports video recorder

[skycop806 0]

Ok, so, don't flame me...I don't know the difference..but..

The new video recording device in Parachutist magazine...it's a Samsung digital only recorder. I don't know if this is the same thing that has been discussed in other threads...

I went and looked at it at Best Buy. At first glance, it seems really cool. If I understand it right, there is no moving parts. It has an internal 512k memory, with an additional port for a 1G memory stick. No harddrives....just memory. Is this accurate assessment?

I noticed 2 things off the bat:
1. The remote camera is labeled "wide angle", but I don't think it's "wide" enough.
2. There are no threads on either to accept a larger camera lens..ack!

Has anyone actually TESTED IT in the AIR??

[klafollette 0]

I know people have been saying the Samsung is not "high-quality" video, but I was even thinking about it for a POV cam for myself to remember jumps, things I did right/wrong. Wouldn't need the best DV-8 quality for that. Besides video quality, does anyone know how well it works from an operational standpoint? Supposedly it's digital from camera to recorder, and is image stabilized. It looks a little bigger than your standard Sony bullet-cam, and can't really tell what the mounting options are.

I've never wanted to slap a big brick on the side of my head, and wasn't going to start playing with Video until I could get a streamlined pencil style camera that would limit weight and snag points. But to-date most systems I've seen are a bit kludgy, using a Sony Bulletcam and your standard camcorder in a belly pack, and a bunch of cables.

The closest thing I've seen to this is a Sony bulletcam with a solid state recorder, "Mini DVR Pro" from www.ffv.com. Shoots high quality MP4 video. Only problem with that is the Mini DVR Pro with 4GB of RAM would cost about $4,500!!

[dragon2 2]

Don't know about the camera, but you don't want image stabilizer for skydiving. If you can't turn it off you'll get shaky video in freefall.

ciel bleu,
Saskia

[quade 4]

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Don't know about the camera, but you don't want image stabilizer for skydiving. If you can't turn it off you'll get shaky video in freefall.

The image stabilization in Sony cameras works well. Turning it on does -not- make the video any more shaky than if not on and in most cases improves it -quite- a bit.

What -does- affect the shakiness of video is the tightness of the entire system to the camera flyer's head, how steady the camera flyer can hold his head and the width of the lens. The first two are obvious but are often ignored. The last one is basic optics.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[dragon2 2]

Quote

Quote

Don't know about the camera, but you don't want image stabilizer for skydiving. If you can't turn it off you'll get shaky video in freefall.

The image stabilization in Sony cameras works well. Turning it on does -not- make the video any more shaky than if not on and in most cases improves it -quite- a bit.

What -does- affect the shakiness of video is the tightness of the entire system to the camera flyer's head, how steady the camera flyer can hold his head and the width of the lens. The first two are obvious but are often ignored. The last one is basic optics.

Usually I can spot if someone on our dz had left the image stabilizer in, for freefall and for crew video. These are often beginning video people with say freefall helmets converted for video, the more experienced people who fly ftp's don't leave image stabilisation on here, or seldom forget. Maybe the effect is more pronounced on those presumably shakier helmets? But it is noticeable in the videos for sure, seen it in my own crew videos as well (with an nvertigo helmet, TRV25).

ciel bleu,
Saskia

[mccordia 74]

It's something I've also seen in several peoples video.

When there is a shake in the image (no broad head-shakes, but small flutter, like they have a vibrator glued into their helmet somewhere) the image stabilisation tends to over-correct, actualy making the video more shaky.

You can test this by putting your running camera on top of a washing-machine. With stabilisation on, the image wil actualy come out worse...

I think you're talking about the more broad 'unfocussed/looking around too much' type of headshake quade...there's no image stabilisation that will help anyone there, but it also won't make anything worse then it already is :)

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[ltdiver 3]

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Maybe the effect is more pronounced on those presumably shakier helmets?

Bingo.

ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

[PhreeZone 20]

One of the issues with it is that even with the Mpeg4 codec running in hardware it eats memory. Raw DV is 15 3.75 MB/sec, or 30 Mb/sec. A gig of hard drive space will get you about 4 and a half minutes of video. MPEG4 is a greatly compressed format so even at the highest compresssion on any Samsung hardware you are still writing at about 40-50 KBs. You will be about to get about 80-100 minutes of really grainey video. If you boost it up to a level that you would want to view it at you will get about 30 minutes of video max on the memory card. That might seem like a lot for a skydive, but I use about 3-4 minutes and I'm turning my camera off under canopy all the time too. I don't see where this can take a LANC input so you'll either have to dig it out under canopy every jump or let it keep recording. at 7-10 minutes per jump of stuff being recorded you are only looking at a few jumps before you have to record to the extra memory card. Memory cards a re getting cheaper... but at 60 minutes per gig thats still a whole lot more then the $4.95 per 60 minute DV tapes cost. Plus with the tapes you can store them for ever and not have to keep transfering everything off of them onto a hard drive or CD.

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