"Action Photos" - modern CHEAT!!

[WillyChang]

Like many of you, we've all been trying to take photos of toy cars in action with varying success. Digicams removed film costs but not the trial-n-error... but then now - how about MPEG video??!

[WillyChang]

Yup - they're all STILLs taken off an MPEG feed.

But guess you wouldn't have known unless you were told.

[snollan]

It makes sense, most modern DV shoot around 1.5 megapixels. I plan on doing the same with my DVcam.

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I am so smart, I am so smart! S-M-R-T..I mean S-M-A-R-T!!

[snollan]

Oh look at the olympus ers-100 it has a 15 frame photo burst. Nice pics willy.

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I am so smart, I am so smart! S-M-R-T..I mean S-M-A-R-T!!

[WillyChang]

quote:

It makes sense, most modern DV shoot around 1.5 megapixels. I plan on doing the same with my DVcam.

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'fraid not, Sean.

That's what I thought too - the Sony PC115 I used has 1.5MP but only for *stills*... it'll do 1380x1024 I think, but has an annoying 2sec delay between shutter & capturing.

In miniDV mode it runs at 640x480 only I think. However it does have playback "zoom" as well, useful for framing stills. Still did a decent job for what you see.

But still can't drive-n-shoot... sigh. How come it seems *other* ppl get to play with *my* cars more than me!!?

[jhellman(2)]

Hi,

I have the same trouble as Willy (driving and shooting digital video is not possible at same time). I haven't yet decided which one is easier to do;

-teach my wife how to drive well and do nice looking stunts ;-)

-teach her to shoot proper video shots

I think the latter might be easier?! Any hints on wife education anyone?

-Juha

[WillyChang]

Baseball bat??

[DJTheo]

Uh uh uh, that doesnt sound nice for a guy freshly married, bad boy!

http://www.vintagetamiyarc.com/

[WillyChang]

My lovely wife came fully housetrained and well behaved, thank you very much.

I find no attraction at all with the feral bushpigs commonly found on the Ozzie streets. What with all the "multiculturalism", bah, they're all mongrels anyway - I prefer purebreds!!

[DJTheo]

I prefer "mixes", as genetics usually take the goods of both and leave the problematics, thats also why family marriages bring sicknesses, actually I am also a greek/german mix and am happy about it

http://www.vintagetamiyarc.com/

[flyby]

Great pics Willy,

For those of us who's mate's can only shoot the grass and sky and everthing else but the car, i think the only solution is a tripod for the vidcam set up in the right spot. The only problem then is if your mate isn't holding the camera he's out with his car and Will probably knock the camera over.

Did you get the link left for the 1/32 ?

Michael

[WillyChang]

quote:

i think the only solution is a tripod for the vidcam set up in the right spot. The only problem then is if your mate isn't holding the camera he's out with his car and Will probably knock the camera over.

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oh Yes... I can guarantee that, even if you choose the biggest ever field empty of everything and have just 1 tripod standing there, the car invariably WILL HIT IT.

Its just Law (Newton's vs Murphy's?).

Best pix come from actually sitting/lying down on the grass same level as the car. Aids camera stability too... but think human tripod (target).

[flyby]

Tried the lying down Willy, and yes my friends 10 year old hit me, luckily in the ankle, i think he was aiming for my head

Made me jump (if that's possible when your lying down? hee hee!) , and that's the other problem , when there's a few cars out, you can't keep your eye's on all of them . LOL.

Maybe a head cam is in order so you can just film and control, no zooming in unless something can be rigged up though, and will enevatably shrink your neck / wind your neck in ! aswell as making you look a prat! LMAO

[WillyChang]

RC cars are wasted on kiddies, I wouldn't let anyone drive my cars unless they've got their driver's already.

Then again, I don't know anyone < 20yo anyhow. Old fart...

[jhellman(2)]

Hi,

I think best angle to shoot a car driving is to place the camera as low as you can (lying on the ground). I have a Sony PC-1 which has a small display that can be twisted to any angle you wish - basically you can focus and zoom holding the camera very low without lying on the ground. With that it is fairly easy to get good long action shoots (using zoom wisely).

Using a tripod is not too nice. The movies are boring since there you only get 1-2 seconds action movies (after that car is gone out of the picture). If you focus on a wide area, the car is just a tiny bug in the picture and you cannot really see how gravel is in the air or how is slides on the tarmac.

It certainly needs team work - one guy who nees how to drive and an other who can shoot excellently + understand what is good driving and in what things to focus when shooting.

I think the baseball bat is not the optimal "wife educator" in this sense. Probably it is easier to spend some hours and teach her to shoot properly.

Is there any way to place movies here?

Best regards,

Juha

[flyby]

Well i hereby offer my superb camcorder skills for the price of the bus ticket or air fare! LOL

[WillyChang]

There are other uses of tripods too... you can loosen all the pan/tilt/rotate knobs and just use it to stabilise the camera. There are some pro tripods too that have fluid damping for your motions - though they don't come cheap. Monopods (aka peglegs) are useful too, and give good flexibility.

Modern cameras' "anti-shake" might offer to do the same thing, but sometimes gives funny effects eg. it'll try compensate for the start of your panning, then only realise what you're doing and jumps to movement. I'd usually turn this gadget off.

But yes, definitely need another person to film.

I remember seeing some mid-80s promo videos of how Tamiya made theirs. One had 2-3 guys lying on the back of a 1:1 Hilux and filming through the opened tailgate; truck drove along and the RC cars tagged the truck for that 'front-on' action shot. I think they were doing either the Hotshot or Fox at that time.

[DJTheo]

quote: One had 2-3 guys lying on the back of a 1:1 Hilux and filming through the opened tailgate; truck drove along and the RC cars tagged the truck for that 'front-on' action shot.

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Would be dangerous and hard to do though during the standard dune downhill, or Hilux narrow passing climbs... LOL

http://www.vintagetamiyarc.com/

[WillyChang]

quote:

Would be dangerous and hard to do though during the standard dune downhill, or Hilux narrow passing climbs... LOL

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The videos that Roby has, are they American?? Have never seen those ones before then... maybe MRC commissioned them, using some factory footage? I really dunno!!

The ones I do remember watching are the Japanese ones, they're all shorts like those for the current cars today - No big epics running over 5 mins. Not even sure if they had commentary, probably just background music.