Headcam users

[Vikeonabike]

I've got an Action Cam 3. I'm using Windows Live, don't seem to be able to work out how to zoom into number plates though!

 

[downfader]

I use Corel video studio 12. Theres a new version and you can create still jpegs from a section of video, you can zoom in, cut and paste, add music, al the other stuff windows does.

Sony Vegas used to be good, dont know if that is still being made. Adobe used to make the best "budget video software", but was a couple of hundred

Best way to improve the plates is t get a HD camera. Increased resolution means increased definition. The best cameras I have personally seen are the GoPro Helmet Hero HD (should be picking mine up tomorrow) and the new Contour HD. They tend to have longer battery lives too. The GoPro has the best mounting options i've seen too.

Unfortunately these things require significant investment. You'll be skint or divorce soon if you go down that route, LOL

 

[HLaB]

I've got an Action Cam 3. I'm using Windows Live, don't seem to be able to work out how to zoom into number plates though!

Its in the Animation Tab; I used it on this video a while back to test it out when windows introduced it, bth I haven't used pan & zoom recently.

 

[mumbo jumbo]

Try buying from JensonUSA, the dollar price is the pound price, that is $300 in the US and £300 in the UK.

I nearly bought my ContourRoam from them. Great price but, being from the UK, they wouldn't accept credit card payment. I would have had to wire the money direct to them BEFORE they would even accept my order
Got a decent deal from Expansys in the end.

 

[Matthew_T]

I have just got my Contour HD through the post.

I was worried that the video would be very jerky when I editted it (some people said it would). I was looking at a few other types of software, but elected to give WMM a go. After it did something called 'Preparation' (which took a very long time), I could edit it like I used to do with my old camera.
The picture is exactly the same as I playback the original footage. I havent uploaded anything onto Youtube yet to see how it accepts it (as all I had today was 1 close pass which was at night), but I might do a review on Thursday.

I was contemplating buying a cheap editing software, but it seems they are all quite expensive. WMM will do me fine.

 

[BSRU]

I nearly bought my ContourRoam from them. Great price but, being from the UK, they wouldn't accept credit card payment. I would have had to wire the money direct to them BEFORE they would even accept my order
Got a decent deal from Expansys in the end.

They take Paypal now so no problem buying from the UK.

 

[BentMikey]

One of the best things you can do is spend the $20 or so for QuickTime Pro - this will let you trim clips down quickly to just the section you want to use in your edit.

 

[arallsopp]

One of the best things you can do is spend the $20 or so for QuickTime Pro - this will let you trim clips down quickly to just the section you want to use in your edit.

Slightly off-topic, but does your VIO let you do that on board, Mikey?

 

[BentMikey]

I'm not sure what you mean - it can do loop mode, where you set loop length and it saves only the bits you "record". That's alright, but it drops frames between loop changes, and it doesn't trim as precisely as I want.

With experience, I prefer to record the entire journey and accurately trim to just the bit or bits I want. On the VIO footage, I use virtualdub, this is free. I never managed to get virtualdub trimming HD footage though, which is why I paid up for QT Pro.

 

[BSRU]

I'm not sure what you mean - it can do loop mode, where you set loop length and it saves only the bits you "record". That's alright, but it drops frames between loop changes, and it doesn't trim as precisely as I want.

With experience, I prefer to record the entire journey and accurately trim to just the bit or bits I want. On the VIO footage, I use virtualdub, this is free. I never managed to get virtualdub trimming HD footage though, which is why I paid up for QT Pro.

If you follow the steps on this webpage,
http://forums.steves-digicams.com/e...-videos-eg-kodak-zi8-directly-virtualdub.html

you can edit HD in virtualdub.

 

[jonny jeez]

One of the best things you can do is spend the $20 or so for QuickTime Pro - this will let you trim clips down quickly to just the section you want to use in your edit.

Personally, if you plan to spend £20 on Quick pro, Id go the extra fiver and invest in Sony Vegas Home Studio HD Platinum. its a very comprehensive stater for the full vegas pro and contains everything you need (short of a few animated titles and some very tech stuff) for really good editing and movie making

 

[jonny jeez]

I'm not sure what you mean - it can do loop mode, where you set loop length and it saves only the bits you "record". That's alright, but it drops frames between loop changes, and it doesn't trim as precisely as I want.

With experience, I prefer to record the entire journey and accurately trim to just the bit or bits I want. On the VIO footage, I use virtualdub, this is free. I never managed to get virtualdub trimming HD footage though, which is why I paid up for QT Pro.

or ...if all you want to do is trim and upload at HD then download a free version of "MPEG streamclip"...very simple and quite tool rich

 

[arallsopp]

I'm not sure what you mean - it can do loop mode, where you set loop length and it saves only the bits you "record". That's alright, but it drops frames between loop changes, and it doesn't trim as precisely as I want... With experience, I prefer to record the entire journey and accurately trim to just the bit or bits I want.

Oh. Ok. I use a 'save tags' mode on mine, to do much the same. Tags are seamless markers added into a recording by jabbing the REC/TAG button whilst its already going. Each commute generates 2 files, one being the full recording and the other being an accompanying XML file that identifies the timings for each tag. With the recording complete, I can set a desired clip length and choose 'save tags' to have the interesting bits copied to a new folder, all without transferring or plugging the unit into a computer. I can also 'compile tags' to concatenate all tags into a single new movie. The clips are centered around the tag, so using a 2 minute setting will give me the minute before and after whatever made me hit the button.

QTPro is probably an easier way to do it, but as its all done onboard (and seems to take only a few seconds) I wondered whether you used this feature / had it available.

Andy.

 

[BentMikey]

Oh, yes, the VIO can do tagging. Can't be bothered though, I just want clips of the video incident, without re-rendering, hence the use of virtualdub and QTPro for clipping. I don't want to keep 20GB of footage for each commute, but a few tens or hundreds of MB for each incident is fine.

 

[BentMikey]

Personally, if you plan to spend £20 on Quick pro, Id go the extra fiver and invest in Sony Vegas Home Studio HD Platinum. its a very comprehensive stater for the full vegas pro and contains everything you need (short of a few animated titles and some very tech stuff) for really good editing and movie making

I don't like Sony stuff much, I've chosen to stick to a proper editor when I actually want to edit video. Adobe Premiere is my choice.