Jump to content

powerlord

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    274

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    49

 Content Type 

Posts posted by powerlord

    Loch Lomond Flight

    in Paramotoring Videos & Aerial photography

    Posted

    Just in case some folk don't know:

    I do all my videos now in very high quality 1080p. I really is worth watching

    full screen in 1080p if you have a decent computer (even if your screen is not

    1080p).

    Also, it is worth updating your browser to the latest version - Safari, Firefox,

    IE, Chrome sand Opera all support HTML5 video now. You can configure youtube to

    use it here:

    http://www.youtube.com/html5

    It uses CONSIDERABLY less CPU than flash video, and those on slower computers

    may find it is just the thing for allowing them to watch higher resolution

    videos full screen.

    Anyhoo, on with the show:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMZ8sIDZH9U

    stu

    1000 ft/min climb above the clouds in 5 mins.

    in Paramotoring Videos & Aerial photography

    Posted

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohPji0SNBaA

    not the most exciting 5 minutes you are ever gonna have in your life, but I

    think it is pretty amazing that we can wander into a field with nothing more

    than some stuff strapped to our back, and 5 minutes later be above the clouds.

    1000 ft/min climb to 5000 feet in 5 minutes.

    what a truly amazing sport.

    stu

    p,s, please don't post embedded link* - I prefer people to come to my channel, browse, comment, etc,

    as well as more easily see my videos in 1080p as they are intended.

    *I know I can ban embedding, but I prefer the softly softly approach :-)

    Go pro endurance

    in Paramotoring Videos & Aerial photography

    Posted

    First set goPro to start recording when switched on. Then you just need to hold front button down for 5 secs to start or stop.

    Second I just use the wee mirror I have for checking fuel if I need to confirm it is recOrding - LCD and light flashing

    Or build a headup display then you see it recording and format etc on the screen :-)

    Head up display mod for goproHD

    in Paramotoring Videos & Aerial photography

    Posted

    stuHUD ?

    anyhoo, here's the video:

    no more looking at my gopro footage to find I have mostly sky or mostly ground,

    and should make wing shots easier.

    I can even plug in a wifi module to see output of a chasecam, but seemed a bit

    overkill, since there was bog all I could do to change position of camera then,

    so kept it simple.

    should be flying this weekend so will give it a thorough testing.

    stu

    Ben nevis and the Scottish Tour

    in Paramotoring Videos & Aerial photography

    Posted

    Dan - its a manfrotto monopod used backwards with the go pro mounted on the thin 'foot'.

    Retracted it is about the same length as my swingarm and is velcroed to the side of the swing arm when not in use - basically can just be forgotten about, doesn't get in way at take off or landing. There is a retracting lanyard attached to the front of swing arm and fat end of monopod securing it in case I drop it etc. I did used to use a longer monopod but it was more of a pain when stored as it came out about a foot from swing arm so I find this one a good compromise between a pocket monopod which only extends 4 feet and free rotates so the gopro has to be balanced on it or slides upside down and the long 6 foot one. Extended it is about 5 feet.

    Ian - I know what u mean. Though when I was flying loch earn across the mountains it was more remote. I was glad I had a personal lOcation beacon with me for emergencies

    scotland - Moffat and Oban

    in Paramotoring Videos & Aerial photography

    Posted

    cheers Gary - was thinking the same thing about your ones yesterday - love the way you get the wing in some of them - whats your kit/lens/etc ?

    yup - took off from campsite with their permission.

    The weather lasted about 3 hours - pissed rain that night, and was pissing rain and blowing a gale during that day - I was out with the wind meter every 30 mins that day waiting for the right moment for a break in the weather.

    that's the first pics I've taken with a DSLR - really liked the way they came out I must admit.

    Looking forward to flying around there again.

    stu

    Las Candelas 2010 Paramotor Festival - 6 months late!

    in Paramotoring Videos & Aerial photography

    Posted

    Las Candelas 2010 - Jan/Feb this year.

    Apologies for it taking me 6 months to edit this together.

    I moved to new hardware (gopro HD, macbook pro, etc)

    I moved to new software (final cut pro)

    My dog ate the original edits.

    etc.

    However, with no further delays, here is my first real effort at a 'Paramotor music video'.

    HD: so if stuttery, yer PC is slow - reduce to 360p and wait for buffer again.

    It IS set to music - most of the delay was spending weeks editing it to something, then deciding something different worked better and starting again.

    So - get the speakers on.

    Sorry for the ads - its the music licencing - just click the X once to close :-)

    comments as always, welcome.

    Next - the outtakes reel. I promise that won't take another 6 months!

    atb

    stu

    Camera which one and why

    in Paramotoring Videos & Aerial photography

    Posted

    Some fab videos here!

    http://www.goprocamera.com/

    indeed.

    if u want a paramotor one - the one I posted in the snow a few days ago was shot with the gopro.

    I've not tried stills yet to be honest. early indications are they are 'ok', nothing great - only a little better than the stills you can grab from the video (which are pretty decent anyway - the smugmug snow ones are stills from the video).

    what I would say, is that unless you are going for a fisheye like the gopro - getting a camera with a decent optical (not digital) stabiliser is very very worthwhile for flying - and the lumix one is really great imho.

    stu

    Camera which one and why

    in Paramotoring Videos & Aerial photography

    Posted

    I shoot stills with my lumix fx37. before that fx12. I have shot some with my FZ30, but to be honest I find the compact easier than the bridge when flying - too much movement to use the 12x zoom.

    The fx37 shoots 720p video too.

    Actually I have 2 of these - that was what I shot my 3d paragliding video with ( 2 next to each other).

    My Las Candelas video was shot with the FX37:

    I find it great for still too with the really wide angle lense - I usually have it on burst mode, and can take 5 or 6 pics in a few seconds guaranteeing one in focus.

    course if you just want video, I love my goproHD now - but for versatility, I love the lumix range.

    I don't think bridge cameras are well suited to aerial photography - I reckon the choice is either compact or DLSR (for the faster shutter speeds and focusing). But I get all the stills I need from the lumixs.

    All the aerial stills on my smugmug are with lumixes (expect the gopro stills):

    http://powerlord.smugmug.com/

    I've also got some comparison shots between the bridge FZ30 and compact FX12.

    stu

    Fleein' High over the hills ay scotland

    in Paramotoring Videos & Aerial photography

    Posted

    Here's a video of a flight I made in Lanarkshire last week in scotland.

    Love your production company name as well :D - some of the locals must have thought that when they saw you flying overhead in such cold conditions...

    Cheers,

    Andy

    Funny enough the bloke down the road is ex-military, now police firearms. He had 2 mates up visiting - both ex-SAS. Apparently they both professed that they thought I was 'f*cking mental"

    which I take as a compliment :-)

    Fleein' High over the hills ay scotland

    in Paramotoring Videos & Aerial photography

    Posted · Edited by Guest

    Here's a video of a flight I made in Lanarkshire last week in scotland.

    I'm taking off from a little village called Kilncadzow where my parents live and I grew up. You then see me

    flying over New Lanark (a world heritage model town built in 1785), before flying over Lee Castle, then doing

    a fly over of the village for the locals - look closely was some waving people.

    Taking off was a bit tricky, involving running with my knees up to get my feet clear of 14" of snow with

    every step. It was interesting after landing to look at my footsteps getting further and further apart as I

    accelerated for take off.

    [youtubevideo]

    [/youtubevideo]

    It was shot on my goPro HD at setting r3 (1280x960) 4:3 for the vertical FoV, and then squished to 16:9 as I

    think it works well with the very wide fov and fish eye.

    I did try a semi-unfished version, but the effect of pushing mid distance objects further away detracts from

    the effect I think, so I have stuck with this version. The audio levels were a bit better on that one though,

    but I'd uploaded it by then, so tough. I will take some stills from both version later and post them, so you

    can see more clearly what de-fishing does - basically thing of projecting a picture on the back of a spoon

    (fish eye), projecting on front of spoon (defish).

    This was the first video I've taken with the goPro, so a bit of an experiment as much as anything.

    I also wanted to find the best settings for the gopro, but also for youtube, and also find youtube's

    limitations regarding mac codec.

    GoPro wise - a variable bit rate H264 encode, 2 pass, average 4MB, peak 10MB seems to maintain the full

    quality of the 16MB goPro native video.

    You can see this 'master' edit (i.e. same as on youtube but proper higher quality as you get out of the

    gopro) here (direct download - no mucking with entering codes, etc) :

    http://premium.fileden.com/premium/2010 ... now720.mp4

    You'll notice differences with YouTube in areas where colour variation is small - youtube will introduce

    banding and blocking across areas like the sky. And also where there is massive amounts of detail, such as

    taking of and landing with all the details in the snow - this becomes blocky and blurry on youtube, but

    maintains its definition on my upload. YouTube footage still looks decent, but basically YouTube re-encodes

    to Constant Bit rate 2.5MB - so resultant file on youtube ends up being half the size of mine.

    Finally, if you want to see some defished footage it is only in master edit here:

    http://premium.fileden.com/premium/2010 ... ow720b.mp4

    - there is a bug in the edit with a bit duplicated, but I have left it uploaded for folk to look at the

    defish. You will see I've only partially defished - more than that and I'd start to lose significant details

    from the sides and top, AND the centre of the frame would be reduced even more, losing too much detail. I

    think the defish does make it a bit less goldfish bowl like, but in the end I stuck with the original one I

    updated to YouTube.

    I don't want to put the other one on youtube, there ain't much point.

    comments (and ratings!) welcome!

    stu

×
×
  • Create New...