Beginner's Guide to Bike Movies

[craigs23]

Hi all,

Thinking of getting a cheap camcorder so I can start compiling some video memories of rideouts/meets/gatherings/back road riding, after watching an awesome variety of biking videos both on this website and others.

I've seen a few reasonably priced second hand camcorders on Ebay, ranging from £50 to £70. Most look in good condition, models that are a couple of years old, but I'm not too worried about that. Just want something cheap and disposable (just in case it falls off the bike or something). Might be good for parties/nights out/mucking around/etc as well.

Should I look for anything in particular? A Mini DV Camera for example. I don't like the look of these Cams with memory sticks in them, quality looks crap, as does the tiny amount of video you can cram onto them. I guess that VHS is old hat now.

Many of the Mini DV cams come with carrying cases, leads, batteries, spare tapes, etc. My ancient PC doesn't have a Firewire socket, so would a USB cable be necessary to upload videos to a PC? Or can I get a Firewire adapter?

Any freebee basic video editors around that I could use to transfer them to file formats (presumably mpegs or wmp files?)

Any other details I should know? Gaffa tape/towels to attach it to the bike maybe?

If anyone has a used cam for sale and no longer has use for it, providing it's in good nick with all the leads, chargers, etc, I would be interested - if the price isn't too steep that is.

Many thanks.

[craigs23]

Just a side note: Can anyone explain a Leyman's guide to the actual workings of such a transfer. I.e., you have recorded footage on a DV Tape, how would this be successfully transfered to digital format to be used on a PC? Is it just a case of linking a USB/Firewire cable into the camcorde and uploading the footage through a video capture device? I have a TV card on my PC, would this come in handy?

Sorry, completely new to this kind of thing.

[MarJay]

Hi,
First off, most people on this forum use semi professional video editing software which can cost anywhere from £50 to £1000+.

There are a couple of free ones out there but I have no idea how good they are.

Secondly, if you want to easily transfer it to PC, then you want a Mini DV camera. Ideally, in order to use a bullet cam you'll need analogue in - which as a feature is like hens teeth on MiniDV cams. You WILL need firewire, and I don't think you can adapt it via USB. If you have a spare PCI slot, then a firewire card can be had for around £10-15.

The other way to go about it is to buy a video capture card, which are expensive and a lot of hassle. The simplest way is to use firewire and MiniDV.

I wouldn't gaffa tape the camera to the bike, nor would I use towels. I'd keep the camera in a bag and use the bullet cam, or I'd use a sturdy camera mount.

When you use firewire to upload video, generally the video editing software takes control of the camcorder via the firewire port and plays out the video raw over the firewire cable. Once you have this raw footage you may edit it.

You mention having an ancient PC, well my PC struggles with the raw data that gets dragged over due to the sheer amount of it. I have a 120gb HD with around 90gb free, and my PC still struggles... You'll need a big HD.

HTH.
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F; Cheap project: CBR900RR FireBlade
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[18aprilia]

i used duck tape once to make a tank cam big mistake... and i use window moviemaker wouldn't have thought it tho would ya? im just to good!

infact you could learn a few things from me! if u get stuck for ideas Pm
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[craigs23]

Cheers for the tips, looking into buying a proper camera mount off a fourm member for £20, should do the trick?

Also looking for Mini DV cameras - do they use tapes as opposed to memory cards - would like something that could record a decent amount of footage, how much can you fit onto a DV? Secondary HDD is a maybe as well as a PCI Firewire card plus leads. Apart from the software, is there anything else I should need?

Are Mini DVs new enough to all have PC compatibility, or are they model specific.

Many thanks so far.

[Bendy]

Mini DV is usually 90 mins to a tape, on long play.

My dv cam will transfer via usb2 so firewire isn't essential. Equally you can usually get analogue camcorders cheaper than digital ones, just buy yourself an analogue capture card to use with it.

Windows Movie Maker comes with XP, will be fine for getting started.

You don't need that brilliant a computer to handle video editing IMO, as long as you're prepared for it to be a bit slow. I was doing it a few years ago on a 500Mhz machine with a 10gb hard drive, just meant I'd leave stuff to render overnight rather than doing it in minutes.

How you attach your camera to your bike depends on how much you care about your camera and what kind of shots you want. I'm not a fan of fixed mounts personally, I prefer having a bullet cam I can stick in interesting places. But plenty people have shot interesting stuff by simply taping a camera onto the back seat, sticking it in a tank bag, wherever you like. Just need to experiment.

[Smoto Bob]

I still think for the money a digital photo camrea that take continus videos is allot cheapers and easyer/smaller. I can get 30min on my 512meg card. Even at 640x480 still looks fairly resonable and allot simpler

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[A J]

If you want some software to make the video just pm me and i will give you some sites and programmes that will allow you to download them for free.

[craigs23]

Cheers, I'll be in touch AJ as I'm still running Windows 2000 (along with a 1600 computer with 512mb of ram).

There's a Mini DV Cam I'm watching on Ebay atm and is going for a decent price, though the seller hasn't got back to me on what output sockets it's got. Am I looking for anything in particular in regards to output sockets?

Failing that, I've found a couple of shops with bundled software/drivers/cables, bit more than I expected to pay though.

[G]

Do think about what you're making.
While some people seem to like them, I've seen a few videos recetly that have been very dull in my opinion.
Observe bendy's editing style, subtle, but well put together and everything fits in well and 'works'.

If you're just doing it for your sake, fair enough.
However if it's for other people to download, a lot more thought is required in my opinion.

Do expect it be a lot of hassle and time to produce decent results. I've done stuff myself before, and the editing does take a while, ignoring the rendering time.
Also, it's a lot of fuss to get everything in time, ie transitions in time with music, which also has to be the right length and ambience.

[craigs23]

Thanks G. Fear not, most of my videos are just for the purpose of having a collection of good rideouts/meets/events/parties/mates/etc, a majority of which will never be posted on the net.

I covered a couple of video editing projects back at Uni, but that was with Macs and iMovie - also, in hindsight, I should have paid more attention to the hardware used - instead of messing around in Director so much.

It's not going to be anything serious, just messing around in my free time really; hence why I'm not budgeting a lot for this little endeavor.

[Rookie]

I made a documentary for my AS Media coursework, a Powermac and iMovie are so good it's unbelievable, even if it's 3 years old. SUCH a good system.

Pinnacle Studio is a good Windows based program, you can order the CD for a trial, or you can download the full thing less than legally, I expect.

Mini DV is still the easiest budget way to do this, and the cameras are smaller these days. Then it's case of plugging into the socket and uploading to PC via firewire. A firewire cable can be bought for about £3 off eBay, and a card for about £12. Your HDD space is the major issue here, as the quality is so high it uses up shedloads of space. However provided you have about 20GB free and delete the original very high quality file, you should be fine.

[Kickstart]

Hi

Editing video eats hard disk space. Rapidly. Like a hungry pack of wolves.

Anyway, Firewire cards are quite cheap. However if you can take going into PC World they are currently selling a Firewire card with cable and Pinicle Studio 9 for £25 which is a pretty good deal (ignore their Firewire cards on their own which cost way more than this bundle).

All the best

Keith
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[divuk83]