Mounted a camera, pictures are terrible

[FJRski_2007]

I have a 2007 FJR and I have mounted a digital camera on it. I used RAM Mounts, which mount to the clutch lever. But, there was too much vibration and images did not come out clear.

What would you recommend? Is there something better that I can use?

Thanks.

 

[Leskid]

My buddy has one of these and it's the best gadget I've seen. It's called gopro hero

excellent video quality, 170 degree wide angle lens (best for car/bike action videos), comes with a whole whack of mounting options in the box and best of all, they're CHEAP. A lot of guys mount-up up to 5-6 of these all over their bikes and edit the footage to make amazing videos. Look at the samples on the gopro website. My buddy's records video with the same image quality you see here.

click for gopro hero sample vids

they're a dime a dozen on ebay. I'm trying to find a Canadian vendor with 2 in stock

Also, forum member Bungie has a really cool get-up that acts like a PVR which is also very cool. But for $300 to get TWO cameras recording with great image quality, I'm getting a couple of gopros

 

[Ignacio]

Mount to something not on the handlebars prone to oscillation. Maybe mount to the fairing, tank, helmet or possibly a slider?

 

[johnny80s]

Just do like Old Michael. Hold it in your hand and take pictures one handed Make sure you get a bright yellow helmet so when you drive off a cliff (cause you are only using one hand) they emergency teams will be able to find you.

 

[majicmaker]

My buddy has one of these and it's the best gadget I've seen. It's called gopro hero
excellent video quality, 170 degree wide angle lens (best for car/bike action videos), comes with a whole whack of mounting options in the box and best of all, they're CHEAP. A lot of guys mount-up up to 5-6 of these all over their bikes and edit the footage to make amazing videos. Look at the samples on the gopro website. My buddy's records video with the same image quality you see here.

click for gopro hero sample vids

they're a dime a dozen on ebay. I'm trying to find a Canadian vendor with 2 in stock

Also, forum member Bungie has a really cool get-up that acts like a PVR which is also very cool. But for $300 to get TWO cameras recording with great image quality, I'm getting a couple of gopros

Damn! Those Videos were crystal clear! That was AWESOME!! :yahoo:

 

[Silent]

I love my GoPro Hero B)

 

[Leskid]

I love my GoPro Hero B)

got any FJR videos we can take a look at?

 

[JamesK]

Does anyone know if the, I guess earlier models (3.0 Mega pixels) able to support the 4GB SD cards? I don't particularly care about 3 vs 5 Mega pixels given the price differential, but do want more space.

 

[Silent]

I love my GoPro Hero B)

got any FJR videos we can take a look at?

Unfortunatly, my old computer SUCKED at video editing. Haven't tried yet with my new computer. So all I have at the moment are way to big to post. I may give the video editing a shot on the new system when I get home.

Does anyone know if the, I guess earlier models (3.0 Mega pixels) able to support the 4GB SD cards? I don't particularly care about 3 vs 5 Mega pixels given the price differential, but do want more space.

My GoPro will not support 4 gig cards. I switch cards and batteries at the same time. 2 gig cards are dirt cheap.

 

[FJRski_2007]

I really like the Motorsports HERO Wide unit, where would you mount it on the FJR?

 

[happyPuppy]

The camera will support the SDHC cards currently, but the video can be no longer than 2 gigs each, so you have to check it and start it again. They have been promising a firmware update "really soon " to support longer than 2 gig videos since January. Here is the best video I have seen done with the camera and its abilities. Not bad for a slightly over $100.00 USD camera

I use the big suction mount on the lower faring to mount it at

 

[jzzmusician]

I think you're headed down a slippery slope if you want good pictures from a motorcycle.

What you have basically done is mount a camera, solidly, to a blender that is vibrating like crazy. In order to get a sharp picture you're going to need a shutter speed in excess of 1/5000 of a second. I may be low. You may need a faster shutter speed.

With today's cameras, you'd be hard pressed to find one that's remotely affordable that would have a shorter shutter duration than say 1/8000. Even then, you'd have to dial the iso so high that the noise in the picture would probably be too much and the picture would suffer.

So what do you do? You have to isolate the camera from vibration. I've been pondering that for awhile and don't have any good, safe ideas. I handhold. I know, probably not the best, but holding the camera isolates vibration.

Then you have speed to think about. The faster you go the faster the shutter speed has to be and the greater the vibration isolation needs to be.

It's a pain in the ass.

Yes, you can get one of those helmet mounted cams, but in my limited experience, a print of 4x6 is about maximum. Okay for web viewing, but a little light if you actually want to make prints.

Two small cameras that are possible to handhold and have potentially excellent results, (assuming you do your part) are the Canon G10, and the Panasonic Lumix LX3. Semi pricey, but good quality. In some instances you could probably print to 13x19.

Here is a quick snap taken last month with the Canon G10. I hand held it, and the shutter speed was 1/2000 of a second. It is reasonably sharp considering I was probably going 60-70 mph. I could probably get an 8x10 out of it. It won't look as good here on the web because of downsizing.

Bob

 

[timk]

I use a ram mount on the stem nut. movies were good. Pics were crappy at first, then switched to a "sports" shutter speed and all was well.

 

[Silent]

They camera will support the SDHC cards currently, but the video can be no longer than 2 gigs each, so you have to check it and start it again. They have been promising a firmware update "really soon " to support longer than 2 gig videos since January. Here is the best video I have seen done with the camera and its abilities. Not bad for a slightly over $100.00 USD camera

Now I don't have to play with my video editing software on the new computer yet B)

 

[FJRski_2007]

I think stem mount is the way to go, but I have a GPS mounted on it, so this is why I mounted my Canon on the clutch handle bar. Even with high ISO, images were terrible, too much noise.

I use a ram mount on the stem nut. movies were good. Pics were crappy at first, then switched to a "sports" shutter speed and all was well.

 

[Leskid]

not knocking any different approaches, since the point of a forum is to hear varying opinions on subjects

just consider that the heavier the camera, the more work it takes to isolate it from vibration. That's why those little gopros (they weigh 4.9 oz) come with an assortment of ultralight mounting HW options and suffer little from vibration, on account of their size / weght. I supposed that's why such small units get such good results.

If you can manage to use a stem mount or fuel filler mount AND mount your camera to it without all the vibration, I imagine you can get even better results. But a like automotvie GPSes, 'traditional' cameras aren't designed to endure sustained vibration and shocks.

Those little gopros are shockproof & waterproof so even if you ditch while filiming, at least you'll have the moment saved, for posterity's sake. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to replay & see the white in the eyes of the forest rat that takes you out?

 

[rickcorwn]

I think stem mount is the way to go, but I have a GPS mounted on it, so this is why I mounted my Canon on the clutch handle bar. Even with high ISO, images were terrible, too much noise.

Move the GPS to the clutch ram mount and the camera to the stem mount.

 

[FJRski_2007]

That is a good idea, but I would need 14 inch adapter if I mounted on the stem mount.

I think stem mount is the way to go, but I have a GPS mounted on it, so this is why I mounted my Canon on the clutch handle bar. Even with high ISO, images were terrible, too much noise.

Move the GPS to the clutch ram mount and the camera to the stem mount.

 

[PhilMills]

I think stem mount is the way to go, but I have a GPS mounted on it, so this is why I mounted my Canon on the clutch handle bar. Even with high ISO, images were terrible, too much noise.

As a part time photographer, let me edit that for you: "Because of high ISO, images were terrible, too much noise." The higher your ISO setting, the more light-sensitive the camera becomes, but you're trading out for more noise - there's no free lunches in photography.

Pedantic mode on:

The goal of photography from a technical standpoint is to get enough light onto the film to let it see the image you want it to. You get 3 knobs to twiddle for this: ISO ("film" sensitivity), shutter speed and aperture (how big a hole you're letting light through). Each knob has a specific trade-off you're making for that light.

ISO trades light-sensitivity for noise (digital) or grain (film). An ISO200 film/setting needs much more light to correctly expose the image, but is very low noise. ISO 1600 requires much less light, but is very noisy in comparison. Fancier digital cameras can help with this (Nikon's D300 is reported to be "usable" above ISO6400, for instance) but the trade is still there.

Shutter speed trades motion blur. The longer the shutter is open, the more light you get... but the more likely it is for your image subject to change (this is the big fight for motorcycle photography, especially with the FJR).

Aperture trades a bigger hole (more light) for depth of field. My F/1.4 lens setting is a pretty enormous hole in the front of the camera, but at that setting I'm only able to get a few inches of depth in focus (the subject's nose hair is nice and clear, but the ears are blurry). At F/22, there's less light, but the amount of focal depth is much, much deeper - the person right in front of me is in focus and so's the rest of the park behind her).

As a photographer, your job is to figure out the balance of those knobs that gets you closest to the picture you want (or you cheat and add more light with a flash, but that's not entirely practical on a motorcycle). Camera presets will put the settings into the ballpark for particular types of shots - sports photos typically want to freeze the action, so it needs a very short shutter speed... and so the camera typically dials the ISO settings up to allow that; portraits like to have the background blurred out, so the camera selects a smaller aperture... but then needs to drop the ISO sensitivity and/or shutter speed so the big hole doesn't let too much light into the image and over expose it.

Pedantic mode off.