Glidecam 2000 Pro car driving sample

[iotatau]

6:15 min MP4 clip (720p, 25 fps), 223 MByte
http://hv20.info/yopu/a100.mp4
No sound.

Hi,

I have used the HV20 and the Glidecam 2000 Pro to create car driving sample footage. The route is on Berlin highways A 100 and A 115 as shown in this Google Maps view (http://tinyurl.com/2l5nh2). For those who don't know the Glidecam yet it is a system to stabilize a camcorder and to reduce the effect of camera shake. The manufacturer Glidecam Industries (http://www.glidecam.com/) offers details on features and also some sample clips.

The shake reduction in my clip isn't perfect but in my view it's good for the money. My entry Glidecam model is about $350. Gyro systems start at $5000-$10000 and the original Steadicam is about $50000, as far as I know (and I wouldn't be able to operate a Steadicam on a co-driver's seat).

Yes, I could have cleaned the windshield but on the other hand the spots are a good indicator how much a camcorder would jump around if it was mounted to the car in a fixed position. On bad roads such as in national pothole leader Berlin an average drive quickly becomes a volatile affair.

Slight postprocessing in Movie Edit Pro, exported with the Main Concept MPEG-4 Encoder (AVC).

[zephyrnoid]

Movie didn't open for me. Just a page of garbled code. Sorry

[TeamToken]

didnt work in quicktime for me, then used windows media player, half worked, was really choppy and kept freezing.

i just downloaded 220MB of nothingness

[iotatau]

zephyrnoid, TeamToken,

Sorry to hear that the download didn't work for you. I just downloaded the clip myself again. It plays without any problems on my machine. I can also offer a low-bandwidth version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDdhXwUgdmY) with really bad YouTube quality.

For the HV20 forum version I used the Main Concept (http://www.mainconcept.com/) MPEG-4 encoder which is based on the ISO standard MPEG-4 AVC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC). It plays flawlessly in Windows Media Player 11, VLC Media Player 0.8.6 (http://www.videolan.org/) and DivX Player 6.5. QuickTime Player 7.2 is too slow, though, and there's no output at all in RealPlayer 10.5. I would especially recommend to get the VLC Player.

One point is that AVC/H.264 requires a lot of CPU power so you'll need a somewhat current PC. I have an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+. Many old machines are too slow and fail to produce any output. It was necessary to use AVC for this clip because otherwise at 720p the file size would have exceeded the 250 MB upload limit.

P.S. A friend of mine has thankfully tested the clip on his Mac Pro which is a totally different environment compared to my Vista PC. The clip played well with his QuickTime Player and also VLC. Apparently QuickTime was slightly choppy, VLC smooth. So if the clip doesn't play it's not a problem of bad encoding or a broken upload but a matter of insufficient hardware or missing/outdated software.

[cmaikai]

The Glidecam seemed to work pretty well considering the car was bouncing up and down so much. I was thinking of getting a Glidecam 4000 Pro or a Steadicam Merlin when I get my HV20.

[iotatau]

Hi,


The Glidecam seemed to work pretty well considering the car was bouncing up and down so much.

Yes, I was quite satisfied compared to my handheld trials. Maybe there are experienced camera operators who don't need a stabilizing system for car scenes but I found my car footage without Glidecam unusable.


I was thinking of getting a Glidecam 4000 Pro or a Steadicam Merlin when I get my HV20.

The Glidecam 2000 has a specified camera weight range of 0.7 to 2.8 kg. To my surprise the difficulty with the HV20 is to reach the minimum weight. Only when I add a Manfrotto quick release plate, the Canon wide angle converter and a heavier battery the top becomes heavy enough. The Glidecam 4000 Pro has a weight range of 1.8 to 4.5 kg. I'd only choose it if you are sure you can reach the minimum weight by additional equipment like an external display.

I didn't choose the Merlin because it costs more than twice as much; I have no experience with it. If you have access to a shop where you can try both it would be ideal.

One more point: if you can afford it I would consider to buy the kit with the body support vest, the Glidecam Smooth Shooter. For me it's just on the wish list, I have to do without. The duration of the posted clip is about the maximum I am able to hold the Glidecam 2000 with mounted HV20 whereas I have heard of people who record events for a whole day with the Smooth Shooter.

[cmaikai]

Ah, thanks for the tip. :)

[mdw]

Very nice smooth video. I would definitely like the exposure to be locked. Also, if the frame did not include your car the impression of smoothness of the footage would be improved.

-mdw