UKC

I was going to post a reply on the GoPro thread that I started but it appears that the subject has been locked. No worries.

http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=611573

Towards the end of the discussion ChrisJD posted a couple of links to some action vids that he created. At the time I commented that like so many GoPro/mobius movies taken, I got distracted from the subject matter by the camera shake. This was by no means a criticism aimed at ChrisJD but rather the nature of the beast when holding a small light camera in your hand and something which put me off my own video offerings.

At the time I mentioned that I was considering buying a hand-held gimbal to try and eliminate camera shake. Well the gimbal arrived a couple of weeks ago and I've had a chance to play with it. I chose a gimbal that would take my mobile phone rather than specifically buying one dedicated to using a GoPro. My intention is to design an attachment that will accept my Mobius. That way I will have the best of both worlds by using my phone and my small action camera.

Enough of all that, does it work?

I think it does, and I'm more than happy with the results. Even though I have created two short vids of mundane subjects, I have to say that I am impressed with how stable the results were. Admittedly there is not much in the way of action on the capturing of the footage, however I can report that a friend tested the gimbal by pointing the phone out of the car window while driving on an exceptionally bumpy road. The results were of a smooth video of the road ahead of us.

My next test is to duct-tape the gimbal to my mate's mountain bike and see what happens from there. I may even take it bouldering over the next few weeks to.

Good bye camera shake.

Here's a couple of youtubes of my limited directorial skills. However I hope that you focus on the steadiness of the video, rather than the boring subject matter.

youtube.com/watch?v=n9VLldYW0yc&

youtube.com/watch?v=tp4WeYgWL6E&

In reply to The Lemming:

Looks a lot better than nothing. Pretty portable too.

I'm a bit disappointed you didn't get a full sized steadycam though.

In reply to The Lemming:

There's a slight fidgity motion apparent when you're holding the gimbal nearly stationary, probably just a function of the actuator resolution (model aircraft servos or stepper motors?) but I suspect that will disappear into the general background motion once attached to something moving a bit quicker.

Can't you get software to do this these days?

jk

In reply to The Lemming:

The first video sways around a bit and makes me feel a bit giddy TBH.

In reply to The Lemming:



It'd have been funny if the dog pushed your mate off the tree!

In reply to Lusk:

Twas I in the tree.



As for the other comments above, I too have noticed some juddering/stepping. Not too sure if this is a problem of the gimbal or the phone but I suspect the phone. I am going to make a gizmo which will let me use the Möbius and see if that makes a difference.

But on the whole, the footage is superior to holding my phone/camera by hand.

Still learning the gimbal's limitations.

I will still probably try to build one but with only two motors so I can mount it to a moving vehicle like a bike.

In reply to The Lemming:


That would've been even funnier!

In reply to The Lemming:

Not sure what Gimbal it is, but I think that shake when stationary is likely to be that the camera is not balanced well for the motors. You may also find that there's a different firmware you can use for the control board to reduce the problem.

In reply to balmybaldwin:
Thanks for the ideas which I will look into over the coming weeks.

As for the camera being properly balanced, I'm guessing that this is more the issue as the gimbal is designed for a broad range of devices rather than one specific product like a gopro.

A bit of fine tuning is required on my part there.

Cheers


http://swiftcam.com/#/mobile/m3l

In reply to The Lemming:

Just made jigg to allow me to use my Möbius with the swiftcam. I wanted to see if I still got jerky movements while panning and I can report that the Möbius movements are as smooth as butter.

I'm guessing that the test shots with the jerky movements boil down to a phone trying to be a video recorder. Jack of all master non sort of thing.

I'm even more impressed with the swiftcam going off the Möbius.

In reply to The Lemming:

Well here's a test video of the mobius + Swiftcam. The footage is quite bland but it looks a lot more smooth than using the phone. I have a feeling that the settings were wrong on the phone. However I shall have a play tomorow while climbing.

youtube.com/watch?v=skGptPsGsU8&