Hi all,
So i have treated myself to a new GoPro2 cam & have been out today testing. Problem i have is with the footage being quite shakey. Is this normal, or am i doing something wrong? I have the camera mounted on top of my helmet filming skiing. Admitedly the conditions were not ideal today, but certainly not that bad that i would have expected the footage to be as bad as it was. There doesn't seem to be anything loose with the connection. The camera itself seems tight inside the housing. My helmet may be a little loose perhaps, but i wouldn't have thought there would have been as much shake in the shots as there is.
When i look at all the footage on the internet, it all seems so incredibly stable. I guess it must be my set up. I will try some different settings in the camera like 720/60 to see if that will make a difference, also changing it from the wide to medium FOV to see if that will make a difference. I was just wondering if anyone else has had the same problems i have, & been able to fix them & get the footage that is so prevalant on the internet with the GoPro.

Thanks in advance,
Bryce

The medium field of view should be shakier than the wide field of view

720p 60 will make a huge difference, but so will a tight helmet strap and no movement in the quick connect mounts which have a a fair amount of play in them. Use a piece of electrical tape inside the quick connect to eliminate the movement.

Also the position of the camera on the helmet affects shakiness. Top will be most shaky, side mounted next to the ear the least.

Skiers get good results from the chest mount as well mounted high up level with the shoulders. They also use 50% slow mo to mask the shaky motion.

Good luck with the next shoot.

R

Excellent suggestions guys, thank you very much. I will check all the parts to the mounts (i was hearing some noises in the playback that sounded like there was movement in the mount) & also try a mount on the side of the helmet. Sounds like 720/60P in the widest mode will be the best recording option.
Again, thanks for the input, i will let you know how i get on.

Regards,

Bryce

If you have adobe after effects you can use the warp stabilizer effect to smooth out your footage. It won't be perfect, especially if the footage is very shaky, but it will help a lot!

Being setup for capturing action, the shutter speed is quite high on these little gems. Not sure if there's a way to reduce the shutter speed, but if you can get it closer to the "180 degree" point (30p = 1/60th), some of the strobiness will go away. Adding weight to the camera will help the inherent shakiness go away as well. Lighter things are more prone to sudden micro-movements as they don't have the static inertial mass to resist the movement.

There is no shutter control on POV cams and 1/60 would not be suitable anyway, too much motion blur with a camera that is subject to lot's of movement. If the camera is mounted to something like a car window and filming ahead, sure, a few ND's to bring the shutter down will blur the road surface and scenery as it passes and the center of the frame will be sharp. Otherwise POV mounted cameras are best with high shutter. and is preferred if you are going to use stabilizing software like Mercali etc.

R