My Sony camera takes videos with sound.

The biggest drawback is the auto focus. If people are moving too fast, it takes way too long to re-adjust. Most of my videos are way too dark, but I used a program called Pinnacle Studio 9 (http://www.pinnaclesys.com/) to brighten it up a bit.

The program is REALLY intuitive. I had never played around with it before tonight and popped out this video in about five minutes. It is compressed down from the original 15 meg MPG to about a 4 meg wmv now. Also, I put in the "Magic” hand in.

When you see the hand flash across the screen, the video will return to its original darkness before I added some brightness to it. This was one of the better lit videos overall though and that is why I chose this one to experiment with.

Let us try that again.

\attach(YY}

Man I can be stupid sometimes.

Alright,

Here is another one of Yum Yum.

It is not brightened, I will get around to it later. This was originally 62 megs from the camera. Keep in mind these videos are not the best quality to begin with and I am compacting them quite a bit to make for a more practical download. And the videos were taken from a camera that is mainly meant for pictures.

I just realy like watching this chick dance. She always had TONS of energy...KM is a lucky guy...

Fun flix.

E

Very nice Xen, thanks for the info and link. I also love clips of gals dancing, can't get enough of watching great dancers.

The pinnacle media center 100e program actually looks pretty good for me, and the price seems right. I'm wondering if this program compresses and stores the videos on your hard drive or do you need to get a separate one?

That sony must pack a wallop if you're getting 62 meg and 15 meg videos. I'm actually interested in the sony-mini-dvd digital video camera (DCR-HC20) that is micro-size with a patented nightshot function (some sort of infrared thing for lowlight videos). I may get it and test it out with the pinnacle system.

Nice vids Xen, especially if it is taken with a still camera. I hope we see more vids from you in the future!

The lightening filter that Pinnacle uses was excellent. Pinnacle is a very simple and easy to use program.

Perhaps the simplest technique I've found to get better lighting in lowlight conditions? Put your backlight setting 'on'. This immediately tells the camera to adjust lighting to ignore the background. Also, changing the focus to manual would've helped a lot in that situation where she wasn't really moving to and from the camera very much.

Merlin
I've had 5 vidcams, and experimented with all of the nightshot features. Generally they tend to do either of two things:
1. Turn into a black and white, or
2. Turn into a flickering nickelodean style film with good color but not good results.

The best thing you can do is to get a 3 or 10 watt light attachment. I prefer the 10w.

Oh, and to get better focus in lowlight, change the focus setting from multi to spot, and keep your subject in the center of the screen at all times.

Keep on filmin dudes
DeeG

DeeG

Xen's pics were taken with a digital still camera with video built in.

Perhaps he could travel with a "snake light". Another option would be a 3 cell Mag-lite (preferably with the vibrating option...).

E

Xen
Does thie program rotate videos ? As you know I heve several of Yum Yum dancing that I took with the cam in a vertical mode. I forgot they would come out " sideways". If not does anyone know how to rotate video clips ?

Yum Yum blew away the dancers at every bar we went to. Whenever she danced- all the girls on stage would stop dancing and just watch her. The cousins told me she tried out for the SEX Bomb dancers and was the last girl eliminated before the final troupe was selected. I believe it after seeing the Sex Bomb dancers on Eat Bulaga on PI TV. She is a MUCH better dancer ! She does the Laban O Bawi dance 10X better than any of them.

She uses those moves when riding cowboy as well. Enough to make a grown man cry . I'll testify to that.

NICE vid GeeG! Ah the beauty of Brazil

DG, great video clip as well and thanks for the tips.

I spent hours at the circuit city/Best Buy yesterday trying your tips and testing out those nightshot functions, and you're right, the videos w/Nightshot function come out like black and white. However, the videos were still good enough to capture the images pretty well in little light. I went ahead and ordered the mini-dvd Sony video cam DCR-HC 20 which fits in the palm of my hand and takes excellent videos. I also ordered the Pinnacle program and will give it a whirl. I'm still wondering if I need to get extra storage and whether I can convert mini-dvd cassettes onto my hardrive.

Will keep you posted.

Good for you Merlin. The real secret to good video is good lighting. If you learn how to set your white balance in lowlight conditions, and always use the backlight setting, you will get somewhat better results. I'm still amazed at how Pinnacle lightened up Xens' clip.

As for your converting miniDVD cassettes, here's what you do:

1. Capture the raw footage onto your harddrive. 60 mins = roughly 6 gigs.
2. Edit the footage.
3. Compress the clips into .wmv and save what you want on your harddrive.
3. Playback the final edit footage to a fresh DVD cassette in your camcorder. A great backup of all your editing work, in case your computer system ever fails.
4. Erase the 6 gigs of raw footage, and start again.
5. Remember to defrag your harddrive more frequently or you'll get 'twitches' in your films.

Good luck Merlin! Hope to see some clips from ya soon.

Epi
Perhaps he could travel with a "snake light". Another option would be a 3 cell Mag-lite (preferably with the vibrating option...).

You need to seek professional help Epi. I'd recommend my therapist, but she works at a Terma in Rio

"You need to seek professional help Epi."

You have NO idea...

E

KM,

I haven't played around with Pinnacle enough to find that feature yet. I looked at some documentation, but could not find anything.

A google search did yield this result though. I have yet to try it though.

http://www.blazemp.com/rotate_video.htm

Xen

Thanks for the link. I tried it out. It does indeed rotate the video however the video then seems to play in slow motion and is totally out of sync with the sound. It's really weird. I'll have to keep trying this out. maybe someone out there is smarter than me and can tell me what if anything I am doing wrong. The program has a 15 day free try out period . So if anyone wants to see the topless version of the vid Xen posted of Yum Yum - help me figure this mess out before 15 days elapse.

KM
"if anyone wants to see the topless version of the vid Xen posted of Yum Yum - help me figure this mess out before 15 days elapse"

Um... how about muting the original soundtrack?

If it is too quiet, you can add an mp3 track of your liking.

Post said clip so I, errr... make that "we" can all see Yum Yum's hooties.

Found a reference to this *free* software on Google Groups: http://www.virtualdub.org

It's supposed to have a rotate feature.

Phoenixguy
It doesn't rotate anything or do much else I can figure out. I guess I'm just a computer retard. I have tried over and over with the Blaze program and each time it comes out in slow motion. Nothing in help file to figure out what if anything I'm doing. Maybe I'll just post and you all can turn your monitors sideways . LOL