Sony FS700 Crash Cam / point of view rigging.

M

michaelzero

New member
Hey doods.

I need to get a very specific shot. It's supposed to be a point of view shot of a snowboarder doing a flip, in slow motion.

The GoPro is out, just not good enough resolution for us.

So the FS700 is being researched.

Anyone out there had experience rigging this as a point of view camera? It's not that big - helmet cam maybe?

The other option is to build a crash cam housing (from a pelican case etc.) and simply throw it off the jump and hope it survives the fall. I wonder how much padding would be required to make it a workable solution.

Any ideas muchly appreciated! We've even considered building a sort of wheel rig hung on a horizontal pole between two upright poles (out of shot) so it can spin and we can manually drop the poles while the camera spins to simulate the effect - but this will only simulate one axis.

Michael
 
I would think that there are many other cameras to consider in between the two you've listed (go pro & fs700). Maybe the gh4 would make more sense as a crash cam from a size vs resolution vs cost perspective.
 
have you looked into a Phantom Miro? super compact and very high frame rates. Vision Research builds their stuff to military spec. if you're finishing in 1080 only, then it's practically purpose-built for the application you're describing.
 
I'd say the FS700 is a bit long when the lens is added to it. It'd be an extra non-compact few pounds. Now what do you mean by a lack of "resolution'? The GoPro does 1080. For the 4K on the FS700 you need an external recorder. More weight and awkwardness. Lens choice is the real issue with the GoPro.

For "crash cam" stuff or anything risky with a camera you need a camera you can sacrifice, or have a rig that wont break. In your case I'd guess you'd need something that would survive a fall. And realize something attached to someone's head that heavy can have issues in an accident. Wearing a military kevlar helmet with A/NPVS-7D night vision goggles in Iraq I got tossed around bad once and I could FEEL that extra weight on my neck.

I'd rething the GoPro or go DSLR. But that is me. And I don't even like GoPros or DSLRs! Good luck!
 
blackdogdylan said:
have you looked into a Phantom Miro? super compact and very high frame rates. Vision Research builds their stuff to military spec. if you're finishing in 1080 only, then it's practically purpose-built for the application you're describing.
Click to expand...
You do relize to rent the phantom miro, requires the cost of a phantom tech, and it also a lot more expensive to replace. The body alone is 30k. To get it up and running you need to spend 60k. At that point you could break a few fs700 just for fun.
 
700 seems like a good option.

Worth considering - the 16mm pancake lens which will keep it light.

A problem could be the burst duration - only a few seconds - not sure how you trigger it at the right moment.

I think the 07q allows contiuous HFR and of course a better image.

How would I grip it??

Depends on the shot, the riders et al.

I guess maybe a rider could hand hold it or have it mounted to their shoulder - but then you may see the board et al. (they could have the 07q mounted in the small of the back.

The camera ball could work!

Or shoot the shot on a crane with a remote (hot) head and you dont even need slo-mo!

S
 
morgan_moore said:
700 seems like a good option.

Worth considering - the 16mm pancake lens which will keep it light.

A problem could be the burst duration - only a few seconds - not sure how you trigger it at the right moment.

I think the 07q allows contiuous HFR and of course a better image.

How would I grip it??

Depends on the shot, the riders et al.

I guess maybe a rider could hand hold it or have it mounted to their shoulder - but then you may see the board et al. (they could have the 07q mounted in the small of the back.

The camera ball could work!

Or shoot the shot on a crane with a remote (hot) head and you dont even need slo-mo!

S
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'd say the FS700 is too big and too heavy to go on a Helmet rig (although I have seen it done, I'd say it's just not safe for a flip) - assuming the Phantom Miro is out (at the end of the day, if it's going on a snow board flip you need a camera you can afford to trash) - but a body rig of some sort might be doable (over the shoulder or something). As Sam recommends look at a pancake lens to reduce the weight and profile.

I'm not too sure what you mean by the GoPro being too 'low resolution' - is that after the loss from de-fisheying it? 1080p isn't the same as MP4 by the way, it's not just a wrapper, it's resolution, number of pixels. Granted not all cameras of the same resolution are equivalent, but that comparison is a tad shoddy. and the Hero 3+ does do 60fps @ 1080p.

Having said that the FS700 does 240fps at that resolution, which may be what you're after - or do you need the 60fps 4K? I'd say the 120fps 4K burst that's coming out soon to the Odyssey is not really practical as you only get 3 secs of real time recording - so you'd need to trigger it almost immediately after the jump - although you might get lucky with the IR remote! Certainly recording to the Odyssey is an option as you could just pop the Odyssey in a back pack using a long enough, robust enough, 3G SDI cable.

The C500 is another option, also recording to the Odyssey (at least I think 120fps 4K half Raw is going to be enabled soon as well) or why not the F5 or F55? Both do 240fps in 2K Raw and they're not that much heavier than the FS700...
 
Colinelves said:
1080p isn't the same as MP4 by the way, it's not just a wrapper, it's resolution, number of pixels. Granted not all cameras of the same resolution are equivalent, but that comparison is a tad shoddy.
Click to expand...
But, in a lot of cases, the actual resolution you're getting from the debayer is less than 1080p, yet you're still getting a 1080p file. This isn't perceived sharpness or anything like that; the actual, digital resolution is just lower than 1920x1080. You can take a 720p stream and stick it in a 1080p file - now, this is just bad engineering/good marketing, but in this case, 1080 acts like a wrapper, and not an actual indicator of resolution. A better example would be GH4 96fps, which most liken more to 720p than 1080p.
 
Joncarr said:
You do relize to rent the phantom miro, requires the cost of a phantom tech, and it also a lot more expensive to replace. The body alone is 30k. To get it up and running you need to spend 60k. At that point you could break a few fs700 just for fun.
Click to expand...

ha. yeah. I wasn't suggesting it to junk. in general, using any camera with the intention of destroying it has always seemed sad to me. I was more suggesting it for use with some "rig" that simulated the flip, since it is so small and compact, has an integrated LCD, can take inexpensive EOS lenses, goes up to 1500fps, can shoot raw, and can produce a very high quality image with long record times that can be trimmed after the fact (since a lot of takes might be necessary to get it right.)
that said, it ain't cheap. not sure if that's a prerequisite for the OP... if it is, GoPro it is!
 
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