Xingyue scooter video (second attempt).

[Bluefront]

Here's my first attempt using my Panasonic DMC-LZ8 (a small still digital camera that also does videos), custom-mounted above the headlight of my Xingyue. It's still a little shaky, so I've got some work to do. I had to do a format conversion to get Windows Movie Maker to do the editing.....then another conversion to compress the output file. Took a lot of time for a one minute video......

The problem I had with the mount.....the footprint of the camera is so narrow, it doesn't get supported well enough with just the tripod socket. I made some extra foam braces.....but obviously it still needs some mods.

[turtle8]

That's not bad compared to my attempt with a tall, narrow video camera mounted to brackets on my handlebar. Mine was an HD Insignia video camera. Looked like I was shooting thru clear Jello with all the vibrations. I switched to mounting my Nikon Coolpix to a dowel strapped to the floorboard. No vibrations whatsoever.

[Bluefront]

I've got a monopod I could do that with.....haven't tried it. Mounted where it is gives a more realistic look IMO.....the video follows your line of sight as you're turning slowly for instance.

The best setup would have a passenger working the camera.

[turtle8]

It is true, you get a better view at or near the bars. Having the scooter in the view can add interest. Multiple camera angles edited together would make for an interesting video - ala race car videos.

[Bluefront]

Here's my second attempt with a redesigned headlight mount.....much better. Now I need to make a wind block of some sort for the microphone......the wind noise on the mic, completely over-powers the sounds from the scooter. This is quite obvious as I slow down for the last turns. After I get down to maybe 10 miles per hour, you can finally hear the audible turn signal noise.

Too bad I don't live in a real scenic area. Anyway this thing is just for kicks for me......but might be more useful for somebody else. The video is about a minute long. When I get the mount finalized I'll put up some stills of the mount itself.

[Bluefront]

Oh.....about viewing these videos. If you get pauses/jerkiness while viewing, it might be your broadband connection speed, or the Photobucket server speed. To get a good look, download the videos, and simply play them off your hard drive.

The videos were recorded at 30 frames a second (maximum rate with my camera). A high-quality video would be 60 frames a second. When I compressed the final video for broadband real-time viewing, it was encoded at 512kbs in a WMV format.

I use Zoom Player (free version) to view most videos......fantastic program than contains many viewing options.

[kevinharrell]

Cool videos, especially for the first and second time. Three or four more refinements and it should be close to professional grade.

[mikale]

heres one of mine riding with my club folk www.facebook.com/v/405330354678
ive always been happy with my vids

[Eat Sleep Scooters]

That thing was moving pretty good. I think I may upgrade to this type of scooter.