Offroad Filming tips?

1. DaveFL
   Member

   
   First off Im new to the forum and pretty new to the Video/movie editing world.
   
   I sold all my still image cameras and moved over to Digital Video and Im loving everyminute of it. But im still a bit confused on some issues.
   
   My primary focus of filming is offroad adventures. Im shooting all the video with a mid line Sony Handycam nothing special as of yet and editing with Pinnacle Studios 10.5.
   
   My primary issue is basically trying to capture the action in the correct focal range. Try as I might obstacles that I film do not keep the same aspect on film. For instances I have one area where we are running the Jeeps up a a good vertical hump of at least 4 feet that scales to a 100 foot off camber 45degree angle run. In person you flinch everytime a Jeep runs it, on film the slope looks like its a small hill and the vertical hump appears to be about knee high.
   
   For still Image I always figured best true sight capture was with a 55mm lense, but there seems to be no way to determine focal length on a Handy Cam.
   
   Any tips, suggestions, flames?

   Posted 5 years ago #

2. compusolver
   Member

   
   Welcome to the wonderful world of videography and to the VM forums!
   
   Focal length needs to be considered relative to the area of your image capture frame. With 35mm photography, that of course was a 35mm film frame. With digital photography/videography, it is the area of your CCD.
   
   An online calculator can be found at:
   http://www.csgnetwork.com/foclencalcl.html
   
   I'm sure there's one somewhere that would put all this relative to 35mm.
   
   I'm sure you already know that longer focal length lenses tend to make things look closer together and that wider angles do the opposite. One thing you might try is getting the camera (at least, one of them) closer to the action. A hill looks bigger if the camera is up close to it and low while it films a jeep flying over - just like it would with your still camera.

   Posted 5 years ago #

3. Andrew Burke
   Member

   
   Most camcorder manufacturers list the "35mm equivalent" in their specs.
   
   For example, Sony lists the specs of the UX1 camcorder on their website. Scrolling down to Optics, you'll find the 35mm equivalent:
   [url]
   http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start;sid=lmWA_TMC4umAnnVA3-yK9nwMo8zhh1lGtyE=?CategoryName=&ProductSKU=HDRUX1&TabName=specs&var2=/url
   
   -andrew @ videomaker

   Posted 5 years ago #

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