measuring speed with a camcorder

[roblewis56]

Normally I avoid interlaced video, but I want to point out that it can be used to measure instantaneous speed. Each frame in interlaced video contains two fields separated in time by half a frame, about 1/60th sec for 60i. In your editor you can take a snapshot of a single frame showing the two images separated in time by half a frame. All you need is a distance scale to calculate the speed from the distance moved in 1/60th sec. Below are three examples, a race horse at the finish, a passing car and a baseball pitch as it passes the plate.

Some of you may find this technique useful to measure the speed of something not easy to do otherwise, at least not without special equipment

Robert

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