Another Seattleite

[Scott McLeod]

Hi this is Scott from Seattle,

I’ve been playing with movie cameras at a hobbyist level for as long as I can remember. Other than capturing funny moments from friends and family, I mostly use video cameras now as a second set of eyes for analyzing motorcycle drag racing performance. I now have Adobe CS5 so most of my editing questions will end up in the “Creative Suite Forum”.

Last year, as I started to research new POV cameras and the latest editing software for AVCHD formats I stumbled across several DV sites and did a lot of reading and watching videos. I was looking for several small cameras that could be mounted within the bodywork of a motorcycle that look at a couple of key items and also provide a 360 degree view around the bike. As it turns out there still isn’t a good solution in my case because I want to turn all the cameras off & on at the same time from the dash and to be able to download the video without having to remove the bodywork. There are a few cams out there that might work if I can modify their buttons and power source.

Aside from using the video to analyze performance it will be fun to capture side by side racing for friends and sponsors, also when I get too old to race anymore I can cue up a video clip and go for a virtual ride from the safety of my couch. :)

[Aaron Holmes]

Originally Posted by Scott McLeod

Aside from using the video to analyze performance it will be fun to capture side by side racing for friends and sponsors, also when I get too old to race anymore I can cue up a video clip and go for a virtual ride from the safety of my couch. :)

Hi, Scott! Sounds like a cool project. The virtual ride would be it for me, though; I don't think I'd have the guts to do it for real, even now! :-)

Video is a hobby for me also, and I've been into the broader "recording" thing ever since I was a kid with a tape recorder back in the 80's making spoofs on TV shows, commercials, and movies with my sister (all those tapes are CDs and MP3s now!). For the last several years, most of my video-time has been spent transforming old 8mm and Hi8 video tapes from my childhood into DVDs. Lately, I've gotten into hi-def home video and Blu-ray authoring. There's just no end to the gadgetry in this hobby!

Best,
Aaron

[Scott McLeod]

Hi Aaron,

We share a similar path. I grew up watching: ‘The Twilight Zone’, ‘Dark Shadows’, ‘Star Trek’, ‘Mission Impossible’, ‘Night of the Living Dead’, ‘Six million Dollar Man’, ect… ect…

My sister and I were always into scary movies, she wanted to be ‘Elvira, Mistress of the Dark’ and I wanted to be the special effects guy. At some of the large creepy houses we use to babysit and house sit for, we would write scary movie plots to pass the time. If it was a babysitting job, the kids were usual cast as little zombies. I wish we would have saved some of our old scripts, I would have been a perfect candidate for working at Industrial Light & Magic.

Your right about the gadgetry, I always have a case of the “I Wants”, but usually settle for, “This will have to do for now”.

Scott

[John Nantz]

Does anyone know of a digital video club in the Seattle/Tacoma area?

There are a lot of photography clubs but they tend not to delve into video. It would be good if there was a digital video club around where one could share ideas and network.