This is probably the last Video I'll try doing using the Osmo Pocket on its own without at least one of the following. Additional sound equipment, be it only a windshield, additional stabiliser, Graduated or ND filter, or other extra equipment to help exposure.
A few things about the video.
First and foremost, the backing track was an old recording made from my DSLR using its inbaord mics so similar in use. In fact my first real video using my DSLR at the time, which visually came out terrible. But the music is catchy, at least I think so. Also, there is a lot of background clicking from other peoples cameras that were around me.
At the time I filmed it the camera shutters didn't seem that loud but can be heard now and again. So sorry in advance.

I have obviously edited the video. All other sounds are from the Osmo Pockets inboard mic system which despite the wind, caught quite a bit of the surrounding sound details.

I had to re-sync a lot of the audio.

This is because of the following.
For the main arena:

It was packed and I was toward the back of the crowd.

This left me further away then I woud have liked. To get around the problem I used slow-mo to get the crop view but the additional frames I recorded, which I then sped up to real-time to try to get  cleaner, closer image, had to then be synced to the corresponding AAC files for the audio.

That then gave me further ideas for other parts of the video. I did only use my Osmo Pocket for the filming and multiple angles in one sequence were obtained by attending two performances of the same enactment, standing in different locations.

Finally, I apologise in advance for the first four seconds and the last few seconds of video which are purely there to show the source of where the music is coming from. The musicians at Leeds Castle were not performing music that would fit the video as well as the track I chose from the older Medieval event I attended.  


I did, for the Trebuchet shot, use manual exposure as I was facing the sun, all-be-it on a cloudy day. It nearly worked

Hi there, we really appreciate you for sharing your wonderful video here. Well done and Thank you for your continued support. Cheers!

Hi Ray.

Given the bare bones nature of the setup, it's a great production. I'd also go so far as to say that I doubt you could have bettered it on a similar stripped down setup costing more.

To get anything that would look noticeably better, you'd be spending more money and using more kit. Something that is very impractical for many shooting scenarios.

Great video and documentation.

Cheers,
Dave.   

DJI Gamora Posted at 5-30 12:19
Hi there, we really appreciate you for sharing your wonderful video here. Well done and Thank you for your continued support. Cheers!

Thank you. I hope to do better in the future.

David_Harry Posted at 5-30 12:40
Hi Ray.

Given the bare bones nature of the setup, it's a great production. I'd also go so far as to say that I doubt you could have bettered it on a similar stripped down setup costing more.

Hi David.

I can always do better David. This was not a planned shoot but a day out with my wife so I couldn't really go around planning much, Not if I want to stay married anyway, so I was just catching what I could when I could and trying to make something out of it afterward.
Two things that came to me was using Slow-mo effectively gives me a times two zoom and I can use the recorded AAC files to get sound back, or if I had the processing power, I could record 4K and zoom in to an area during editing. I also noticed I can select ISO and shutter speed separately from the Osmo Pocket in Pro mode which I'm not sure was possible before.
Also, the FPV mode has to be used with care or it's easy to get wonky horizons.
While I'm replying I would like some advice on my microphone build. Would these, as is, (with some form of casing) be ok to use with the Pocket?
Mic capsules
and be ok to use with my DSLR? It can cope with mics needing power.
Thanks for your input, but I'm still blowing out some highlights which if I used manual adjustment a bit more I could probably get better results with it.
Anyway, it's the Dickens Festival just down the road this weekend, so I'll go on my own this time and try to plan some things out.

Nice video Ray, I also like the first and last few seconds.

Ray-CubeAce Posted at 5-30 15:22
Hi David.

I can always do better David. This was not a planned shoot but a day out with my wife so I couldn't really go around planning much, Not if I want to stay married anyway, so I was just catching what I could when I could and trying to make something out of it afterward.

To prevent blown out highlights is always difficult, same as in photography, at photography you can use graduated filters, but at video, since we are panning, make it harder to use graduated filter. At the OA, may be we can slide the graduated filter up or down, but hard to do with OP/gimbal.



I always wonder if we can have transition glasses which darken automatically under sun, can it be apply to camera/video lens filters?

Oh-no Posted at 5-31 00:57
To prevent blown out highlights is always difficult, same as in photography, at photography you can use graduated filters, but at video, since we are panning, make it harder to use graduated filter. At the OA, may be we can slide the graduated filter up or down, but hard to do with OP/gimbal.

Hi Oh-no.
With the trebuchet shot facing sunward, the Osmo Pocket exposed for the sky and with such a small screen it was difficult to see how much of the trebuchet and surrounding enactors were under-exposed.
Perhaps if I'd had a phone connected it would have been easier to estimate. So instead I quickly entered Pro mode and adjusted the shutter speed down until I thought I could see some detail in the main foreground. I was pleasantly surprised I could do that using slo-mo.
I like the idea of using a Photochromic filter lens but there are a few drawbacks at present. They can take up to fifteen minutes to react effectively and five to recover and go clear again, but worse they are also temperature sensitive and work better when they are cold rather than when it's hot. As I constantly keep my Osmo Pocket in its case when not in use I think I would need a new case as well. I haven't used any filter as yet and I'm unsure whether it would be best to put a filter on after startup as the gimbal movement is rather rapid and may be responsible for some of the scratched Osmo Pocket lenses we sometimes here complained about here. Switching off is much softer. I wonder if the switch-on has to be so abrupt or could be softened down?
I have many things to think about

Ray-CubeAce Posted at 5-31 02:07
Hi Oh-no.
With the trebuchet shot facing sunward, the Osmo Pocket exposed for the sky and with such a small screen it was difficult to see how much of the trebuchet and surrounding enactors were under-exposed.
Perhaps if I'd had a phone connected it would have been easier to estimate. So instead I quickly entered Pro mode and adjusted the shutter speed down until I thought I could see some detail in the main foreground. I was pleasantly surprised I could do that using slo-mo.

Ray, I do not mean Photochromic filter lens is the solution, what I means is, if some manufacturer create something like this or use the same technology know-how for photo/video purpose, it would be great.

Oh-no Posted at 5-31 02:30
Ray, I do not mean Photochromic filter lens is the solution, what I means is, if some manufacturer create something like this or use the same technology know-how for photo/video purpose, it would be great.

I think if the lens were not a chemical reactive lens then a mechanical version would be too cumbersome or heavy for a gimbal mounted camera. Latest lenses use organic material which degenerates quite rapidly over time. There are electrically charged panels  which can at present turn opaque by rotating one set of aligned crystals in front of another, similar to an LCD display but would need to be built in and I have no idea if the present crystal size would be a problem in conjunction with so small photosensors used inside such a small video camera.

I love the idea. I just don't know how difficult it would be to implement with this amount of miniaturisation.

Very cool !

Hi Ray,
my compliment, great shots, very well cut.
Especially nice are the slow motion. The music I think is very good for this. It is really a great video.

Udo13 Posted at 5-31 04:44
Hi RaY; M
y compliment, great shots, very well cut.
Especially nice are the slow motion. The music I think is very good for this.

Thank you, Udo.
Yes, the music is period for this. The 14th century I think. It's actually two tunes mixed together. One is called simply 'Bagpipers' and the other is called 'Child Roaming'. Both tunes played on English bagpipes which predate the Scottish bagpipe by at least 500 years. Whether we should, as English, be proud of that or not I will leave for you to decide

Montfrooij Posted at 5-31 03:56
Very cool !

Thank you, Montfrooij.
Possibly another location to come next week.

Ray-CubeAce Posted at 5-31 04:56
Thank you, Montfrooij.
Possibly another location to come next week.

You're welcome!
Looking forward!

Great job Ray, for my money it’s up there with plenty I’ve seen with a lot more equipment and editing applied, it just goes to show what’s possible and where the learning should start, your a bit of an inspiration to others, keep up the good work, excellent .

hallmark007 Posted at 5-31 11:43
Great job Ray, for my money it’s up there with plenty I’ve seen with a lot more equipment and editing applied, it just goes to show what’s possible and where the learning should start, your a bit of an inspiration to others, keep up the good work, excellent .

Thank you as that's very encouraging to me.

I see the great videos others produce and realise how much effort goes into them and sometimes the extra tech needed to get the results.
While I'm relatively new to using video, I've been doing photography to a reasonably high standard since 2009. That has cost me a great deal in equipment to compete and I still don't have more than a few camera bodies and lenses.
That has real downsides beside cost.
The weight for one thing. If I go on a shoot and want to guarantee to get the shot I want, I take most of that gear with me. Apart from looking like a lost tourist begging for a mugging, the weight is crippling enough on my physical self to make me suffer days after the event.
I tried a steady-cam for my DSLRs but that was just extra weight and with even a slight breeze outside makes it almost impossible to control.
I get too much motor noise from the lenses focusing to get clean audio.
Trying to hold a steady-cam for more than a few minutes without getting the shakes is also almost impossible. You really need a full harness for that. So more expense, more weight, and more sticking out like a sore thumb, and now no way to carry all the extra gear so now I would need an assistant.
That's not the way I wanted to go.

Then I saw the Osmo Pocket.
OK, it has no zoom function. Has a fixed aperture and still bounces up and down if I'm not careful when I walk.
But I can do a lot with just theOsmo Pocket, a portable charger, and a small bag strapped to my belt for odd bits if needed. I don't find that limiting as much as liberating.
People still haven't seen many of these video cameras about yet. People think I'm carrying a vape most of the time. I go pretty much un-noticed and that's great. I get no 'smiles to the camera' or mad people waving at me or self-conscious looks from people as I walk past them.
That to me is worth more than a bag full of any kit and for that I'm thankful.

I do have a very small, almost child-sized backpack waiting in the wings for an outing with a few leads in it to connect to my phone. A very lightweight tripod that is almost a full sized one when extended but very light. and a monopod I intend to use to get the Pocket above head height now and then. So far, the whole lot weighs less than a kilogram and looks like something I have put my lunch in. I'm also getting bits together to build my own mic.
Maybe a few filters in the future, but I want to keep it to that for video. I may get an Osmo Action next year but paying for a new car for work at this time means funds are located away from video extras for the time being.
My PC is quite old. I don't have the processing power to edit 4K yet or for the foreseeable future.
I have got by on freeware for editing but obtained a copy of Magix Movie Edit Pro on promotion for very little.

I will do what I did to get better at photography.
Read a lot. Look at 'How to' videos. Take apart videos I like bit by bit and dissect them to find out what works, and then go out and shoot footage.

I'll be out and about again tomorrow. This time on my own and not a day out with my wife. I'm not expecting a lot of fast action so there probably won't be much in the way of slow-motion but it should be more theatrical in content. I just hope I can make it make sense.
At least the weather is likely to be good.
Still enough prattle, and a genuine thanks from me.

Ray.

Ray-CubeAce Posted at 5-31 13:17
Thank you as that's very encouraging to me.

I see the great videos others produce and realise how much effort goes into them and sometimes the extra tech needed to get the results.

A vape that’s great so funny, whatever your doing your doing it right. Not sure if you possess an iPad, but a very good editing software that handles 4K with a breeze is LumaFusion it will cost you 20 quid, but it’s exceptional software and works on iPads without any fuss .

hallmark007 Posted at 5-31 13:36
A vape that’s great so funny, whatever your doing your doing it right. Not sure if you possess an iPad, but a very good editing software that handles 4K with a breeze is LumaFusion it will cost you 20 quid, but it’s exceptional software and works on iPads without any fuss .

It's true.
I've been told three times now when someone had bothered to look twice and realised its a camera.

The other thing I found surprising is I still do photographic shoots for various organisations and have used some images taken with the Osmo Pocket that they have used in their publicity material. I haven't told them I had taken images with it and they haven't asked.

Often it's not the overall quality that sells a product but the content. That much I've learned over the years. My DSLRs max out at 20MP but I often get more of my images used than other competing photographers using cameras with 36MP or over sensors.
I just about own a smartphone. My PC uses an Ivy Bridge i5 processor with 16 gigs of ram running Win7. I do use two 1080p 28" monitors for editing, and rendering a 3-minute video takes about an hour and fifteen minutes.
I have an old, old, laptop for out and about if needed but in reality, I often just upload stills to my phone and then straight into a Dropbox folder if that's what's needed. I'm currently happy with 1080p for video but that may change as I get more into video production.  I may have even paid for my car by then

Ray-CubeAce Posted at 5-30 15:01
Thank you. I hope to do better in the future.

You're very much welcome! Thank you for your continued support.