Well the new trail cam (Bushnell Trophy Cam HD) is up and running, and the clips from last night surprised me by the re-appearance of the badgers. I'm still getting the hang of the new cam and some sections are over exposed (I need to allow more distance). The timestamp can be switched off. I'll see if it continues to get in the way of the images, but it's quite handy for indicating when the clips were taken.
The one other minor issue is editing. I hate editing video. Windows Movie Maker just about coped with the clips but it did crash a few times. Elements Premier failed to recognize the AVI files as video at all (just audio). No doubt a 'codec' issue, but I've been down that road too often to relish trying to find the right one. If I keep clips short WMM will probably do the job ok. I may have overloaded it this time by attempting to splice too many clips together. Overall though the cam does the job, and the files are good quality and have sound. If you listen carefully at around 1:10 t you can hear the badger munching on peanuts!
Anyhow, here are the clips!
derWandersmann
6 Jan 2013Is the quality set too high for YouTube, Words? It keeps stopping to buffer. I like the ectoplasmic fox … a special spiritual guardian for your garden?
Maybe a ND filter would help; the pics are sharp, but the highlights are blown.
gdare
6 Jan 2013Very sharp video, the quality of recording is excellent :yes:
Words
6 Jan 2013Darko, thanks! Yes it's nice and sharp, but as dW said, the highlights are badly blown in places. Tried again last night, but the camera didn't trigger as often as it should so I've adjusted the sensitivity and will try again tonight. I'll get there eventually.
Words
6 Jan 2013dW, I'm still playing with the settings so hopefully things will improve. I can reduce the LEDs if the blown highlight problem persists, but I may address that by better positioning of the camera (it's too close to where they go). The file size is quite high (even after Youtube convert it) as the source is HD. I'm struggling a bit with the editing so the output at that point may also be impacting. What speed connection do you have? We have fast broadband so it's difficult to judge what will work but I thought Youtube videos adjusted according to your connection type, though perhaps only when you view direct.
SittingFox
6 Jan 2013Which version of WMM are you using? The one packaged with Windows 7 is pretty limited, so I downloaded WMM 7 from the web. It's stable, and I like the editing options, but it doesn't like all file types.
I've never tried Elements Premier, although I have heard that Videopad (a free editor) is worth a look.
Words
6 Jan 2013I was using Windows Live MM v11, but having read this have upgraded to WMM12 which looks like it will work fine, and offers more 'save' options optimized to YouTube etc.
I've used Premier Elements 9. It's very good but the interface was 'stubborn'. It looks like v11 has fixed much of that so I may test it out for DSLR video where you need a bit more control than WMM can offer. I'll check out the Videopad link as well.
serola
6 Jan 2013Originally posted by derWandersmann:
No problems here 🙂
Nice, Words 😎 It only looks overexposed when subject is close to camera and light. I wonder if there is any way to get more even light for the whole area. Another lamp perhaps :sherlock:
derWandersmann
6 Jan 2013My connection is a mystery … AT&T claims 100 MB/s, but they do as all these companies do … lie like a rug. I've sometimes caught them giving me 9 kB/s.
Words
6 Jan 2013Sami, good to know that viewing is ok. I can't really change the lighting as it's built into the camera. I suppose I could get permanent/independent IR lights out there but that would be a little extreme for my needs!
Words
6 Jan 2013dW, fluctuating speeds is a pain, but if you get anywhere near 100Mb/s you should be ok :faint: We get around 30, but until a few months ago we were on 1 Mb/s (and that did struggle).
serola
7 Jan 2013Originally posted by Words:
OK, then maybe some underexposing needed 🙂 I wonder if there are any ways to edit video image, to get less contrast :sherlock:
Words
8 Jan 2013Originally posted by serola:
That's possible with most of the software. MovieMaker is a bit limited, but other packages have good tools for adjusting contrast. I can also reduce the number of LEDs that light up, but for now I'm just trying to get more distance between the animals and the camera (the lazy way!).
serola
8 Jan 2013Originally posted by Words:
Quite often the best way 😆