I was looking at a recent thread here about filming from bikes and thought that most of the solutions seemed a bit complicated.
The big enemy is vibration. Any camera mounted directly to the bike will shake like crazy. Not only will the vibration make the film look unclear and hard to watch, it will shake the camera to pieces after a while. This is especially true of cameras with anti-vibration mechanisms either in-lens or in-body. They are designed to counteract movement of the human hold, gentle and relatively slow. The kind of shock that is passed through a bike frame is both fast and violent. The cheapest stabilising mount that would cope with such use comes in at around £8,000. Even then, it would not take the shocks that a mountain biker would hand out.
But there is one great shock absorber we can have for free. The human body. The usual way is to mount a camera on a helmet and this works well in most ways. However, it gives a high viewpoint and makes the viewer feel a bit detached from the action and the movement of the rider's head as he looks around can be nausea inducing.
So, I wanted a lower viewpoint, preferably across the handlebars. Including a fixed point would give a sense of depth, speed and immediacy missing in the helmet cam scenario.
The answer was pretty simple. A Gorillapod braced against the body and held in place by a gilet. I have used a ball and socket head mounted on the Gorillapod because it enables me to point the camera how I wish after getting everything else comfortable.
I used a 28mm lens on a Micro 4/3 camera but the same setup would work with any camera with a tripod socket.
I have posted a sequence here: YouTube - Spogley's Channel
This is only a first try, so don't expect too much!
And here is the setup. Ladies, try not to get too excited by the lithe and manly body of the model
The big enemy is vibration. Any camera mounted directly to the bike will shake like crazy. Not only will the vibration make the film look unclear and hard to watch, it will shake the camera to pieces after a while. This is especially true of cameras with anti-vibration mechanisms either in-lens or in-body. They are designed to counteract movement of the human hold, gentle and relatively slow. The kind of shock that is passed through a bike frame is both fast and violent. The cheapest stabilising mount that would cope with such use comes in at around £8,000. Even then, it would not take the shocks that a mountain biker would hand out.
But there is one great shock absorber we can have for free. The human body. The usual way is to mount a camera on a helmet and this works well in most ways. However, it gives a high viewpoint and makes the viewer feel a bit detached from the action and the movement of the rider's head as he looks around can be nausea inducing.
So, I wanted a lower viewpoint, preferably across the handlebars. Including a fixed point would give a sense of depth, speed and immediacy missing in the helmet cam scenario.
The answer was pretty simple. A Gorillapod braced against the body and held in place by a gilet. I have used a ball and socket head mounted on the Gorillapod because it enables me to point the camera how I wish after getting everything else comfortable.
I used a 28mm lens on a Micro 4/3 camera but the same setup would work with any camera with a tripod socket.
I have posted a sequence here: YouTube - Spogley's Channel
This is only a first try, so don't expect too much!
And here is the setup. Ladies, try not to get too excited by the lithe and manly body of the model