Last weekend I was at Oxton Circuit for the Autograss racing, as you may recall. This presented me with the opportunity to try out the video facility on my new camera – I hoped for good results, as the video function was the prime reason for purchasing it in the first place. And the results are in.
So far I’ve made and uploaded a pair of films based on the day’s events. A Mini Adventure is a very simple single take of Debbie’s debut in Mini L226, and basically just follows her progress around the track. I’m impressed with the video quality, although it loses a bit of clarity after conversion from MOV (Quicktime) to AVI for editing purposes. It’s annoying that Quicktime can only be played back directly on a computer, but to edit a clip or do anything remotely interesting requires a conversion.
With A Mini Adventure I simply tidied the video up, added titles and a great track from DanoSongs, who rather thoughtfully has composed music specifically for the purpose of being used in such projects. It’s quite a nice little movie, and provided a good opportunity to try out the excellent zoom lens on the TZ6.
The second film, Go WEST! takes the thrills and spills from a selection of heats, edited to give the appearance of a continuous race. DanoSongs once again provided a cracking, adrenaline-pumping soundtrack and gives the film a Top Gear style feel – I think it’s one of the best tracks I’ve ever used in a film, in terms of matching the content with the music. There were plenty of highlights to choose from, and I think that the camera did an amazing job with the rushed, close up action and constant refocusing on fast moving objects.
The camera has a choice of formats to choose from, so I went with widescreen at 848 x 480 for a panoramic viewpoint that definitely works well with the subject in this case.
I can say that so far I’m definitely very happy with this camera, and am now a Panasonic devotee. I’m looking forward to capturing some different subjects, and to this end I’m booked as a family wedding photographer in a couple of weeks time – as well as having to make a speech. So, no pressure there, then. Let’s hope the bride doesn’t scoot back down the aisle as quickly as these cars did!
Hmmm...a career at the BBC beckons I think. Damn sight better than most of the documentary footage. I haven't explored the Panasonic's video capabilities yet, but I can wholeheartedly agree that it's a great camera...the lens is superb.
ReplyDeleteGreat work, as always!
I forgot to mention....I've never seen a Nissan Micra move so fast!
ReplyDeleteWhat you can't see is the bag of Werthers Originals hanging out of the car in front ... you want a sweet; you'd better catch up! I'm going to try this approach on the A1 and see if they can get more than 45 mph out of them.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments, it was an interesting project to try something completely different.