Garden Railway Forum

Me again!

My camera wagon, for on train filming, is a fairly knackered chassis scavenged off a defunct brake van. The camera (iPhone) is attached to it using a tripod mount. I’m going to replace the wagon - any ideas or solutions for making it less bouncy?

Full line inspection following Storm Gerrit
https://youtu.be/dI3Ji9zL_c4

Cheers

Not sure why your video seems bouncy. The onboard videos I've taken don't seem to be quite so jittery but I didn't make any special arrangements - just attached the camera to whichever wagon was most appropriate. As far as I know, the cameras I used didn't have any image stabilisation features either and, AFAIK neither did the editing package - though I think my editor does have an image stabilisation facility if I wanted to use it.

I seem to recall, at some point in the past, a message popping up after I'd posted a video or two to YouTube informing me the video was jittery so did I want to be to corrected. I never used it because those particular videos were shot with the camera on a tripod, so no idea why YT thought they were jittery.

If you're using iMovie, then there is an image stabilisation tool built in, apparently: https://www.iskysoft.com/video-editing/ ... video.html

Rik

I use a cheap 2.4 GHz camera and receiver set built into a bogie passenger wagon.
The bogies compensate quite well.
The wagon is a former GDR production with a bakelite body so the antenna is hidden inside.
Powered by a 9V block battery it gives good service.
Any disturbancies created by switching points directly beside it (of course) result in the image flashing shortly.

I have more or less the same problem using SWMBO's iphone, but don't have a real answer. I have printed a holder to get the lens just about level with the flat wagon body but it tends to flex and tip the phone backwards and forwards as it goes along.
The holder is the black bit in this shot, with a lump of lead at the back to counterbalance it ( the grey box on top was to hold a small very old Vivitar video camera, and that works but the quality is too poor to even contemplate showing).

I think my Nikon D3300 might be OK but it is out of loading gauge, so a non-starter!

Thank you all, much appreciated.

I wonder if a bit of soft (spongy foam) padding might absorb the vibrations.

It’s definitely worth a try, thanks.

However. The entire existing wagon fell to bits earlier so I’m going to build a new one - with suspension and a vibration damping tripod mount!

Old Man Aaron wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2024 3:04 pm I wonder if a bit of soft (spongy foam) padding might absorb the vibrations.

I used that in my one and only bit of "driver's eye view" filming. Alas, the vehicle itself is not one of the most elegant ever to have graced these pages:





Refurbishing my old Mamod guards van is perpetually halfway down my "to do" list...

Andrew.

PS, the tin on the veranda is full of nuts and bolts to counterbalance the phone!

Love it Andrew!

Following the earlier discussion, I decided to get a cheap 'spy' camera from Temu to see how it performed.
This video was shot about 30mins after it arrived in the post and was just the camera sitting loose on a flat bed wagon and being manually pushed along. So far I'm very impressed!



This is a link to what I bought:
https://www.temu.com/uk/1pc-mini-camera ... 28667.html

Hi - this looks spot on. What’s the power source; reviews on the product page aren’t particularly helpful!

Nigel B wrote: ↑Sat Jan 27, 2024 9:29 pm Hi - this looks spot on. What’s the power source; reviews on the product page aren’t particularly helpful!

No, not much info on there and the instruction leaflet isn't much more help either, although it is written in better than average quality Chinglish! I took a chance but decided that 8 quid wasn't a huge gamble if it turned out to be a rip off.

The camera has an internal battery, but there is no info on size and/or running time. There is a usb socket and it says to use a 5v supply, as is usual. It had some charge when it arrived and then I just left it plugged into a 5v charger overnight.
It also has a microSD slot and I've used a spare 32GB card that I already had, but I'm not sure how big a one it will take. The switching between various functions is indicated by an internal blue LED and there is also a red LED that shows up sometimes but I haven't yet nailed down exactly what that indicates!

That's very impressive!

Maybe the technology exists already, but presumably it should now be possible to combine such a camera with phone-based RC so that you can drive, with a driver's eye-view, from the screen of a smartphone?

Andrew, Mine doesn't have wifi, only records to the on-board microSD card, but there are wifi models on Temu for not much more.
https://www.temu.com/uk/1pc-hd-1080p-mi ... cwjp5goog4.

It says it is viewable/controllable via its own app, so I guess if you put it in a loco and link it to your phone, you could then control the loco with the normal r/c whilst watching the drivers eye view on the phone?

I do that using my Apple watch as a remote control for my phone camera for my track inspections. Absolutely no need for it but it’s fun! Only problem with driving ‘live’ is lag and occasional watch screen freeze. Wouldn’t trust it with live steam

Nigel B wrote: ↑Mon Jan 29, 2024 2:33 pm I do that using my Apple watch as a remote control for my phone camera for my track inspections. Absolutely no need for it but it’s fun! Only problem with driving ‘live’ is lag and occasional watch screen freeze. Wouldn’t trust it with live steam

I noticed you looking at your watch viewfinder during one of your workshop videos. Seemed like a pretty neat trick when you're your own cameraman!

philipy wrote: ↑Mon Jan 29, 2024 2:10 pm Andrew, Mine doesn't have wifi, only records to the on-board microSD card, but there are wifi models on Temu for not much more.
https://www.temu.com/uk/1pc-hd-1080p-mi ... cwjp5goog4.

It says it is viewable/controllable via its own app, so I guess if you put it in a loco and link it to your phone, you could then control the loco with the normal r/c whilst watching the drivers eye view on the phone?

Ooh, that does look interesting... Magnetic too, it seems... Might need to investigate how far into the garden our wifi stretches - I think I remember sitting at the end working wirelessly during the pandemic...

Andrew wrote: ↑Wed Jan 31, 2024 12:08 pm
Ooh, that does look interesting... Magnetic too, it seems... Might need to investigate how far into the garden our wifi stretches - I think I remember sitting at the end working wirelessly during the pandemic...

I think these things have their own wifi network, my drone does.