Hi,
i am looking for a reasonable priced camera to work with kinoveas capture mode. Which one do you use?
Regards,
Sven
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- joan
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I am also very interested in gathering as many comments as possible on this subject!
The trick is that the camera must be able to do direct streaming to the PC, which is a feature that is almost not included anymore in the new camcorders based on Hard drives or DVD storage.
I can see two options, DV / HDV with a Firewire connection to the PC (inbound Firewire on the PC also tend to disappear :-(), or a Webcam with a USB connection to the PC. (Maybe IP cameras should be considered too?)
I'm starting to wonder whether HD webcams are the future of capturing live direct to the PC. Not sure how their lens behave with outdoors scene with big depth of field though…
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Using a webcam is a good idea, but the picture quality of the most webcams is not adequate and they do not have a tripod socket.
I have a Sony DCR-SR35 which doesn't support usb streaming. I have read that the most HD camcorder doesn't support usb streaming too.
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Newer webcams are capable of HD resolution, 720p or even 1080p… Maybe that's the way for the future…
However it would be interesting to know if they give good focus when the person filmed are more than a few meters away.
I see that logitech have some with Carl Zeiss optics.
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I have been watching some videos on youtube about the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 and the Microsoft LifeCam Cinema. They both seem to be good webcams and could be suitable for basic purposes in low range.
I wonder how much i need to spend more to get a significant better video quality as the both webcams cost about 60 €.
Hi Sven and Joan,
The HD cameras have a AV or a S-video out option. Then is a cheap AV-USB converter the best solution.
Another suggestion is to go for the HD-cameras without hard disk (storage on memory card). These have in general an USB out. See for the Toshiba Camileo S20, the Kodak Zi8, or some of the Aiptek models.
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I received my Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 today. It delivers quite good video quality. There is no flickering during recording. It is a very good value for the money as it only cost 50 €.
But there is a problem. I cannot get the best video quality from the camera in Kinovea. The Logitech video settings don't apply to Kinovea. Here are 2 images take from the Logitech software an Kinovea:
Sven
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I have checked the functionality in Dartfish 4.5. There is a configuration window where i can set the video resolution and the framerate. This should be a nice feature, especially when the camera supports a high frame rate like some from Microsoft (60 fps).
All,
I do very specific coaching/video analysis for US Football kickers/punters and youth soccer players. I used to use a Firewire- but its painful and probably in about 6 months will be ancient.
The video camcorder I have been using is the Panasonic Digital camcorder with 800GB Hard Drive and I got it on sale on-line for 246.00 USD. I then purchased the Haupage USB Live2 Video Capture device (thru Dell) for about $50.00, with very good success.
Regards,
Marc
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I have tried the small pocket camcorder Panasonic HM-TA1 and it is not suitable for capture because the webcam mode supports only 640x480 at 10 FPS. 
I am using the ps3 eye. (320*240 @125fps / 640*480 @75fps) 20€
driver downloadable here: http://alexpopovich.wordpress.com/2008/ … indows-os/
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I have experimented with a couple of webcams and camcorders. The webcams we've experimented with (logitech Quickcam 4000 pro, Microsoft lifeCam VX 7000, generic OEM webcams) have been adequate in providing usable quality videos. However, they lack the user controls available to camcorders (e.g. optical zoom, image control etc)
We haven't yet been able to buy high end digital camcorders with firewire output. However we've been using analogue camcorders attached to a PVR to capture video and to allow us to create a live-delay and replay video. Now with Kinovea incorporating live-delay we're trying to shift from a analogue to digital system all together.
We've been testing a USB video capture card to import live video into Kinovea.
kicker9 wrote:
I then purchased the Haupage USB Live2 Video Capture device (thru Dell) for about $50.00, with very good success.
pstrikwerda wrote:
Then is a cheap AV-USB converter the best solution.
I agree with others in that it is a very good alternative to buying a new digital camcorder with firewire/usb video output. The USB capture card we're using is Easy CAP DC60+ that was bought for ~10€. Video is streaming in at 720×576 px @ 29 fps (PAL) and the quality is better than our webcams.
We're haven't had any problems so far (~1 month) and I wonder if anyone else has experimented with such a setup.
Jon
I have done a quick test with a couple MiniDV camcorder I have. I have 4 of the same model I've used with a 3D program, but have used 2 for the Kinovea test. They are Canon MiniDV ZR80 series cameras that shot SD video of 4:3 and 16:9 720x480 resolution. These are about 5 years old and I think cost about $299. I think the current version can probably be had for about the same or less. They have firewire connections and I have used 2 pci firewire cards to connect them and on another machine 1 onboard firewire and 1 pci card to record in Kinovea. I have not tested out the 16:9 aspect ratio yet.
I also have a Casio Exilim EX-FH20 camera that shot stills at multiple resolutions and video at 1280x720 and high speed video at lower 4:3 resolutions. I mostly shot 210fps, but it can do 420fps as well. The picture just gets smaller and smaller. The 210 fps plays perfect in Kinovea, the 720p HD video does not, even on my faster Core2Quad system. Is there a way to play the 1280x720 video in Kinovea? This camera has a USB connector and an SD card slot. Currently I record onto the SD Card and copy it to the system manually. I wonder if the would ever be able to use the USB cable to record live video via USB?
Hello, One interesting camera currently on the market is the FaceVsion Touchcam N1. It has some interesting features but most important has hardware compression (H.264) internal in the web cam and uses USB. It can do HD in 9 fps but 640x480 in 30fps which is nice for sports. I have evaluated the camera for use in physical education at the university (Southern Denmark) and it performs quite good. It also works with the latest version 0.8.15. The only thing I am missing in Kinovea 0.8.15 is the option to adjust the exposure. Exposure is important if you want to avoid motion blur in the images. Normally you use the "Video source" (DirectShow programming stuff) to do that. But I dont see the properties for enabling that in kinovea? Only selecting the format. Hope to see it soon :-)
Last: Thanks for a very nice tool. Good work.
Jan
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jbrond wrote:
The only thing I am missing in Kinovea 0.8.15 is the option to adjust the exposure. Exposure is important if you want to avoid motion blur in the images. Normally you use the "Video source" (DirectShow programming stuff) to do that. But I dont see the properties for enabling that in kinovea?
Thanks for the feedback on this camera.
Try to use the "Properties" button to access the driver's properties page with the extra settings.