F-Stop Junkie

There's a difference between blur and focus. These two shots are relatively slow shutter speed (I think 1/80th and 1/125th of second respectively) but are in focus: Sometimes you want a bit of blur to give a sense of motion or speed. An out of focus shot would have the background (or foreground) in focus, but every part of the rider (or subject) soft. Not just blurred, but actually soft.

Focus and shutter speed are unrelated. This shot is in focus, but has motion blur...

Holy DoF Batman... What lens were you and Claire rocking there?

Not bad for a first go... Needs to keep an eye on her shutter speeds, and I'd also suggest

Prom? Is this in America? Bloody MTV! Let me guess, kids these days have 'Sweet 16' parties too? Nonsense.

Yeah, the Wardens are often "Take bike, ask questions later" if you're off the path. If it's busy (Sunny day, weekend, lots of families?) then anything seen as potentially dangerous in their eyes would probably have a dim view of. Honestly, I'd go somewhere else on a weekend.

(I know, I know, I'm behind on this..)

Popbitch perchance? She did a cracking shoot for... GQ I think? Maybe Esquire. One of the classy mags. Very cool.

Tartybikes?

A couple from the archive...

Everytime I ever met Gav, he was happy and smiling. He loved riding, and never let anything get in the way of enjoying it. He excelled in competition, but never took a bad result to heart, he was a great sportsman. It's such a shame that the World has lost a personality like Gavin. He was one of those people who made the world a happier place by the way he interacted with everyone. Ride free Gav, You'll be missed.

To make an HDDSLR a useable tool for shooting video, you really need something like this You can extend that too if you need a matte box and so on... Cost? £650 for the first one, £1600 for the second...

It's all about having adjustable settings... Like Colin Chapman said "If you give people adjustable suspension, they'll adjust it wrong."

Hmmm, had a quick Google... It seems that the 180 degree shutter idea (i.e. 30fps equals 1/60th shutter, 60fps = 1/120th shutter, etc...) If you bump the shutter up, then it does reduce motion blur (and makes slo-mo shots done in computer smoother) but there's also a desirable amount of motion blur to give a certain look and make motion more natural and less stuttering. (Pixar actually invented a way of adding blur onto objects in computer animation to make the subjects look more real and less computer generated. Just a thought.) As with photography, there's no perfect answer, just that "It depends"

If you want to maintain a certain shutter speed (such as 1/30th if you're shooting at 30fps) then if you're shooting in bright sun and you can only get down to F16 (for example), then a strong ND filter would allow you to maintain the shutter speed while limiting the depth of field to F5.6 or whatever you want. There's a whole world of science and experience around setting shutter speeds and the like for video. Rules over camera shake apply far less when your subject is moving, it's not just the same as photo stuff.

Watching that skate park video, reminds me of a blog post Vincent Laforet posted about using lots of ND filters to keep shutter speeds down to 1/60th or 1/30th of a sec as required while still keeping the lens wide open. Interesting idea.

You, well, won't. It's an effect called 'rolling shutter' where when the image is read from the sensor, it's read one line of pixels at a time. If you move the camera quickly as the sensor is being scanned, then you'll get the top of the image being different from the bottom half. It happens to any camera with CMOS sensor (including a lot of camcorders, all dSLRs and even the RED one.) To not get it you either need to shoot static things, or get a camera with a CCD sensor, like the JVC HM700. There is a plugin you can for After Effects to try and reduce the effect, but it is abuot $500. More details here. There are ways to help ease a rolling shutter effect though.

Bingo. When people want to buy a dslr to save money on buying a separate video camera then I think they're missing the point. Like people who want to buy a trials bike with a 400mm seat post to use for XC as well, they're missing the best of both worlds. Apart from Dave Marshall. But then he's mental. Where was I? Using a dSLR for video has great lenses, sensors and image processing, but the ergonomics are terrible. Just look at the collection of strap on viewfinders, carrying rigs and Lego-esque focus followers you can buy for an absolute fortune. It's buildng video into a body not designed to be carried and operated at the same time. I'd love a 7D, 5D2 or any video body. Would be fascinating to explore what can be done, but I'd still take a camcorder on holiday...

Google Vincent Laforet, as he is the Mac Daddy when it comes to dSLR shooting. His two videos Reverie (First video done on 5Dmk2 and shot over a weekend) and Nocturne (Shot all in available light on a 1Dmk4 at ISO 6400+ I think) show just how good dSLR video is. Oh, and Phillip Bloom. However, for the ordinary user, they're really rather awful at the moment. You need to worry about aperture and shutter speed, manually focus, follow focus, worry about sound, use constant lighting instead of flash, etc... If you have the time to shoot slowly then you'll get great results, but as Mark says, you can't just point a camera at something and hope it'll do the rest. Frankly, it's a digital cinema and stills camera at the moment. If you want a video camera, just buy a video camera.

No, but under retail law, the warranty exists between you and the retailer. It's then upto the shop to get it sorted with the manufacturer. Go to the manufacturer directly, and they'll tell you to go to the shop you bought it from. So... Tarty.

Trip report!

Rusevelt, who do you think did Kick-Ass? Do you think it's a Tarantino flick?

Errr, you do know it's a British film, right? Anyway, wouldn't have said it was specifically Kill Bill (and I don't think there's any good bits of Superbad...) but lots of nods to both sci-fi/fantasy comic properties as well as movies like The Matrix. And it's very, very good!

As I said, unless it looks like a shitbox, they're not going to start poking around unless they have some reason to. Probably the most you'll get is someone looking through the window at the barrier.

They can enforce full TuV approval if they want. They have no obligation to let you on if they don't want to. Ultimately they could insist you have to have pink wheels if they wanted. Having an MoT carries no weight in Germany. I think in practise, you'll only be picked up if there's something obvious or they take a dislike to you. If your car is stupidly loud, or you're doing burn outs in the car park or something like that. If you have a non-TuV approved seat, but it's installed correctly and is in good working order they won't look twice*. Turn up with half a rusty scrapyard in your car, unfinished panels and comedy suspension geometry, you won't get close. If it's obvious - bonnet pins, video camera, etc... No chance. I'd be more worried about the Police nearby. A few people get a rush of blood to the throttle pedal outside the track (*cough*Skyline owners*cough*) and the Police have no qualms at all about fining people, or even confiscating cars if it needs it. There's also a few points near the carpark which have speed limits which change suddenly! * This is no guarentee, just my opinion! George, as long as potentially dangerous bits are finished/padded then you'll probably be ok. As I said above, it's unpadded cages and unfinished door trims that are problematic.