Photographing NBTV

[gary]

This is not really off-topic as it pertains to my wanting to photograph some of my NBTV projects, however as it involves camera advice I have placed it here.

I am looking for a reasonably inexpensive digital camera capable of taking good photos of equipment and NBTV screen shots (and we all know how hard that can be). At the very least I think that this would entail the ability to take good close-up (macro) shots, and manual exposure time. I doubt that resolution would come into it at all.

I have been thinking of the Canon A480 and was wondering if anyone had one and had used it for this purpose?

If anyone has any advice on cameras, techniques etc. in general I would be pleased to hear of it, keeping in mind that $1000 SLRs are out of the question.

The ability to take video (with manually selectable frame rate) would also be great.

[Klaas Robers]

The problem of taking moving pictures with a digital CCD camera is that the exposure time is (always?) less than the frame repetition time. So if you fix a repetition rate of 12,5 f/s the exposure time is less than 80 msec and you will miss part of the frame.

In the far past we made 16 mm film from a TV monitor and you know what you see then. But we could synchronise the film camera to the sync. The camera (Arriflex) had a shutter that could be adjusted to an open-time of 50%. So with 25 frames per second it took one interlaced field out of two fields. The vertical resolution of TV was halved, but 16mm film is not that good. By adjusting the phase of the servo system the opening and closing moments could be laid in the frame sync and we had a perfect picture.

Unfortunately NBTV has no frame sync blanking.

[Lowtone]

I will do some tests with Super 8. Only a few seconds because i need film to somthing else. If i get something on the film i will tell you.

[gary]

The problem of taking moving pictures with a digital CCD camera is that the exposure time is (always?) less than the frame repetition time. So if you fix a repetition rate of 12,5 f/s the exposure time is less than 80 msec and you will miss part of the frame.

Indeed, which is why I think a manual exposure time adjustment is mandatory. I read that the Canon A484 has an exposure time of up to 15 seconds, but whether it is manually adjustable I am not sure. I was hoping someone on the forum might have access to one and could try it out (if they haven't done so already).

The techniques required for NBTV photography/video seem to be quite different to that in normal photography and so documentation, and the literature, tend to be very sparse on things like frame rates and exposure times.

[holtzman]

I saw Daniel Gosson's clips on y-tube, they were absolutely flicker-free. I have no idea why he removed them from y-tube, and how did he adjust the camera.

With stills, there is less problem. But stills are of less interest in NBTV. Of course, if exposure is too long, the image can be smudged due to the moving of the television picture.

[gary]

I saw Daniel Gosson's clips on y-tube, they were absolutely flicker-free. I have no idea why he removed them from y-tube, and how did he adjust the camera.

He had indicated in the past that he achieved that by judicious use of lighting:
http://www.taswegian.com/NBTV/forum/vie ... ight=#6117

but you need a camera that supports that function.

With stills, there is less problem. But stills are of less interest in NBTV. Of course, if exposure is too long, the image can be smudged due to the moving of the television picture.

Stills would do me for a start but the ability to vary the exposure time is still necessary as far as I can see, and I haven't come across a cost effective camera that allows you to do that yet.

[Lowtone]

I will do some tests with Super 8 .

done
but the processing is not for today

[Steve Anderson]

I wrote the following in 2008 and sent it in to Jeremy after he placed an appeal in the newsletter for some advice on this. I thought I had put it up here on the forum, but maybe not...it hasn't appearing in the newsletter as yet...

Any remaining questions simply ask, I may not have all the answers...

Steve A.

Gary, I've just looked up the Canon A480 (I assume the A484 was a typo) and it has few, if any manual controls. Good price, but not really suitable...as the review I read says, "It does need good light, especially in Macro mode".

Quite right with the resolution...1Mpixel (I do mean one-megapixel) will be more than enough for NBTV!! if not the holidays snaps...

[Klaas Robers]

Steve, I hope you haven't sent it to Jeremy in the pdf form only. In that case Jeremy has to retype all your text in order to get it in the Newsletter style.
The best way is to send a raw text file (.txt) and the pictures (.jpg) and a .pdf to show what your ideas were and eventually a .doc Word-type file with pictures in the correct place (where you made the .pdf from). In that case I try to use the character type and size and other settings as used in the Newsletter. However sometimes it is easier to lay out the text from scratch than use an existing Word document with all the unknown internal settings that come with it.

[Steve Anderson]

Don't worry Klaas, I send Jeremy the text (only) as a Word-compatible document (having checked it on a Windoze PC) and separate GIFs/JPGs as required. I also send the PDF version so he has an idea as to what text relates to what picture/diagram when he comes to paste-it up for the newsletter. Exactly as above.

I have requested a copy of an example ready-to-go newsletter item, such that I can copy the format etc, which will make Jeremys' life a bit easier...but as yet it has to arrive.

With the BATC, they send me a proof-read copy (example attached) with lo-res graphics to ensure the transcription is correct. The final graphics/drawings/photos in the item are at full resolution. This is only to save on bandwidth for the proof-read copy. This was in 2004 of course, I was still on dail-up then, now they send the full resolution version, as it would exactly appear in CQTV.

Steve A.