filmingadvicemotorbikes

Filming Guidelines

 

General Filming Advice

Filming Advice - Motorbikes

Filming Advice - Car Track Days

Motor Racing Guide

Filming Advice – Motorbikes

Bikecamers.com have been designing and supplying On Board Camera Systems for use on motorbikes and are widely acclaimed amongst the biking industry to truly be the caring and understanding specialists in this field, having built up vast experience working with a number a Track Day Organisers and literally thousands of customers over the years.

Our products are often copied but never equalled.  Indeed, the majority of our competitors also buy our products to sell as their own!

This document is just a guideline to help you get the most out of your filming experience.

Motorbike filming has its own set of challenges that make it very different from car filming. It is worth reading the car guides for general hints and tips first as the majority of our products are aimed specifically for bikes.

If you cannot see what you require on our website then please get in touch with us for recommendations on what our customers and ourselves use.

Here are three short clips showing how www.advancedmotorcycletraining.com use on board footage as part of their tuition. -

                                                                   Clip 1      Clip2      Clip3
 

                                 

Areas we will cover are:–

Type of camera and equipment used
Location of equipment and mounting points

Type of camera

The type of camera you use on a bike is more critical than in a car. A bike generally has more vibration and noise, less places to mount the equipment and is more weight and size sensitive.
In almost all situations it is best to use a bullet camera, connected to a camcorder or solid-state recorder. A bullet camera being small and light generally gives a more stable result, plus you can mount them almost anywhere.
It is easy to change lenses for different effects; wide angle lens (2.97mm) for getting great on board footage including yourself and the clocks for example, with a standard lens (4.3mm) for when you wish to get a better view when filming others (trackdays and road trips).

Assuming you are using a bullet camera, this needs to be connected to a recording device to capture the footage. Here you generally have four options – Tape (camcorder), Mini DVD (camcorder) hard drive (camcorder or multimedia device) or solid state (camcorder or memory card recorder). In every case the device MUST have AV in, some of the cheaper devices don’t have this so always check before buying!

All products sold on ww.bikecameras.com are compatible.

Tape – Mini DV Camcorder. This will generally give the best picture quality, the downsides being a little heavier and bulkier to carry around and store, plus the tape can be affected by harsh vibration. It can seem a little wasteful to buy a camcorder just to use it as a recorder, but by using it in this way you can safely store the camcorder out of the way, plus the bullet camera will capture footage much better and with less visible vibration/pcture shaking’ than a camcorder.

Plus, away from the bike you can use the camcorder for general filming or for filming from trackside. I personally prefer Sony, simply because you can use a LANC remote control (http://www.bikecameras.com/LANC-Devices.php), that allows an easy one touch button to record and then switch off recording as you wish, saving battery and tape life, and saving you the hassle of unpacking all the equipment to stop and start recording. Sadly there latest range of Handycams only have one model with AV in, the HC96, which isn’t all that cheap (around £500 to £600).

We continue to use and supply the older models, the HC30/40/32 & 42, which we find to be perfect for the job and give superb results  Whilst a couple of these are actually discontinued from stock by the high street stores, we can still supply them for between £250-£350

Mini DVD – DVD Camcorder. Generally not used for on-bike filming due to greater susceptibility to loss of picture through vibration and a higher purchase cost. Only real advantage they have is easy editing and being able to take the recorded DVD from the camcorder and putting it straight into your DVD player.

Hard Drive – Camcorder or Multimedia device i.e. Archos.  Hard Drive camcorders are starting to become more established, but whilst they are a very clever and versatile ‘box of tricks’, being able to record video , store movies/mp3 songs etc, they DO NOT LIKE ANY VIBRATION and are therefore not suitable fr use with an On Board Video System.
Multimedia devices that have a built in screen generally have loads of additional features i.e. MP3 player, can playback and record video etc.
Biggest downside with all hard drive devices is errors and corruption caused by vibration. Some of our customers have experienced good results when using with our bullet cameras, but this really is like a lottery, as more often than not the hard drive device becomes virtually unusable on a bike or car.

We stopped stocking this type of equipment for On Board Systems, back in 2005.

Solid State – Camcorder or multimedia recorder i.e Neuros, PDR, mini recorder etc.
This is the future for in car and on bike recorders, as they are small, light weight and without moving parts so not really affected by vibration. They record onto memory cards i.e Compact Flash, which come in various sizes and are getting very affordable now. Up until now we have had to choose between high cost and good quality or low cost and average recording quality. We are watching this area closely and are already stocking devices that strike a balance between the two. Quality will improve greatly over the next few years.
Editing the footage and transferring it to a pc is quick and easy too.

The most cost effective recorder we now currently supply is the mini recorder which can be found at http://www.bikecameras.com/DigitalVideoRecorder.php


Mounts and locations

A bike has a lot less positions for mounting a camera than a car, but with some creativity a variety of angles can be achieved. A wide angle lens is essential if you are wanting to include part of your body in the footage too, e.g. head and shoulders, knee down shots etc.

VELCRO

We provide heavy duty Velcro in our bullet camera kits, and this is also the way we have attached cameras to bikes for the past few years, with literally thousands of successful installations without ever having a camera come loose on a bike.

In addition, the Velcro makes removing the camera very quick and easy, with repositioning elsewhere in a matter of seconds.  Whilst very sticky, the Velcro will not damage paint work as long as the paint has been factory applied and lacquered.

The Velcro also helps to soak up some of the vibration and as it doesn’t have suckers or other attachments, makes positioning in tight areas very easy.

          

Suction mounts

Look for high strength suckers, ideally multiple small suckers so you can place on the screen, fairing, tank or tail section. When placing on the fairing you need to take care if you have decals attached, as these tend to cause the suckers to lose grip. Smooth sections of paintwork will be best. If you are reaching high speeds check the mount at regular intervals, especially if exposed to the full force of the wind i.e. on the fairing. Suction mount are rarely allowed on trackdays, so speak to the organisers first. Also be careful when positioning a mount on the tank, in the event of a fall you don’t want to be landing on a mount and camera!

                

Clamp mounts

We have used a number of clamp mounts on bikes, best locations are the pillion pegs or rear grab rail. On some bikes you can mount it to the front fork lowers (just take care of the cables near your wheel and discs!). The clamp mounts do work well and give stable results. Mirrors are generally a poor place to clamp to due to loads of vibration. On a ‘crosser you can fit some clamps (super clamp) to the handlebars, which gets them out the way of the worst of the mud.

                                 

Helmet mount – Our helmet mount (for bullet cameras only) has given us the best results overall, as your body damps out most vibration, giving a clear and stable riders eye view. Although only attached with Velcro we have reached speeds of 160mph with no problems.

 LOCATION OF THE RECORDER

The location of where to put the recording device is really down to these areas – panniers/top box/bag bungeed, rucksack/jacket, or under the seat.  Really it will depend on what recording device you are using and how resistant to vibration it is. It is best to wrap it up in bubble wrap or use on of our camcorder padded bags or backpacks to protect from damage.

HAVE AN OPINION?

The above comments are part of an ongoing document to help our customers achieve the best video footage in the safest possible way.  We will constantly add to and amend these guidelines to achieve this, and therefore we would love to hear from you to share with others what has and hasn’t worked well for you.

Please email suggestions@bikecameras.com