- Index
- » Tricks of the Trade
- » Animation Fundamentals
- » m_) Reviewing Cameras
m_) Reviewing Cameras
m_) Reviewing Cameras
REVIEWING CAMERAS
m_) I decided to make a thread where we can all share our knowledge and experience using cameras. No matter what camera you have, just name it, review it, tell us the pros and cons and even prices could help as well.
m_) I will mention the ones I've worked with in the past years.
m_) I will hope we all can discuss and have a better idea of what cameras are ideal to work with.
I began using Logitech Quick Cam and I will share my experience to you.
Unlike other webcams, this is the cheapest to use, and notice that it is not called "PRO". When I bought it I really thought it was. However, I was wrong, and softwares such as Helium Frog wouldn't detect it, hence the quality is very low. I still think was worth buying, and most of my first experiments were using a Logitech Quick Cam. The resolution is up to 640 x 480. Correct if I am wrong, but I think it resist that resolution. Has some nice lens that you can adjust manually. It helps a lot for lighting and blur effects. (in-depth method is that called?)
Advantages:
*you don't need any extra cable for this camera, nor a specific kind of software to make it work
Disadvantages:
*you can not make a decent film since the quality is very poor, and will work mostly for experimental purposes.
Later I heard of Logitech Quick Cam Pro 9000. Never had the chance to buy it but I heard is the best webcam out there, and you can have a much better resolution. So if you ever want to get a logitech, make sure is that the one you BUY! It cost 80 buck in the US and it should work in 720 pixels. I think there are two kinds : web cam, and quick cam. And here someone correct if I am wrong but I think the one you want is a Quick Cam, since web cam are designed for video calls, hence lower quality performance.
Advantages:
*you don't need any special software for using this camera
*Helium Frog will let you use it in the best quality
Disadvantages
*can anyone name any?
My first encounter with Camcorders was last year. I was using a Canon Elura 60. Other versions are Elura 60/70/80/90 and I don't think there is much difference in the video quality. I have used this one ever since and It works pretty well using monkeyjam software. You will need a firewire connection to use it for stopmotion. Make sure you do HAVE a firewire output. Because I used to have a camcorder with no firewire connection and that just was as same as not having a camera with me. Then I realized the only way to make animate was using a firewire, and a software that detects camcorders. The quality is decent, but the bad thing is the light. It appears to be quite sensitive towards light, so the best way to make it work is having one/two sources of light, shut your doors, close your windows...and voila! -that will help a bit.
In the meantime, I also had the opportunity to utilize a Canon Powershot S3 IS. I never tested but I know a way if ever have it with you. Dave Hetmer took his time to explain this to me:
"The S3IS is designed to be a consumer camera. Most consumers don't animate, so the camera isn't set up to animate in an easy way. The rest of this email will describe a complicated way of shooting, but that is the best option I've found."
The cable you found (IFC-400PCU) is a standard type of USB cable. It comes with the camera when you buy it.
I found a link to the software on the CD:
http://download.cnet.com/ZoomBrowser-EX … 24035.html
You will want to get the power supply so you don't need to use batteries. The S3IS drains batteries quickly.
If you want to use a frame grabber, you'll need to get the camera's video output into your computer. You can't get good images through the USB cable. There are probably many products that will bring video to the computer. I use the Dazzle DVC:
http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/u … r+Plus.htm
I use Helium Frog 2.06 for frame grabbing. Helium Frog can see the Dazzle DVC. The Helium Frog software is written in England, so it works best when the camera's video output is set to PAL.
I use the frame grabber to monitor my shooting, but I don't use the frame grabber for the actual images. I take two pictures for each frame:
* One on the camera.
* One for the frame grabbing software.
The only way to get images into a frame grabber is to use the camera's video output, but the maximum resolution for that is 640x480. Yuck! So I take a picture at the camera (using the 2 second timer delay so I don't wiggle the camera while the frame is being exposed) and then take a picture at the frame grabbing software. When I'm all done shooting I download the frames from the camera to my computer and assemble them in some other program.
On the other hand, I have have been offered a Canon FS 200 this year. I have not tested yet, for it needs a USB port to download the pictures to your computer. Whenever I get that USB port, I will make sure to come back with my experience using it. For now, here Dave Hetmer responded me and gave a nice observation about it:
Canon FS 200 Specs:
* Inputs/Outputs: 3.5-millimeter headphone/3.5-millimeter mic, A/V, Mini-USB
This tells me that you'd use the A/V into the frame grabber, and take photos on the camera. When done, you'd download the photos over the USB port. The frame grabber images wouldn't be used for the final film.
* Resolution (video/photo): 720x480/1,024x768
This tells me that the photos would be 1024x768, which is pretty big for hobbyist use.
Thanks Dave.
Jul-13-10 15:57:43
- Metalmadcat
-
-
- 51 Posts
-
Re: m_) Reviewing Cameras
Great review Metal, and very thurough. I've got the pro version of the Logitech camera line and it works good, but it still doesn't beat even the cheapest still cameras nowadays. But it's good if you want to do something fast or to use it as reference with your capture software. Then you can use a high quality still camera along side it to capture the really nice images. It's great for anyone who does it as a hobby as you say. It's also pretty reliable.
- Marc_Spess
- Creator of Animateclay.com
-
-
- 235 Posts
-
Re: m_) Reviewing Cameras
Marc_Spess wrote:
Great review Metal, and very thurough. I've got the pro version of the Logitech camera line and it works good, but it still doesn't beat even the cheapest still cameras nowadays. But it's good if you want to do something fast or to use it as reference with your capture software. Then you can use a high quality still camera along side it to capture the really nice images. It's great for anyone who does it as a hobby as you say. It's also pretty reliable.
m_)
By the way, I have a hard time understanding how to use two cameras, one for reference and one to capture the nice images. Do you place them in the same exact place, and how? I can't picture that, and if they are not in the same place, how can that be helpful then?
sorry to come up with a silly question, maybe im the only one who still don't get that right...
- Metalmadcat
-
-
- 51 Posts
-
Re: m_) Reviewing Cameras
Hey Metal, good question. One thing you can do is hook your webcam through the eye piece on your DSLR camera. I've seen some people use spy cams and webcams to do that, but I don't know if it works all that well.
The other is to place the webcam as close to the left or right of the other cameras lens and try to line the whole shot up in the frame as close as you can on both. The small distance, usually just an inch or two usually doesn't make a big difference in how the animation turns out. It's sort of like how in Coraline they had two cameras side by side, but the animator only used one side for reference. It sounds scary but it works.
- Marc_Spess
- Creator of Animateclay.com
-
-
- 235 Posts
-
Re: m_) Reviewing Cameras
m_) Marc, I have one more question about FLIP MINO HD cameras. Can they be used for stopmo purposes?
- Metalmadcat
-
-
- 51 Posts
-
Re: m_) Reviewing Cameras
Really good review, think my logitech quick cam is apro 9000, will try and increase picture size see if that helps.
JO
- jo-animation
-
-
- 9 Posts
-
Re: m_) Reviewing Cameras
Well, I'll add to the reviews:
Canon Rebel T2i
I bought this Camera a few weeks ago, mainly for stop motion, but since I also do film and photography, I got it for those purposes too. I am using the camera's kit lens. Having tested the camera with iStopMotion and Dragon, I can finally create my review.
The camera works well and the battery stays charged for a very long time (although there is an accessory part you can buy that plugs the camera into an outlet. The menu is very easy to use and even though I am coming from a non-DSLR world, I will say this is a light camera. It can take a range of image types, from low quality to high quality JPG with RAW (RAW is about 24-26 Mb, so don't just use this unless you are certain you want to).
When animating with Dragon, it worked beautifully. I mount the camera on a tripod, plug it in, start the Dragon 2.2.1 demo (note, Canon T2i is not supported before version 2.0.5) and it automatically sees the camera and starts live view. The interesting thing is that the camera's LCD screen turns off and I have to control everything through Dragon, which is a little annoying at first since I'm not completely used to the interface. When I press the "Shoot" button, both Dragon and the camera make a shutter noise (the camera has a relatively high-pitched, chirp-like shutter noise, but I don't mind that so much). Although it sounds like the camera is also taking a picture, it isn't, so no space on the SD card is wasted. I could only take 50 frames with the Dragon demo, but after I exported the final product to a nice, relatively high quality movie, I noticed two things. The first is that the quality, compared to my old camcorder, is super crisp. The second, is that I noticed no flicker. Flicker can be cause by the iris of the lens, depending if it's a fully manual lens or not, or the electric currents in the house. I was using the canon kit lens, which many people claim causes flicker (cause it isn't fully manual). I set manual focus, stabilizer off, and the manual control setting - I definitely won't be buying a converter and a manual Nikkor lens anytime soon. The other thing that might have prevented flicker is that I was using one of those power surge strips - I find them great because I can plug in a few lights (ok, I only have one at the moment) my computer, and my camcorder charger.
Ok, so here are a few cons that I missed before. It is a DSLR camera. This being said, it doesn't seem to work with iStopMotion, and since I have a mac I wasn't able to test out any of the windows programs. Though it did seem that Helium Frog would be able to read the camera's input (it can connect to the EOS Utility application for the camera). If you get the latest version of Dragon, though, there are no worries. It runs on a battery, which means you can't animate it for 24 hours straight, but even this can be saved with the AC Adapter Kit ACK-E8.
Oh, and if you want this camera for straight-out photography, the 18 megapixel sensor and full HD video capabilities should help lure you into buying this one. I rate it highly because it works well in what it's supposed to do. It also doesn't overheat that much and it didn't auto-turn off even though I forgot to switch it from turning off in 30 seconds to never...
The final "pro" part of this camera, is that you can probably take the same image quality with this 800 (something) dollar camera as with a 5000 dollar camera... that is, unless you bloat the image to room size.
- JesseOffy
-
-
- 168 Posts
-
Re: m_) Reviewing Cameras
well I also got a web cam and Im only starting off with claymations only been doing it a half a year and already 200 subscribers! but anyway back on topic I use the Microsoft lifecam life cam cinima its fantastic HD video and is recognized by my program Stopmotionpro actionplus unfortunately i dont have the HD version so it has to lower my quality 
- mongothemonkfish
-
-
- 59 Posts
-
Re: m_) Reviewing Cameras
Hi! I've been using the Hue HD Webcam. Its about $20, and shoots up to 1280x960 native resolution. The image quality is OK. The one I purchased has a few bad pixels twinkling away, but since I'm a beginner, and am only shooting NTSC resolution at the moment, I can live with it. I bought it last year after searching for something that would do HD or near HD quality for stop motion. However, I realized quickly that I don't have the disk space for that kind of thing, so scaled back to regular TV resolution, which hides most of the twinkling bad pixels. It has a flexible neck like the creatures in War of the Worlds (the old movie), and so could easily be a stop motion character itself. The focus is manual by twisting the focus ring. This is a bit of a problem when shooting a stop motion scene to have to refocus without accidentally shifting the position of the camera, and the field of focus depth is fairly small - just move a character a few centimeters away or twords the camera and you need to refocus if you want it sharp.
I had some problems with the software drivers that shipped with it - just wouldn't work on my mac. I downloaded the update from the website and then it worked - sort of. You have to boot with the camera plugged in or it won't work, and software that uses the camera has trouble letting go of it so, for instance, to start a new project you usually have to quit your software and relaunch the software again or you'll get a "camera in use" error. I've been using Frame by Frame, free software which is VGA resolution only anyway) for my projects, but I also tested with Dragon and iStopMotion demo - seems to work just fine with both. The best thing about this camera is it is incredibly cheap, and you can shoot in a larger (not quite HD, but close) format. If you are lucky, you'll get one that doesn't have bad pixels in it, but for $20 it is a great entry-level tool.
- jbrave
-
-
- 5 Posts
-
- Index
- » Tricks of the Trade
- » Animation Fundamentals
- » m_) Reviewing Cameras