Thirteenth Recon Airsoft - Youtube Channel

[Tyrakstooth]

I have started a YouTube channel and began posting amateur videos. Please check it out and I would appreciate any advice on how to make these videos better.

 

Thanks.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/Tyrakstoothyuip

[Airsoft-Ed]

I'll take a look when I'm less busy, I'm interested in seeing what the Drift is capable of, how are you finding it?

[Tyrakstooth]

So far its serving me pretty well, it comes with everything I needed minus the picatinny rail mount. It changes really well from light to dark which is useful on my site because of the outdoor CQB arena, the zoom is decent, picture and colour quality is nice too, the menu is easy to navigate and the remote control is a useful feature. What I will say though, is that the battery life is a bit short. I don't know if that is down to the type of battery I'm using or the camera's consumption of charge but it definitely needs a backup to last for a whole game day and the audio is a bit naff. But for the price, I'm not really complaining because you can still get some pretty good videos with it.

[Airsoft-Ed]

Nice one, that pretty much sums up everything I'd want to know.

How is it for taking BB hits?

[Tyrakstooth]

I aim to please haha

 

I havent actually had the camera itself be hit by a bb, as I invested in a Drift waterproof case which holds the whole camera. There are a couple clips in the videos on my channel which you can distinctly hear the bb hitting the casing but cause no damage at all. As for the camera without the case, i have no idea. It is a very small bit of kit though, so it is discreet enough to not be a target in the first place..

[Airsoft-Ed]

You say that, but I'm pretty sure my Contours are smaller, and they've both been hit at least 4 times total between them over the course of about 8 months, and new lens covers are so hard to get hold of I've had to keep bodging it with perspex discs and tape.

Which works fine, it's just a pain in the bow-larks.

[Airsoft-Ed]

Just watched the Search and Destroy game and I think you've got the right idea about editing.

The footage largely speaks for itself but you've added text to clarify things, that's good. Videos aren't worth watching if it's not made clear what's going on. One thing I would say to change, is to add some sort of outline to the text, if it goes against anything the same colour as it, it's going to turn invisible and be unreadable. Not such an issue in that video, but at points you might struggle to position the text so it's always visible without an outline.

I think having that water case on the camera ruins the sound quality, which I personally rate pretty highly. I'm not sure what the sound capture would be like without it, but if it were me I'd protect the camera some other way so as not to impair the sound. Or add some music to the videos to help up the atmosphere, to distract from how quiet the game is. Or perhaps the drift can have an external mic or something? I'm not sure.

I use perspex discs for the camera lens, and thankfully the Contour doesn't have a screen or anything on it anywhere else, you could probably throw it down some concrete stairs and it'd be alright.

I think going in and out a lot, from bright to dark, screws with the camera quite a bit too, it's insanely hard to see anything at the start, or whenever you're looking into the sun. Not a lot you can really do about it though, I guess. One way to help it though, is to angle the camera downwards slightly, so that you're less likely to get sun light shining directly on the lens, as that's what causes the white/blackouts.

Might be worth fiddling with the exposure settings to make it easier to see when the picture darkens, though there's not a lot you can do about white-outs, they happen most when you're looking from a dark place into a light one, so if you want to get the footage to be the best it can, you'll have to decide whether to just play as you normally would, for yourself, or play for the best video you can; which will require you to look at things longer than you usually would and hold your head in certain places, at certain angles, to best make use of the light available.

I have a pretty slow paced, defensive play style, so it tends to sort itself out for me a fair bit, but on games with lots of moving inside and out, I try to sit back from windows, but focus on looking at them to give the camera time to adjust to see what's outside. Flicking back and forth inside the buildings tends to just leave the windows looking like white squares.

I'll give you a sub though, see how things develop.

The site you're at looks pretty badass by the way.

[Tyrakstooth]

Great advice thanks I completely agree with everything you have said and I'm definitely going to try that camera trick you mentioned by angling it lower As for the sound quality, the camera does have a microphone connection, but unfortunately I am without the microphone, so until I get that, i'm trying to boost the sound with the software i'm using which, like you said, isn't great but, its all I have at the minute

 

Cheers, that's only the CQB arena, we have four or five other zones which we use in full site games. Hopefully ill get some footage of the rest of the site on my next visit