Have a Question for Me?

[seano]

John -
A question about videotaping. Last night I recorded some golf swings from a Top Golf driving range. The club and club head was a little blurrier than I was expecting. I was wondering what the possible causes may be. I always shoot at 240 fps but lowered the shutter speed to 1/340 & 1/640 because of the darkness and increased the ISO to 4000 & 8000. Wondering if you have any advice to get the crystal clear shots I normally get. For outdoor shooting, I normally have a 1/2000 shutter speed and ISO around 340. My camera is a Sony RX100 Mark 4 and takes HD quality videos, thanks.
Sean O

[johnyandell]

Sounds like you did everything possible. If there is not enough light there isn't enough. I've had similar experiences with indoor tennis courts.

[nytennisaddict]

John -
A question about videotaping. Last night I recorded some golf swings from a Top Golf driving range. The club and club head was a little blurrier than I was expecting. I was wondering what the possible causes may be. I always shoot at 240 fps but lowered the shutter speed to 1/340 & 1/640 because of the darkness and increased the ISO to 4000 & 8000. Wondering if you have any advice to get the crystal clear shots I normally get. For outdoor shooting, I normally have a 1/2000 shutter speed and ISO around 340. My camera is a Sony RX100 Mark 4 and takes HD quality videos, thanks.
Sean O

side note, i often shoot my kid's soccer, and 1/640 is definitely not fast enough to capture 12y olds running (typically shoot at a min aperture of 1/1000.
so i suspect there's no way you're gonna capture a golf head travelling 10x faster, without blur unless you're at 1/2000 (ideally faster i imagine).
only solution to lack of light, if you need to keep your aperture high, is to bump the iso to the max... the canon 5d mark3 for example i think goes up to like 102,000 (i imagine it's super grainy at that iso though)... not all vid equip is capable of that (my old canon 5d for example only goes to 1600)

[johnyandell]

Yep there are limitations to all these cameras.

[nytennisaddict]

Yep there are limitations to all these cameras.

and the reason why quality high speed cams (eg. capable of 1000fps at a decent picture size) are so damn expensive!

[johnyandell]

Correct. I want a Red camera--only about $15K

[seano]

The Sony RX100 Mark IV - VII cameras can record at 240 fps, 480 fps & 960 fps in the HFR mode , they are nice but can only shoot the highest qualities in 2 or 4 second burst. The cost is around $1200 for the Mark VII, cheaper for used Mark IV, V, VI. The following are the specs.

Mark IV - 240 fps = 1824 x 1026 - 2 second burst
480 fps = 1676 x 566 - 2 second burst
960 fps = 1136 x 384 - 2 second burst

Mark VII - 240 fps = 1824 x 1026 - 2 second burst
480 fps = 1824 x 616 - 2 second burst
960 fps = 1244 x 420 - 2 second burst

A nice feature is you can record before (start trigger) or after (end trigger) a particular stroke. I like "end trigger" cause you can choose which strokes you want to record after the stroke is completed.

John - what can you tell me about a "Red" camera? who makes it etc... Of course it's only possible in a dream world. I like to keep up with whats out there.

[nytennisaddict]

The Sony RX100 Mark IV - VII cameras can record at 240 fps, 480 fps & 960 fps in the HFR mode , they are nice but can only shoot the highest qualities in 2 or 4 second burst. The cost is around $1200 for the Mark VII, cheaper for used Mark IV, V, VI. The following are the specs.

Mark IV - 240 fps = 1824 x 1026 - 2 second burst
480 fps = 1676 x 566 - 2 second burst
960 fps = 1136 x 384 - 2 second burst

Mark VII - 240 fps = 1824 x 1026 - 2 second burst
480 fps = 1824 x 616 - 2 second burst
960 fps = 1244 x 420 - 2 second burst

A nice feature is you can record before (start trigger) or after (end trigger) a particular stroke. I like "end trigger" cause you can choose which strokes you want to record after the stroke is completed.

John - what can you tell me about a "Red" camera? who makes it etc... Of course it's only possible in a dream world. I like to keep up with whats out there.

hmm... that sensor size is tiny https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/54341984
i'm guessing the actual vid size is tiny or scaled up

i have the casio fh20.. shoots 1000fps, but the pic is tiny.

the thing that makes red cams so great is that their sensor sizes are big - ie. able to capture alot of light (and then the power/circuitry to process the incomeing data): https://www.red.com/dsmc2 (the biggest one is the same size sensor as a full frame cam)

[seano]

nytennisaddict -

Thanks for the info, i'll check out the website. I have a Casio FH100, as well. On a side note, the Sony RX100 is a pocket size camera.

Sean

[johnyandell]

Yep we are all waiting for the perfect, affordable solution...

[kerrymitchell]

Nice article on the forward swing of the one hander.

[johnyandell]

Kerry! Thanks!

[topspinster22]

Looking for the Welby Van Horn article on learning and perfecting the serve, Part 2, if it is available? Thanks

[johnyandell]

Great question! Been a decade or so. Not sure there is a part 2 and if so why it's not there in Famous Coaches. Having someone look into it. Part 1 is great...

[johnyandell]

As I suspected, there is no part 2! If you want more serve info I suggest looking at the serve article in Ultimate Fundamentals or my series on the serve in Teaching Systems.