LA to Seattle Video

A couple years ago (I think?) someone programmed their digital camera to take a picture every few seconds, attached the camera to their car, and drove up I-5 from LA to the Seattle area, turned the frames into a video, and released it on the internet.

The video was pretty cool, but tbh I-5 is a long booring highway with very little scenery. Also, the camera was mounted down low at the front of the car, so the view was not that great.

A couple weeks from now I'm drive from LA, CA up to Seattle, WA for the holidays, and I plan on sticking to the coast the whole way. Its a beautiful drive.

Anyways I was planning on making a costal-drive video in much the same way as the guy who did I-5, and was wondering if anyone had advice. I'm thinking of attaching the camera to the roof to get a better vantage point, but that raises other issues.

Problems:
(1) Getting a camera:
I don't actually have a working digital camera, so I will have to buy a new one. I've planned on getting a new one for a while now for photography, texture references, etc.

(2) Programming the camera:
How to make the camera take pictures every n seconds.

(3) Mounting the Camera:
How to attach the camera to the roof of the car. Mainly I was thinking just duct-tape it to the roof, but will that hurt the paint on the car? Also, I have a sunroof that opens, so one thought was to put a tripod sticking out the sunroof with the camera on it.

(4) Protection from the elements:
What if it rains?

(5) Converting to video:
Taking a bajillion images and turning them into a video. IIRC, there are freeware programs out there that will do this.

Any advice on what camera to buy and/or any of the other problems? Anyone here done this before?

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http://maze5.net

1 and 2 are closely linked. To easily setup a camera to do that, youre probably going to need some sort of special camera, or youll have to customise a cheap camera electronically or mechanically (Electronics would be easier but would involve taking the camera apart and removing the buttons).

3 and 4 will be difficult. Tripod out the sunroof is probably the easiest, but as you say, it could rain and wreck the camera. If you cant get some sort of shield for it, maybe it would be easiest to just put it on the dash (that is, if the distortion from the windscreen isnt too bad). I imagine for this thing they built a custom mount on the front.

5 is the easiest. Virtualdub is the program you need.

This sort of thing probably needs a couple hundred dollars and a few weeks to prepare for. If youve got the spare time, money and know how to buy a cheap camera, take it apart, rig the button wire to a custom circuit which switches it on a timer, and test it, go ahead. Or, if you have the money for a specialised camera which has an inbuilt timer of this sort, do that (I dont know, maybe this is a common thing on cameras nowadays).

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"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

1 and 2. How about a laptop (powerd with that thing you put in a cigarette lighter) and a camera attached to it ? No problems with storage space, and there are tons of free programs out there that are able to take pictures with intervals. You have to check that the camera's shutter speed is fast enough. You don't want any motion blur on the pictures ...

3. I think ducktape would do just fine. I have never ducktaped a car, so I wouldn't know about the paint thing. (Try it out on a random car in town :razz: )

4. I would pack the camera in plastic coverage, but the lense has to stay free. You might consider a very thin & clean plastic foil to cover it with. Also, if you take a laptop, you can monitor if there are any raindrops on the lense.

5. Virtualdub will do just fine !

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:: Forceflow.be :: Nuclear Dawn developer

Great idea with the lapton Foreceflow, I wouldnt have thought of that.

Shutter speed isnt an issue with digital cameras, since they dont actually use a shutter, just electronics to only capture light over a certain interval. There are automatic adjustments for light level, so as long as theres enough light, motion blur should be minimal.

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"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

Fundamentally you need two often overlooked items. A smooth riding auto and a passenger to run maintenance on the situation. If you can work out the logistics of the equipment please do not overlook these two vital assets.

As for the equipment, what kind of a budget are you willing to commit? There is more than likely many stop frame cameras around but I would imagine all would be costly.

I would suggest a laptop with a USB port and a flash card for the camera that has same. To swap digital video on the fly. A card reader and a SD card would also be great instead.

Lastly. Setting the camera very close to the windshield would solve the inclement weather problem, but you must maintain a clear bug free view. Depending on the declivity of the glass, glare is cut to a minimum on the distance from the glass.

I suppose the first step would be to answer my questions then we can commit to a more realistic list.

Good luck with the trip. The view on the bottom end sucks but the top end is grand.

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There is no history until something happens, then there is.

Why not just use a digital video camera? Also I would mount the camera inside the car on the dash.

Take along a Laptop and download the data to a burnable DVD.

Or plug a lap top in your car and use one of them ball cameras everyone
uses to chat on AIM and what not with.. and save it straight to your
harddrive...

MoneyShot said:
Or plug a lap top in your car and use one of them ball cameras everyone uses to chat on AIM and what not with.. and save it straight to your harddrive...

The clarity on those cameras is iffy at best but this is a great idea if the camera is good enough.

Has anyone ever calculated the space needed to store 25+ hours of video? This is assuming that the driver takes a scenic pace.

Burnable DVDs wouldn't work unless the driver stopped to allow the burn time. A PC cannot store video and burn successfully in my experience. But if they stopped, then burning would solve the storage issue at 4.5 to 9 gigs at a time.

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There is no history until something happens, then there is.

So, thanks for all the advice so far. Heres the deal:
(1) I don't have a laptop, but I could probably find one to borrow.

(2) I'm willing to spend enough money to get a quality digital camera and a few flash cards since I need them anyways, but I can't afford to buy things like a new laptop.

(3) A friend will be riding with me up to the middle of Oregon, so he could probably deal with the technical side of things. After that I'm on my own.

(4) The idea was to take a picture every few seconds, so that the final images would only be worth 10 minutes to an hour of video. I would then edit this down to about 10 minutes.

(5) I'd prefer not to use a ball camera since the word is that they have low quality, and they are not designed for focusing far away (mostly made for taking pictures of people who are close up).

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http://maze5.net

don't use a ball cam. The quality really is bad.></head><body topmargin=2 leftmargin=2>

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:: Forceflow.be :: Nuclear Dawn developer

One thing to consider. Pictures, unless you look at each one can be anything from perfect to totally unusable. If you are only going to take a set amount of images, you might end up with a s**t load of stuff you cannot use and the trip will be a bust.

If you take video instead, you can capture screens in sequence from the video and end up with what you want anyway.

If you can figure out how to capture the video the way you want, this may be the best route to success.

Take my word for it. Pictures do not always come out and if you wait to proof them you will end up with s**t for sure.

Murphy's Law dictates this is so.

Good luck with whatever process you decide upon.

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There is no history until something happens, then there is.

I'm in Seattle now. I've got the video. It didn't go as well as I expected - rainy weather, and other minor issues, but I've got a lot of great video of the drive. I'll post it as soon as I edit it.

mazemaster said:
I'll post it as soon as I edit it.

Don't get to worked up. Many people end up with only one frame after all the crap is cropped out.

(giggles)

Glad the drive went... well.

Was watching the news this morning. Washington is really getting crapped on for the ice. Be careful.

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There is no history until something happens, then there is.

Was watching the news this morning. Washington is really getting crapped on for the ice. Be careful.

It's defintely a sign that I'm out of touch with the world when I don't
know what the roads/whether are like in the D.C. -- considering I live
wihtin an hour's transit of the DC. :sad:

You live where Underdog? :biggrin:

/checks profile.

Yes, I am quite out of touch with my general area :sad:

Anyways, I'm interested to see the vid -- don't rush it naturally, make
sure you have it working and within decent file size range. :smile:

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Breaking the laws of mapping since 2003 and doing a damn fine job at it