eBirdseed.com Wild Bird Feeding Blog

Hi CCA,
No thanks. Instead of tampering with my Olympus camera, I think I'll just continue being jealous of the "Great Camera Work" you're doing. As for the "camera-rig", glad to see the revised diagram.

The easy part is making it adjustable. Consider extending the horizontal member to say 50" or so, and the diagonal member beyond the video camera 6" or so. Rotating the diagonal clockwise, drilling common holes at the intersection of the horizontal and diagonal member, and using carriage-bolts to connect the two members. Then sliding the video camera down so that the 40" focal length is maintained.

The hard part is whether or not the camera-rig would scare birds away. Watching my birds, they love perching on high, pointy things, and "thin" things sticking out. The "theory" is,if you tapered the ends of the horizontal and diagonal members to make them "thin" and "pointy", maybe the birds would be compelled to perch on the ends of the rig, look things over and go for the food. Then "shoot away". Would love to see you try to build it.
Cheers,
Harry "Gipper" Morris

Hi Harry,

Thanks for the kind words about the photography... Though the cameras are doing 99% of the work in those pictures.

One thing you might try is watching eBay for used cameras. As the mega-pixel count goes up and up, some very good used cameras can be had on the cheap. Just be sure that they have the remote features you want.

I thought about making the kind of adjustments you describe, but here are my limitations... The NovaBird has a fixed focal length of 15" - and to get my best shot at a good selection of bird pics, I've got to keep that lens 15" from center. Also, as we discussed, it might frighten the crows (they're afraid of my tripod!) Finally, I don't know if the wife would be too keen with that sort of "modern art" in her back yard.

One other thought... keep an eye out for my next post. You'll likely hear some unique sounds!

Thanks again... CCA

Yeahhh! I hear you. Reminds me of a Joke about the engineer who charged an outrageous fee for stopping the loud noise in a generator of a power plant. When an inquiry was made by the plant manager as to why there was a $million dollar fee for just 10 minutes of work, the engineer replied, the fee was $1.00 dollar for material. The $99,999.00 dollars was for "Knowing" where to put it.

I started looking for cameras on Amazon as you suggested. I focused primarily on Flip Video. I think it took me only 5 minutes to become totally frustrated. There's so many models to see. I know what I want a camera to do, but have little knowledge of how that translates into technical stuff about a camera.

I know that I want it to be able to film me flying in formation with another airplane while the other plane films me. That means it must be able to take a lot of motion. I also know the battery must last a long time. I figure on some cameras, I might need two or three extra batteries, while on others, only one.

When I have a little more time, I'll start exploring again.
Cheers,
Harry "Gipper" Morris

Ps.
Waiting to "hear" your next post.
You needn't post this message on your blog site. I you wish to exchange ideas personally, please feel free to contact me at:
HGMAI@ix.netcom.com

Hi Harry,

I've taken snippets of your comment and will address as best I can...

* "I focused primarily on Flip Video..." Yup, Flip is pretty cool. But there are others out there. Read on.

* "5 minutes to become totally frustrated..." There are a couple of secrets for buying stuff when you're not exactly an expert. One is Amazon.com... Go to Amazon and search on a product like a video cam. Next drill into the product until you can start sorting (by best seller, highest customer reviews, etc.) What you're looking for are two things:
- A best seller
- A ton of good customer reviews (Be SURE to read all of these!)
The second tool you have is "the forum". Root around on the Web and find some camera forums... Just read and find one that suits your needs, then register and ask simple, well thought out questions. I'm a moderator for a couple of boat building forums, and you'd be amazed at the amount of work strangers will do for each other when a newbie needs a hand. The rule is simple - there is no question too dumb, because all the "experts" have asked dumber questions. Trust me.

* "I know what I want a camera to do, but have little knowledge of how that translates into technical stuff about a camera..." See above.

* "take a lot of motion..." That's a tough one... Right off the bat, I googled on "video camera stabilization" (without the quotes). The first thing that hit me was this site: http://steadycam.org/ ... Now can you use a contraption like that in a cockpit? Of course not! But is there some germ of an idea that might come in handy? Maybe. And here's another angle on the same concept: http://www.bealecorner.com/trv900/steady/steady.html ... You get the idea. (http://www.break.com/usercontent/2008/2/The-1-Dollar-Camera-Stabilizer-447990.html is interesting too.) Aside from home-made gadgets, it looks like true stabilized video is expensive.

* "the battery must last a long time. I figure on some cameras, I might need two or three extra batteries, while on others, only one..." There's a problem... The Mino recharges via a computer's USB port. Again shop around/ask around.

*******************

Finally, Ive got one sound post already entered and another in the works... Exciting. It (sound) lends a whole new dimension to birding. In the coming days, I'll outline the process I use for going from raw AVI to WMV, then stripping out the audio and moving that to MP3. Next up is the joy of editing the MP3 file, and finally shuffling the result onto an audio hosting service. Oh goody...

Thanks again for your continued readership,

CCA