Commute videos

Friday, October 17th, 2008 at 10:33pm

Yesterday I was fiddling with the PowerShot A430, the second secondhand camera I got, and for some reason decided to look up how long it could record video for. Unlike other cameras I have used, such as the S45, which have a time limit of a couple of minutes this camera will keep recording until the output file reaches 1GB.

When set to 640×480 it says that it can fit 47 minutes on the 2GB card. To say it another way: 33 minutes per video. That’s enough to record my commute so before I left home this morning I mounted the camera to my bike. and they have just finished uploading to YouTube

The ride to work:

The ride home:

I only started using that route home a week ago and it is the shortest yet. Not to mention that there isn’t a single traffic light and I avoid a couple of dodgy bits caused by riding on the footpath up Blackburn Road.

Here it is in map form:

Monash Uni to Glen Waverley (October 2008)

The file from the camera is 640×480 at 10 fps and around 800MB for each 20 minute ride. Converting to Xvid at average settings dropped that to around 140MB. To fit under YouTube’s 10 minute limit I sped it up 3x, which also makes it a bit more interesting. Also to make it easier to upload I reduced it to 352×288 to get a much smaller file. I also removed the audio as there was lots of wind and other noises.

While recording video worked well, it’s not an option for longer rides. For those I still want the camera to automatically take a full resolution photo at frequent intervals.

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2 Responses to “Commute videos”

  1. man those cars look close when you are waiting for a gap in traffic when crossing springvale road!

    hamish - October 18th, 2008 at 10:21 am

  2. It’s just a trick of the camera. There is about 1 metre between the closest cars and my front wheel.

    Once there is a break in the traffic I get across to the turning lane and have to wait behind a grey ute. In the video it looks like I am really close, but there is a gap of about 2 metres between us.

    If you want cars that are actually close have a look at some of the commute videos from New York…

    Stephen - October 18th, 2008 at 11:37 am