Small Video Camera to clip on to my bass headstock.

[EBS_freak]

27 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

To be fair to the OP, if you just want to capture what you've been up to without too much fuss, just go down the Zoom etc. route.

That’s the correct answer. We’ve gone off at a bit of tangent!

[Stub Mandrel]

15 hours ago, EBS_freak said:

I thought I made that clear? Anyway, I still made a mistake. I messed it up - it’s actually 256 red values, 256 green and 256 blue. I was doing some networking at the time so my brain was in 0-255 mode at the time. But irrespective, they are known as 8 bit cameras due to 8 bits per channel as opposed to 24 bit cameras. 16,777,216 colours in total.

 

Yep, it gets confusing when you are using, say 12/14/16-bit RAW or TIFF and 24-bit jpegs, but the Jpeg has the smallest gamut.

 

The real issue is the video formats, most cameras can do much more bit depth (my mono astro cam is 12 bit) for greater dynamic range.

 

I suspect the GoPro gets greater bit depth images and plays with the data to maximise the dynamic range over 8 bits for jpeg and mpeg as many cameras and phones (with HDR type processing do real time processing is ridiculously capable these days).

 

For planetary images I generally use 8 bit video (as it speed up capture, ideally going for high two or even three figure frame rates), as we stack multiple frames, and a couple of thousand is equivalent to 19-bit depth...

[Stub Mandrel]

15 hours ago, EBS_freak said:

That’s the correct answer. We’ve gone off at a bit of tangent!

 

Agreed! My GoPro would be fine to do what was originally asked.

[jazzyvee]

On 11/07/2022 at 14:29, EBS_freak said:

Just out of interest, what are the gigs you are doing @jazzyvee?

I am doing a rare guitar gig at a jazz festival in Birmingham tomorrow and on the 30th i'm playing bass with Musical Youth at the Milton Keynes Reggaeland festival.

 

[jazzyvee]

I have one of the old Zoom 2QN recorders which sounds good but the battery life is not enough to do even a 40 minute set and also the socket for external power supply does not respond when plugged into a usb power supply. 😞

[Silvia Bluejay]

That seems to be the structural defect that killed the non-4K version of the Zoom Q2n. Mine started by not lasting long on batteries, then when I connected it to an external battery pack it soon began to die on me as if the battery had died (it hadn't), then its charging port stopped working altogether. Really, really badly made device in general. The new version, Q2n 4K, has so far been more reliable (that goes for all four of our devices).

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

That seems to be the structural defect that killed the non-4K version of the Zoom Q2n. 

 

Mine is still going strong after many years. The batteries last long enough for half a gig (so if I change them at half time its fine) or the whole gig with the external battery pack. Never had any problems with it.

[Silvia Bluejay]

You would appear to be one of the lucky owners of properly made Q2ns non-4K.

[Woodinblack]

27 minutes ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

You would appear to be one of the lucky owners of properly made Q2ns non-4K.

 

Maybe, or you were unlucky.

 

I am not sure how 'the batteries started not lasting long' works - as the batteries are changeable, how can the amount of time they last change, unless you were always using the same rechargeable batteries (and they do lose power after a number of recharges). Not sure if you mean that your Q2n started taking more power, seems unlikely it could do that.

Obviously mine lasts as long on a fresh set of batteries today as it did when I bought it in december 2016.

 

Not surprised about the charging port - microusbs are a horrible way of charging anything and they all break in the end

[Silvia Bluejay]

Same external battery pack with USB cable, Q2n lasting less and less time each time I used it, before turning recording off and dying. I wasn't talking about batteries, as in AA etc. as any kind of those, even brand new super-duper lithium ones, did not survive in the Q2n for more than 10 minutes.

I think that non-4K Q2n was the worst little device I ever had, from the point of view of build and robustness. Things seem to be better with the new models, and that includes, so far, the micros USB ports which, as you suggest, tend to fail rather soon.

[Woodinblack]

55 minutes ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

Same external battery pack with USB cable, Q2n lasting less and less time each time I used it, before turning recording off and dying.

 

ok, so your external battery pack was getting more and more worn down - that would happen.

 

Strange your batteries didn't last - I only just recently got the external battery pack (probably why my charge port hasn't died) as I always just used to take 4 rechargeables, 2 for the first 1'30 set, then change the batteries at half time, whole gig recorded.

I decided this year it was a pain to change half way, so I got an external pack.

 

All in all I love the zoom Q2n, it has been no trouble at all and I have used it in a lot of gigs. In fact all my zoom stuff, I have recorded every practice and gig with my H2n

[Silvia Bluejay]

I also love most of Zoom's stuff - the new Q2ns, the H4n we use for recording every gig's audio, and I've got an H1n too, all quite a good combination of good hardware and decent software (with a few glitches you get to know with use). But no, that same battery pack that you believe was failing the old Q2n is powering the new version for an average of 4 uninterrupted hours at every gig, with no problem whatsoever, so it's actually the old Q2n that was at fault, not whatever I was using to power it at any given time. However, that particular device went in the bin long ago - problem solved.

[Woodinblack]

In a way handy I guess, I wouldn't mind the new 4K one, but don't really have a justification at present!