http://www.techmoan.com/blog/2011/9/18/the-crocolis-hd-extreme-cam-longest-review-ever.html
Not bad price going for R1200 or $169 bucks apparently very good slomo and image quality
OT Crocolis Extreme HD
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farss
wrote on 10/10/2011, 11:05 PM
Final tips, thoughts and some footage.
The clip in mounting attachments have a small amount of freeplay in them which could cause the camera to wobble more than it needs to. Either a largish rubber band around the camera and attachment or a piece of very thin rubber under the clip on attachment should fix this.
The suction mount like all these single point of attachment mounts becomes a pendulum adding vibration to the camera when mounted in a vehicle. If possible a block of foam or rag wedged between the camera body and dashboard etc will dampen the wobbles. This seems fairly important to me as the camera can make the impact much worse because of the rolling shutter adding skew to the wobbly images.
Apart from inverting the part with the camera mounted on the windscreen the only processing in Vegas was to use a custom colour curve to roll off the highlights into the legal range and clip some of the black noise that was going below legal. Some more work to bring up the mid tones probably would have helped too,
The shirt I was wearing has fine vertical stripes and whilst that doesn't seem to induce any aliasing or moire problems a FullHD camera should be able to resolve those stripes and this one doesn't. Not that I'd expect such performance from a sub $200 camera anyway.
Bob.
The clip in mounting attachments have a small amount of freeplay in them which could cause the camera to wobble more than it needs to. Either a largish rubber band around the camera and attachment or a piece of very thin rubber under the clip on attachment should fix this.
The suction mount like all these single point of attachment mounts becomes a pendulum adding vibration to the camera when mounted in a vehicle. If possible a block of foam or rag wedged between the camera body and dashboard etc will dampen the wobbles. This seems fairly important to me as the camera can make the impact much worse because of the rolling shutter adding skew to the wobbly images.
Apart from inverting the part with the camera mounted on the windscreen the only processing in Vegas was to use a custom colour curve to roll off the highlights into the legal range and clip some of the black noise that was going below legal. Some more work to bring up the mid tones probably would have helped too,
The shirt I was wearing has fine vertical stripes and whilst that doesn't seem to induce any aliasing or moire problems a FullHD camera should be able to resolve those stripes and this one doesn't. Not that I'd expect such performance from a sub $200 camera anyway.
Bob.
Duncan H
wrote on 10/10/2011, 11:41 PM
Hi Bob. Thanks for your rapid feedback about Crocolis. In light of your excellent overview & video, I have now forgiven you for buying the last one in captivity. Pretty impressive footage from a $200 unit and I'll be getting one as soon as they can make it. Great to put a face to a name, thanks again for the video. As a Melbournite, the video had a certain familiarity about the streetscape.
Regards,
Duncan
Regards,
Duncan
John_Cline
wrote on 10/11/2011, 12:31 AM
There seems to be something seriously wrong with the camera, it makes it appear that you are driving on the other side of the road (and from the passenger seat, no less.)
Rory Cooper
wrote on 10/11/2011, 2:52 AM
John that's because as Bob said he mounted the cam upside down so left would be right. :-)
Thanks Bob not bad at all for the price. The lens distortion made the bunch car keys look huge..;-)
looking forward to you jumping some pavements and some hard handbrake turns in 720p 60 fps
Thanks Bob not bad at all for the price. The lens distortion made the bunch car keys look huge..;-)
looking forward to you jumping some pavements and some hard handbrake turns in 720p 60 fps
paul_w
wrote on 10/11/2011, 11:47 AM
Bob, excellent test mate. And just the application i'm looking for, car mounted. That gives me exactly the look i need for some projects in the pipe line. And glad to see you driving on the PROPER side of the road! :)
Paul.
Paul.
Marton
wrote on 10/11/2011, 12:40 PM
Hmm, on the 1080/30p panning footage i see big rolling shutter effect. I think its bigger than with gopro. Do i see right?
The lcd screen is detachable? 150g is too much for me, i need no more than 100g. What about live output while recording?
thx
The lcd screen is detachable? 150g is too much for me, i need no more than 100g. What about live output while recording?
thx
farss
wrote on 10/11/2011, 3:59 PM
"Hmm, on the 1080/30p panning footage i see big rolling shutter effect. I think its bigger than with gopro. Do i see right?"
I'd really have to mount both cameras side by side to evaluate that.
I could run such a test but not for a couple of days.
I have noticed pretty bad skew on the GoPro so off the top of my head I'd say they're equally bad.
"The lcd screen is detachable? 150g is too much for me, i need no more than 100g."
No the LCD screen is not detachable. Much of the weight is in the battery. You might be able to get the weight down by taking the battery out and powering the camera via the USB port. Of course you're going to have to rig up some form of external battery and that may achieve nothing depending on why you need to be under 100g.
Chinavasion have some much smaller and lighter cameras including one specifically to mount on a small RC copter. Given the price and the size I'd have some reservations about image quality although their "Gnarly" camera has had good reviews.
"What about live output while recording?"
Yes you get live output in record. According to my TV resolution goes down to 480i and there are overlays but thankfully only at the very edges of the display.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I just tried the Ev Offset for the first time and it is quite useful. A setting of -0.3 to -0.7 meant a large white piece of fabric with stripes was no longer blown out. This could turn out to be a remarkably useful camera.
Bob.
I'd really have to mount both cameras side by side to evaluate that.
I could run such a test but not for a couple of days.
I have noticed pretty bad skew on the GoPro so off the top of my head I'd say they're equally bad.
"The lcd screen is detachable? 150g is too much for me, i need no more than 100g."
No the LCD screen is not detachable. Much of the weight is in the battery. You might be able to get the weight down by taking the battery out and powering the camera via the USB port. Of course you're going to have to rig up some form of external battery and that may achieve nothing depending on why you need to be under 100g.
Chinavasion have some much smaller and lighter cameras including one specifically to mount on a small RC copter. Given the price and the size I'd have some reservations about image quality although their "Gnarly" camera has had good reviews.
"What about live output while recording?"
Yes you get live output in record. According to my TV resolution goes down to 480i and there are overlays but thankfully only at the very edges of the display.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I just tried the Ev Offset for the first time and it is quite useful. A setting of -0.3 to -0.7 meant a large white piece of fabric with stripes was no longer blown out. This could turn out to be a remarkably useful camera.
Bob.
Marton
wrote on 10/12/2011, 12:34 AM
Wow, thanks for the infos.
Yes, i use an RC quadrocopter, now with 2 gopros:
www.relaxvideo.hu/gaui-3d.jpg
And with the 2x90g cams i almost hit the weight limit of the Gaui.
Yes, i use an RC quadrocopter, now with 2 gopros:
www.relaxvideo.hu/gaui-3d.jpg
And with the 2x90g cams i almost hit the weight limit of the Gaui.
Red Prince
wrote on 10/12/2011, 12:48 AM
Well, my package has arrived. I did not order the Crocolis but the 3D camcorder. The camcorder works. VLC can play it, Windows Media Player can play it, Vegas cannot open it. Any suggestions? Here is what MediaInfo says about it:
General
Complete name : C:\Users\Adam\Pictures\DCIM\300VID3D\MP3D0001.AVI
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 6.24 MiB
Duration : 12s 980ms
Overall bit rate : 4 034 Kbps
Video
ID : 0
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Main@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 1 frame
Format settings, GOP : M=1, N=5
Codec ID : H264
Duration : 12s 980ms
Bit rate : 3 663 Kbps
Width : 848 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.300
Stream size : 5.67 MiB (91%)
Audio
ID : 1
Format : ADPCM
Codec ID : 2
Codec ID/Hint : Microsoft
Duration : 12s 966ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 352.8 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Bit depth : 4 bits
Stream size : 565 KiB (9%)
Interleave, duration : 23 ms (0.69 video frame)
General
Complete name : C:\Users\Adam\Pictures\DCIM\300VID3D\MP3D0001.AVI
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 6.24 MiB
Duration : 12s 980ms
Overall bit rate : 4 034 Kbps
Video
ID : 0
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Main@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 1 frame
Format settings, GOP : M=1, N=5
Codec ID : H264
Duration : 12s 980ms
Bit rate : 3 663 Kbps
Width : 848 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.300
Stream size : 5.67 MiB (91%)
Audio
ID : 1
Format : ADPCM
Codec ID : 2
Codec ID/Hint : Microsoft
Duration : 12s 966ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 352.8 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Bit depth : 4 bits
Stream size : 565 KiB (9%)
Interleave, duration : 23 ms (0.69 video frame)
Red Prince
wrote on 10/14/2011, 10:42 PM
And here is some sample footage I took this morning with a Chinavasion camera you may not have even considered because it looks like a toy. But it is in 1280x960, which could easily be cropped to 720p. Its lens is hidden behind a pin hole in a pen, so you can use it to shoot without anyone noticing what you are doing.
I actually had it in the pocket of my jacket, so you get to see mostly ceiling, but you can judge the quality of the image. Note that YouTube shows it a maximum of 960x720, but it still gives you a good idea about it.
I actually had it in the pocket of my jacket, so you get to see mostly ceiling, but you can judge the quality of the image. Note that YouTube shows it a maximum of 960x720, but it still gives you a good idea about it.
farss
wrote on 10/24/2011, 5:32 AM
If anyone is still interested it appears to be back in stock at Chinavision.
Bob.
Bob.
Rory Cooper
wrote on 10/24/2011, 8:59 AM
Shot thanks Bob , sent my order off.