Capturing a toddler on the run?

March 28, 2020 9:04 PM

What's the best way for me to capture video of my toddler running on trails?

I've got an iPhone that I've been holding in my hand but the resulting video is pretty jerky. I tried shooting in .5x and using an ios app called "Emulsio" to clean it up... and it works ok, but there are still weird visual distortions. Is there a really great piece of video stabilization software out there I can use to make it all smoother? (Not afraid of command line solutions, etc...) Would one of those "3-Axis Gimbal Stabilizer" things help?

posted by ph00dz to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (4 answers total)

The best iPhone app I found for stabilization is called hyperlapse. it's designed for time lapses but I believe you can export a video at regular speed. Yes, getting yourself a gimbal is a far better long-term solution. DJI is the market leader in this kind of technology, at least at the consumer level. You may also want to look into a company called Moza. I use their gimbles for professional work, and I know they make some designed for cell phones and small cameras.
posted by hamandcheese at 9:41 PM on March 28, 2020

If you want to try video software, you can always try DaVinci Resolve on macOS/Windows/Linux. It's free and it's got a video stabilization module. If you do try to use software stabilization, make sure to film a bit further out than your ideal framing because software stabilization basically works by cropping in; the smoother it tries to make the footage, the more it crops in.

I bought a Zhiyun Smooth 4 phone gimbal for ~$100. I can't say that I've truly gotten a handle on using a gimbal (pun intended), so while I've gotten some good results standing still and doing slow deliberate panning, but I haven't been too impressed with the footage I've gotten from walking around at a normal speed over rough terrain. It could be my poor technique, but that just means you'd need to practice a lot as well.

I also purchased a no-name action camera (Akaso X50S) for about $100 that has OK but not wonderful 4K image quality but surprisingly decent in-camera stabilization when walking about. You can check out YouTube for sample footage. A couple of advantages of using some sort of action cam is that you can put it into some sort of protective case, so you're a lot less likely to damage it and you can mount it to your head or chest, freeing up both hands. But still I find the footage from my iPhone X to be much better.
posted by alidarbac at 3:18 AM on March 29, 2020

I don't understand what you're trying to do. Why not just run 20 meters ahead, turn, kneel, and record them catching up? Or can they already outrun you?
posted by at at 9:33 AM on March 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I can totally take him! I'm running ahead / behind him, but along with him at the same pace on mostly single track trails. I'm holding the iPhone in one hand, down at like my waist level to convey a sense of his kinetics. He's moving pretty quick and the trails are bumpy, so the footage ends up pretty bouncy.

Sadly, Hyperlapse exists in an un-updated state, doesn't work with the iPhone 11 for some reason.

Any iPhone windscreen advice might be helpful too. I'd love to capture the sound of the footsteps (hypnotic / rhythmic) but block out the wind noise (distracting). Is that a thing I can also do "in post?"
posted by ph00dz at 10:31 AM on March 29, 2020