GoPro and wavey video

[BeerBudgetRacing]

Is there a way to solve this?

Mounting location the issue?

Mount style / isolation the issue?

[DanW]

Yes

Yes

Yes

Try a different location.

If the camera is solidly mounted on an area that vibrates hard, it will cause early failure.

I have a contourHD that I mounted on the roll bar on rubber lord mounts. I learned to live with some image vibration so the camera would survive.

[Hawke]

Some of the waviness comes from radio interference caused by the ignition system. You will note that it is worse at a particular engine speed. Move the camera away from high tension, fit radio suppressed leads, or wrap the camera in foil. These were the suggestions I got from GoPro.

The only thing that worked was moving the camera. I didn't want to buy different leads, and wrapping the camera in foil stopped the blue tooth remote control.

Another solution is to post edit the shake and wobble out. There are some free editing progams that work OK. I also see that You Tube has some anti shake/wobble programs, and they work OK.

Hope that helps.

[BeerBudgetRacing]

Thinking about it, the camera was on the left side of the rollbar on the flat part of the body panel...

About 6-8 inches from all the ignition...

I didn't care for the perspective anyway...g

Suggestions on a better location?

[Swift17]

All are correct ... Note - even a a body at rest has natural resonance - mounting a GoPro to the rollbar increases the resonance (harmonic distortion) more so, than say the bodywork, which usually and historically less density with a larger total surface area than the steel which is directly connect to the engine, trans, suspension, etc. A device that isolate the waves and vibration (rubber mounting) or can counter balance/offset helps - on our db-1 we have mounted the camera to several location - driver's left, right and atop, all on the tail section with a drd has proven very acceptable - one time to the roll hoop with a low profile mount was completely unacceptable ........... some applications (pic)

unedited video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cxtw9rujKEg

[ricky bobby]

I had the same wavy issue with it (Hero3 white version) mounted to the rollbar. Changed frame rate and resolution from 1080p @ 30fps to 720p @ 60fps and that solved the issue.

Wavy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_gSNBgZe2Y

After the setting change
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFGHLnZzh9g

[2BWise]

Mounting location the issue?

Mount style / isolation the issue?

Location and isolation will go a long way in improving the outcome. The further away from the source of vibration (engine) and on something that has fewer attachment points will give you a start. Secondly, isolating the mount from the mounting surface. I've found a simple isolation method with double sided tape. More layers, more isolation. It took a few iterations to find the right thickness, somewhere between two and four layers seems to do the trick depending on the vehicle.

[Raceworks]

It depends heavily on the camera configuration & the car / engine combo.

I had no problems with rollbar mounted cameras on the Formula Mazda. But on that car the engine doesn't bolt directly to the frame but through polyurethane bushings that dampen the vibrations. Plus they're a couple feet away from where the rollbar is.

Mounting cameras on the rollbar of the Spectrum FF doesn't work. The upper engine mount bolts to the structure the rollbar is mounted to, and is way closer as well. You get wavy video on rollbar mounted cameras with that car and it's killed cameras as well. Moving the camera to the bodywork (even a couple of inches away from the original location) got rid of the wavy video.

[Garey Guzman]

I had that problem when I bought the GoPro. I ended up buying a VIO, mounted the camer in the same place and had excellent video!

[ghickman]

Had the same issue, we finally gave up on the GoPro and went to the Replay. Fantastic video, super reliable, much easier to mount.

[rydawg011291]

Dealing with rolling shutter on a vehicle is something anyone has to deal with no matter what.... It depends on what camera you are using on certain areas of the car, for example my brother and I use a contour and gopro, soon to be just gopros. The contour on the roll hoop has a rolling shutter but with some minor adjustments it has become fairly bearable. The GoPro on the bodywork looks amazing due to the fact that there is not much vibration. The main thing you have to do is figure out the best spot to attach the camera, along with the best view. Isolate the vibration as much as possible, may take some tweaking but in the end 90% of the cameras will have great quality as long as you isolate it from vibration.


Ryan

[jpetillo]

The problem I had with the wavy GoPro videos was caused by it swaying back and forth because it was mounted using the original GoPro mount only from the bottom. I mount my GoPro to the roll bar next to my helmet. If you just add something that goes across from the roll bar to the top of the GoPro and just tape it, it will keep it from swaying and the videos will be great.

My problem had nothing to do with electrical interference from anything - just the way it was mounted.

[lancer360]

Wavy video is caused because just about all modern HD cameras use a CMOS sensor to capture the video. Instead of capturing the video one entire frame at a time like a CCD camera, the CMOS captures it one line at a time, usually scanning from top to bottom. The wavy "jello" effect is caused when the camera moves side to side or twists side to side in a certain frequency range. The best way to fix it is to either install a stiffer camera mount or to move the camera to an area that has less vibration. Often times move the camera around to a spot that has less vibration may solve the problem, but doesn't get you the picture you wanted. I found on my F600, the best solution was a stiffer camera mount. When I used hose clamps to clamp my ReplayXD camera directly to the roll bar the jello effect went away completely. Jpetillo solution of installing a sideways brace to the camera also sounds promising. Either way you have to stop the side to side vibration/twisting to cure the jello effect. Installing rubber or other vibration mounts usually doesn't fix the problem and can make it even worse as it often allows more movement. The best mounts are going to be short mounts with as few adjustments as possible. Camera mounts that are long and spindly with numerous adjustment points can cause the jello effect. For round cameras, I like a simple solid block of hard plastic or aluminum with a radius cut in the top and bottom to fit snugly against the roll bar and the camera and are attached with a couple of hose clamps or similar.