NEWS BLOG ARCHIVE
Anton Bauer Solar Panel & Tandem 150 for remote locations.
Anton Bauer has a flexible Solar Panel system (59 x 43) that can charge batteries and when combined with their Tandem 150 charger/power supply will automatically switch the simultaneous charging option on and off for camera systems with lower loads (and intense enough sunlight). Camera systems with less than 75 watts will allow the battery to be charged at the same time that the camera system is powered (ready for night time power). The solar panel or should I say blanket, is very convenient as you can string it between two or more stationary objects on a rooftop, treetop (I would use bungee cords to allow for tree movement to avoid damaging the blanket) or pegged down anywhere. You will still have to figure out the needed connectors for your particular camera/DVR/etc. system.
You can click on the B&H logo to the right and check out the pricing. This is a very expensive system, more that most PIs would ever want to spend on a remote location system, but it may give you some ideas and start you on the path of looking for a cheaper alternative or building your own system. Obviously the case that would warrant buying or building this sort of power system would have to come with a large budget.
The DVR (recording device) that I would use with this sort of system would have resumable recording. This means that when the DVR loses power it saves the current video file, shuts down and then when power returns, it resumes recording. I’ve used a few DVRs with this feature.
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Great Covert Indoor Filming Workshop.
I must post some video when we used a baby stroller to obtain some footage of a store clerk with an “outdoor” camera – not the Webbie.
COVERT INDOOR FIELD TRAINING - This Saturday, July 10th.......by Johnston Blakley
Hey Folks,
This Saturday I have 4 spots available for field training on covert indoor surveillance training. Only four students because any more than that and the word “covert” goes out the window…..not to mention that I can only fit four passengers in my vehicle.
You will:
Film in various indoor environments.
Film into various indoor environments.
Practice one-person and two-person surveillance.
Practice the approach (follow) to indoor environments.
Process the indoor video and have it “client ready”.
Put together a video montage of your film on a CD (I’ll provide) or thumbdrive (you provide) for your portfolio.
This will be a long day starting at 9am and ending at 3-4pm and you will go from novice to proficient, as this will be intensive training.
Imagine walking into a job interview with your resume and CD disc, the interviewer pops the CD/DVD/Thumbdrive (have all three) into his/her computer and “WOW, how did you get film inside of that place and that place and that place? How do you zoom into the Subject and pan left and right as the Subject walks?…We’ve just…just….just always have done wide-angle shooting……and this is Hi Def!!!….How did you get time and date onto the video????
And your answer - “How soon do you need me?”.
Show the PI agency that you are better than their existing investigators. Don’t just give them a bunch of verbal pizzazz and the old "I have no experience but I am willing to learn". Make their existing investigators look like chump change.
The cost is $125 and payment through Paypal (paypal or credit card) will secure your place.
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Magnetic Tele-Converter - 7-3-10 by Johnston Blakley
Have you ever wanted to film with your cell phone or Sony Bloggie but the distance to you Subject was too great?
View on ExposureRoom - These tele-converters are very cheap and are sold at B&H (click here). Pick up a few while they are on sale.
Camera & Equipment Bags - 7-1-10 by Johnston Blakley
Big bag, small compact bag, bag that doesn’t look like a camera bag, rain resistant bag, flat luggage style bag, upright bag, purse-style bag are all considerations when choosing a bag for your cameras and equipment. Do you not only conduct surveillance but also take photos of accident scenes or accident vehicles with a larger DSLR camera as this may steer you into a larger bag? Do you travel and conduct investigations in other states or countries and want one carry-on bag for your equipment, clothing and laptop?
I have always preferred luggage style bags such as the Lowepro Omni Sport which also turns into a fanny-bag and comes with a waterproof Pelican Case. It’s a bit of a tight squeeze for most of my equipment and unfortunately looks like a gun bag as most fanny bags do................................READ MORE
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SD Cards For Your Camera 6-22-2010 by Johnston Blakley ("Camera Bags" will come next week)
There is a difference in SD card price for those of you who have a Standard Def camera and those who own a Hi Def camera. The reason - standard def cameras can record on cheap Class 2 SD cards and Hi Def cameras require a Class 4 card or greater. When I was pricing cards today I noticed a significant drop in the price of Class 4 and 6 cards. It seems that every few months they get a little bit cheaper.
I searched for 4 gig Class 4 cards as they are rated HiDef video.
Now, the only way to really see the time that you can get on a card is by sticking it in your camera and setting the camera to the Mbps (quality) that you want to record. By doing this, the camcorder will display the minutes remaining.
Here are the three settings that you should test by taking some film and playing it back on a large screen monitor or TV. The reason for playing it back on a larger monitor is that everything looks great on the camcorder's LCD screen but tends to fall apart when recorded at lower settings on a large monitor.
9-12 Mbps - smaller file size - depending on the camcorder it may not look good with fast motion - maybe soft looking at night (but at night you can always switch to 17 Mbps)
The quality will look better on a tripod vs. handholding as with any compressed video.
17 Mbps - larger file size - good surveillance quality night or day/fast or slow movement.
24Mbps - The slight quality improvement, from 17 Mbps, can not be discerned by the average person and is not worth the much larger file size. It will gobble up your memory fast and cost you more in SD cards.
In other words, try out all of the quality settings on your camcorders in various levels of light and movements and choose your setting. These two brands are the best bang for the buck and I would not hesitate to use them for videography purposes on my Canon 5d II. (All memory cards can have failure.)
Transcend 4GB Class 6 SDHC Card This card is cheaper than most Class 4 cards and has an error-correcting feature that most cards do not.
Kingston 4GB SDHC Class 4 - This is even cheaper than the Transcend.
Notice how I am not stating the price as these cards keep getting cheaper every time I turn-around. B&H seems to have combined shipping when purchased in bulk. Amazon sometimes offer free shipping for orders over $25. Be carefull that you do not buy in bulk and have to pay individual shipping on each card!!! You may want to purchase 1 card for testing purposes before you buy in bulk. Be cautious of E-bay counterfeits.
_______________________________________________________________________________________Hold’em Down – 6-21-2010 – by Johnston Blakley
Sometimes when I am following a Subject, the inside of my car starts to look like a battle zone with objects flying through the air and crashing into the dash or onto the floor. The one thing that I do not want flying through the air is my camera bag, reason being - $$$$$$$$$$$$$.
This is why I recommend cheap black seat covers. I know…. you’re thinking that black seat covers are to darken the interior of your car, prevent reflection on the inside of your windows that you would have to film through, show no contrast between the passenger seat and you in the drive'rs seat with your dark colored shirt and to absorb chicken grease from your lunch. This is true, but I say, the cheapest of cheap seat covers will also allow you to Velcro your camera bag and other things to the seat cover. Take a piece of male Velcro to a store that has an automotive department and start sticking the Velcro to the various black seat covers. After finding the right cheap seat cover, stick or stitch the male Velcro to the bottom of your camera bag (just a small patch will do) towards the part of the bag that will be nearest the upright part of the passenger seat (braking will lift up the part of the bag that is the closest to the rear of the car). This is the same for those of you, like me, who like to put your bag on the floor behind the passenger seat. The carpet will stick to the Velcro on the bottom of the camcorder bag and prevent the bag from tipping or sliding under the seat.
I am working on an extensive camcorder bag review today and should have it on the site by tonight or tomorrow. Part of the review will include SD card storage, which is essential if you are entering into tapeless surveillance video.
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SONY WEBBIE/BLOGGIE IN THE GYM - 6-16-10 - by Johnston Blakley
The Sony Webbie has been replaced by the Sony Bloggie. I am not overly fond of the Bloggie color options but the dark eggplant (violet) color seems to be the best option. Investigators prefer the versatility and HD quality of these cameras to the "cellphone" look-a-like standard def camcorders that can be bought in the spy stores. I get way more covert indoor footage than I have with any other setup and the best thing is.....No Wires & No Bags & Yes it has time and date. Low light capabilities are average but it does have a low light mode. I love it!!! Did I mention that the best feature of this camera is the rotating lens, so no more propping up the front or back of the camera when shooting on a table. I always carry an extra battery or two and I use the faster Mark II cards. B&H sells the Bloggie, cards and extra batteries.
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The Battle of the Surveillance Camcorders - 6-14-10 By Johnston Blakley
The Panasonic HDC-SD60 is the HiDef version that takes only SD cards with no internal memory. On sale until 7-3-2010
The Panasonic HDC-TM55K is the HiDef version that takes both SD cards and has 8 gigs of built-in SS memory. On sale until 7-3-2010
The Canon VIXIA HF M30 is a good multi-purpose HD camcorder for investigators with great audio controls but was beat out by the above two Panasonics for the job of surveillance.
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It was a great turnout for our first Surveillance Workshop! A big thanks to all who participated. This gives me some ideas such as smaller in-the-field only workshops and a surveillance video/report workflow workshop where everyone brings their own computer to set it up for tapeless video workflow, internet based client delivery and conquering the frustrating “Where is the time and date?” issue.
Johnston Blakley
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SURVEILLANCE WORKSHOPwith JOHNSTON BLAKLEY – HANDS ON not a lecture
Hey folks. We are having an hands-on surveillance workshop on Saturday June 12th, 2010 from 10am – 4pm. The location is in North Palm Beach, Florida (537 US Highway 1 # 8). The cost is $150.
Johnston Blakley has 16 years of experience in the Private Investigation industry, specializing in surveillance.. He has worked on thousands of surveillance cases and has trained hundreds of investigators.
You will:
We will be utilizing various camcorders including the Sony Webbie / Bloggie (newer), and a new ultra tiny/low light camera/DVR.
Register before June 1st for $25 off……just $125.
Limited registration.
FAST AND STEADY - 4-27-2010 - by Johnston Blakley
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Dark or Poor Quality Video - 4-20-2010 by Johnston Blakley
Every surveillance investigator has experienced this horrific scenario.
You take your camera into a dark bar. The image looks marginal on your LCD screen but you go ahead and film anyway as your Subject is throwing back shot after shot and you suspect that he will be driving home in about an hour. This is the evidence that you need and this is exactly what transpired. You are a genius. You call the client and he is ecstatic. The next day, when you are reviewing the film on the TV monitor, your heart sinks. The Subject is barely visible in the darkness and in fact no reasonable person could identify him. You throw the footage onto your computer, monkey around with the brightness, gamma and contrast to no avail. Help is on the way with a program called Topaz. Topaz has a plug-in program for Adobe After Effects, Premiere and Final Cut that enhances the detail in dark shots. Often, when you lighten a dark shot you replace darkness with video noise that provides no advantage in clarity. Another Topaz product will upscale (size) and enhance standard definition video to near HD quality. It can also enhance that crappy looking cell phone or video-pen type footage up to standard definition; not something that can be done with sharpening alone. I have the Magic Bullet version of this product. It enhances the resolution pixel by pixel and it is great. Remember to always provide your client with the un-altered version of the footage along with the enhanced version. Make sure that you label the edited version as "enhanced".
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INSURANCE FRAUD CONVICTIONS – March 25, 2010
The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud has a very interesting website. They list cases where people have done some outlandish things to try and collect insurance money.
Go to http://www.insurancefraud.org/convictions.lasso
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If Cars Could Talk - March 5, 2010 - by Johnston Blakley
If only your Subject's car could talk this job would be a lot easier.
Wait!!! Yes it can and here is how vehicles reveal plenty of information about your Subject:
Bumper stickers - your Subject arrives at a deposition but you do not know where he lives and he is likely to provide his mothers address in the depo. Do not risk waiting for the follow to find out where he lives because you may loose him.
Items in the car.
Every piece of information is valuable no matter how "cut and dry" or difficult you think the case is.
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Cargo Pockets - March 3, 2010 - by Johnston Blakley
Not enough room in your pant's pockets for all of your on-foot surveillance stuff?
I buy all of my shorts and most of my pants with one thing in mind. Do they have cargo pockets on both sides?
Without these large pockets, my camcorders would have to be carried or jammed into the regular pockets along with extra batteries, tapes, PI credentials, etc. With large cargo pockets even my larger outdoor camcorder can be tucked away out of sight. Sometimes you do need a camera with a lot of zoom for indoor surveillance footage.
Watch this footage taken on the Investigative Training space colony that we are developing.
March 2, 2010 – Phantom – by Johnston Blakley
Accident/crime re-enactment often requires more than a consumer camcorder in order to accurately depict an event. Most consumer camcorders film at 30 frames per second.
Often, technicians and jurors need to view re-enacted footage of car accidents, assaults, shootings, explosions or fires in very slow motion. This can be done to some small degree with 30 or even 60 frames per second but the motion is not smooth and under 20% speed it becomes impossible.
When an investigator or technician needs to do the job right, he/she cannot go wrong with a Phantom camera. These machines film high quality at thousands of frames per second. They can be purchased or rented starting at around $400 per day. Check out www.visionresearch.com.
I’ll let this gruesome footage speak for itself. Do not watch if you are wimpy. Depending on your Internet speed, you may need to pause and wait for the buffer to load the video.
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Paperwork
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A Whole New Look At DSLRs – Feb 10, 2010 – by Johnston Blakley
I have been watching the development of video features being added to digital SLR photo cameras. A single device shooting great looking HiDef video while on surveillance that can switch to large mega pixel photos for accident scene evidence is great for the PI who likes to travel light.
The Canon 5D Mark II was a giant leap forward, shooting 1080p cinema quality video. Then came the Canon 7D with a cropped sensor making it even more appealing for long distance shots.
Canon has now introduced the Rebel T2i at half of the price of the 7D (just $800)! It can shoot 60 frames of video per second making it great for the accident re-enactment people. The most appealing feature may be its ability to crop the video frame 7 times for exceptionally long distance video. In other words, a 300mm lens would give you 2100mm. Add a 2X tele-converter and get 4200mm. Use the 800mm lens with a tele-converter and get a whopping 11,200mm.
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Sony Bloggie - the new Webbie. Jan 15, 2010 - by Johnston Blakley
Finally the Webbie gets upgraded. Full 1920 X 1080, larger screen, more accurate exposure, stabilizer and an option for 60fps for fast motion.
The real test will be in the low light department. The Webbie was nothing to write home about in dim light environments. As soon a I get my hands on a unit I'll produce a side-by-side comparison.
Unfortunately the format is AVC/H.264 as opposed to straight AVCHD....too bad.
The zoom has lost its topside toggle and has moved to the side....too bad.
The unit is slightly slimmer but slightly longer.
More information to come
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CANON'S 2010 LINE-UP – January 7, 2010 - Not a hands on review yet. - by Johnston Blakley
Wow! Canon must have read my Camcorder Review article and went straight into action developing an extensive line-up of consumer camcorders. Canon must have been frightened by my assessment of the Sony and Panasonic optical stabilizers and began developing their new "IS Powered" optical stabilizer. Hit the IS button when you are zoomed out all the way and you will get extra stability according to Canon's feature review. READ MORE...........................
_________________________________________________________________________________________Anticipate - December 22, 2009 - by Johnston Blakley
Make Your Move Before Your Route Gets Blocked
Your eyes are fixed on the Subject’s vehicle. You are determined not to lose him today as the case is getting old and it looks like this guy is on his way to do his once a month errand. A bus turns onto your street between you and the Subject. No problem, you can still kind of see him on the left side. A senior citizen then pulls onto the road and drives right beside the bus. The Subject gets smaller and smaller and disappears into the horizon. You call up your boss and say, “I lost him. The roads are crazy, filled with buses and old people.”
Other drivers and their inanimate objects with wheels are not at fault. You did not read your environment. Routes were being closed down in front of your eyes while you were fixated on the Subject’s vehicle. READ MORE....................
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Camcorder Review – 12/14/09 – by Johnston Blakley
Many investigators will cruise a store’s camcorder shelf, come across a camcorder such as the Panasonic SDR-H80 with 70X optical zoom and say, “Wow, I need that camcorder.” They will take the camera home and then figure out the specs and capabilities. The investigator who follows suit with this impulsive herd will run outside with the camcorder, zoom in on some distant object and then realize that the camera is shaking too much at 70X. He/she will set the camcorder down on the hood of a car, re-zoom in on the object and then notice how everything has a fuzzy, ghost-like glow. With the camcorder’s tiny little 1/8 inch CMOS video chip, everything from 10 feet to the moon is in focus but……a very soft focus. The video compression makes pixels move around like ants that go into a feeding frenzy on a discarded donut.
Good investigators not only investigate cases, they investigate equipment before the purchase. READ MORE......