I do a bit of video filming with multiple cameras at my church sometimes, and I have a hard time syncing everything up. So I was thinking of building my own clapboard (you know, those things that they use in the movies at the start of each scene...) that would allow me to at least sync the audio when the "clap" is heard. I thought it would also be fun to put a running timer in there too so I can sync things visually. Something that goes Hours, Minutes, Seconds, 100ths of a second. I'd like to build it myself though, and learn how it all works. From what I can tell, I'll need some of those 7-segment LCD pannels, and an IC with a pulse generator of some sort, but I have no clue what else I need or how to hook it all up. Any suggestions on instructions for this?
DIY Timer?
- Thread starter compuguru
- Start date
Hi,
While you could design a circuit yourself using some off the shelf ICs (a 555 timer, decade counters and some display driver chips) it is probably a little easier to use a kit like this. You still get the fun of soldering it together yourself but you have the convenience of a PCB and kit of parts. You would need the firmware chip I linked to and the counter/display module that is listed on the same page.
A completely different technique that I have used to synchronize multiple cameras is to use a handheld camera flash. I press the test button to make a bright flash that can be seen on both tapes and use that as the sync frame.
Incidentally, the slates with timers that you see on professional movie sets are actually connected to or synchronized with an external timing system that puts an SMPTE time code on all of the recordings that are being made on set (film, audio, video) so that synching up later is easier. Of course it comes at a price
Paul
While you could design a circuit yourself using some off the shelf ICs (a 555 timer, decade counters and some display driver chips) it is probably a little easier to use a kit like this. You still get the fun of soldering it together yourself but you have the convenience of a PCB and kit of parts. You would need the firmware chip I linked to and the counter/display module that is listed on the same page.
A completely different technique that I have used to synchronize multiple cameras is to use a handheld camera flash. I press the test button to make a bright flash that can be seen on both tapes and use that as the sync frame.
Incidentally, the slates with timers that you see on professional movie sets are actually connected to or synchronized with an external timing system that puts an SMPTE time code on all of the recordings that are being made on set (film, audio, video) so that synching up later is easier. Of course it comes at a price
Paul
Thanks for the link, I'll check that out! I was using flashes or small cues in the video to sync them, but when I got my audio recorder, I need an audible cue too. I could use a clap, but figured this would be kindof a neat project to do. I did look at those Pro clapboard from B&H which are really expensive, so I thought I would try building my own pseudo one.
Ahh. I see.
Maybe you could add something like this sound activated flash trigger to your clapper and then you would get an optical and audible sync point.
Paul
