Synopsis: A video day out. Giving my new camera a trial in video mode to test the camera’s capability. A glorious sunny and warm day meant it felt as if spring had arrived, and everyone was out enjoying it.
No trains today, at least none along the coastal track to Teignmouth, presumably because of maintenance, therefore little choice but to use the bus. I took the bus as far as Dawlish Warren which is where I chose to start my walk.
I’ll keep this blog brief, as there’s not a lot of interest to say. I set my main object of the day being to give my new digital SLR a video trial, something that I’d yet to try. I felt I should at least check the camera does function in this respect as it should, and begin to know it’s limitations, as limitations there almost certainly would be if you try to use a still camera as a video camera.
Dawlish Warren
At Dawlish Warren I walked down the beach to where the waves were breaking and videoed the waves and various dogs darting in and out of the sea. The camera handled most of this pretty well; two issues were detectable at this stage: wind noise was picked up by the on-camera microphone, and zooming in and out using the manual lens zoom was rather jerky.
Dawlish Warren - Red Rock Cafe
From Dawlish Warren I followed the coastal path past the Red Rock Cafe and on towards Dawlish. I stopped briefly to film and photograph the rock pools glinting in the sun. At Dawlish I wandered onto the beach to eat some lunch.
Dawlish - benches at Coryton Beach
After lunch I felt there were two things I should search out and film in Dawlish, the black swans for which it is famous and colourful flower beds, for which it is also well known. I actually drew a blank on both accounts. The black swans were nowhere to be seen, and the flower beds were looking rather lame.
Note: I later discovered the black swans had had a family of signets, and that would have been the explanation for my not seeing them on this occasion.
Dawlish - pansy
I did see this lovely pansy radiant in the sun at Dawlish and that gave me a a chance to try out some macro photography. I actually discovered the ‘macro’ setting on my camera does a pretty good job at capturing these shots. This camera function does take control of the ISO setting but provided you’re happy for that to happen, it does get the shot, using what is not really a macro lens, about as well as you’re going to capture it.
Ah well, onwards and upwards out of Dawlish to Teignmouth. They may not have black swans but I was confident they could serve up better flower beds than Dawlish could manage at this time.
Coast path between Dawlish and Teignmouth - Daffodils
The best daffodils that I did actually see were those en route to Teignmouth, at the small village of Holcombe. These were big, bold and very yellow, just as daffodils should be.
At Teignmouth I did a little more videoing, particularly on the Teign Estuary, where the ferry to Shaldon was making its last journeys of the day. The sun was beginning to set by this time and a small bank of fog seemed to be appearing.
Teignmouth – Standard exposure
Teignmouth – HDR image created from 3 exposures
I’ve begun to experiment with a photographic technique known as High Dynamic Range (HDR) or tone-mapping. I'd noted that a number of photographers were placing HDR images on Flickr and had made it my intention to explore the technique myself. I’m not as yet sufficiently practised at this to do it well, but I’ve included an early attempt of mine alongside it’s ‘straight’ version above. I feel there’s potential in this and will pursue further.
I did one last circuit of the town and front before heading to pick up my bus due to arrive at 17:53. A fairly relaxed pace today left me feeling nicely rested. I enjoyed the little bit of filming that I did, and was pleased with how competently my camera performed, considering it’s a DSLR. I’ve compiled some of my video clips from today in a short (6:44) video which can be found below.
Large screen: Standard Def -:- High Def
Conclusions drawn from today's camera video trial:
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1. Automated exposure compensates for fluctuations in light levels
2. Automated exposure variations are not smooth
3. Camera has to be pre-focussed - no auto-adjustments during filming
4. Zooming in/out cannot not be done smoothly
5. Camera's microphone picks up extraneous noise
6. Video capture quality is very high
7. Use of a tripod would significantly improve end result
8. Finally: a DSLR is not a substitute for a dedicated video camera
(Video saved from Movie Maker at 1280x720 pixels, widescreen)
PS. In case you were thinking the stretch of railway at Dawlish is always as calm as it was on this day, check out this YouTube video of trains running the gauntlet during a storm.
Walk Statistics:
Total Distance: 8.5 miles
Moving Time: 3hrs 48min
Stopped Time: 1hr 57min
Total Ascent: 249 metres
Maximum Elevation: 81 metres
Buses: 2
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