Power draw turns out to be a limiting factor for multiple USB cameras, but otherwise it’s capable. I can just barely get by with three C920’s but jumping up to a Brio or something that takes quite a bit more power limits me to two/pi without a powered USB hub. Modern Pis can do 1200mA total given a quality power supply.
If I remember right the C920 drew about 250-300ma each and the Brio around 500-600ma. The C922 was somewhere in between.
Anyone try any of the other random capture devices? I found a couple of the sony handycams, but capture devices are hard to come by. I placed an order from aliexpress for one of these:
https://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/0.html?spm=a2g0s.9042647.0.0.2a4c4c4d2X5Njt&orderId=8013768273166791&productId=4000308699315
Not sure how long it will take to get here. I hope it works haha.
Sadly the vast majority of what you’ll find on aliexpress is going to lack an onboard h264 encoder, and will expect the usb host system to encode. If you’re lucky, it’ll at least be able to output MJPEG, and only eat up a sizable chunk of usb bandwidth. If you’re unlucky, it’ll only output uncompressed yuv422 and eat up a ludicrous chunk of bandwidth.
Shipping from China to the US is crazy weird right now. I had a shipment from a warehouse in Shenzhen sit in a “shipped but tracking number not yet available” state for about 2 weeks, then today received a DHL tracking number with the shipment originating in Bahrain…
Thanks for the info. I wasn’t super optimistic, but figured it was a $60 chance rather than shelling out the big money the elgato products are going for on the second hand market right now.
Might be a longshot, but does anyone have a Cam Link (or two) they would like to sell? I was going for a Sony cam and ended up with two thanks to winning ebay bids. I would love to put them in action.
thanks
I’ve been a bit of a lurker here. I was also very disappointed with the CX405 and impulse bought the Panasonic V770 yesterday. It had lint in the lens and I wanted an exchange but it was the last they had. So I got the GX85 instead given it had rave reviews. These comparisons were made in similar conditions. The images stacked here are fullscreen screenshots of what they look like on Twitch (OBS, x264 sw encoder on Mac with a elgato camlink).
Needless to say I’m happy that I finally got the haze/blur out of the PF, you can barely read any of the text in the screenshot. Not sure why the colors look so bleak on the V770 but I’m sure it can be tweaked. Focus is very similar. The artifact to compare is the hitchhiker which looks very lush on the GX85. TF converted my .png to .jpeg, original is here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/sjq6k20m77buehh/cameracomp.png?dl=0
This is a nice comparison. I would certainly hope the GX85 would outperform the cx405, considering the cost difference. I wish I could justify to myself upgrading to a camera like that. I am torn, on the one hand, I like nice things and it is fun to play with new tech and I am ok with the price. On the other hand I struggle with having a nicer camera on my streaming rig that I take photos with day to day. On the gripping hand, I don’t think people watching my stream would even care.
Are you putting additional lighting on the playfield at all? I’ve found whether it be a web cam or a CX405, the clarity of the playfield is greatly improved if you flood the game with light from an external source.
If I was happy with the rest of the cameras in my rig I would’ve probably just kept the CX405 as is. The CX405 is now replacing my Logitech 930e (which is useless) as “DMD” camera. I should probably weigh my GoPro Hero 7 into this comparison too. Hmm…
I have a pretty beefy LED light hanging from the side of the game. (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DR6BF87/)
Just a heads up:
If anyone is looking to get started with producing pinball related content in a YouTube style, Source Hut is offering to help out with equipment costs in exchange for publishing the content to their PeerTube, instance, https://spacepub.space
https://sourcehut.org/blog/2020-05-15-peertube-bootstrap-fund/
More light makes such a difference. A great place to spend money and can be relatively low cost depending on which path you go with.
Where are people having good success with positioning lights? Adding a single light definitely helped my videos, but I’ve had a hard time locating it effectively. Can a single light be enough or should I plan on getting a second?
One can be enough. To avoid glare you’ll need to have it off to the side at a 45 degree angle down to the playfield. Not too high. If you get the height right and distance from the game, the glare should be on the side rail.
Also really important to have your playfield camera in the right spot. Tons of people put it way too high on the playfield and gives the playfield image an almost inverted look. Should be something like this. Middle of the playfield with a slight upward angle to simulate how a player looks at the game.
If you were super anal you could put another light on the right side of the game to eliminate the shadow created on the left side of the game by the light on the left.
ok got the GX80 which seems to be the same as the GX85… on my playfield cam, colour is definitely better but I’m slightly struggling with taking exposure out of it - anyone got any ideas? If I do -EXP it goes super dark…
Are you using external lighting? Do the exposure mode that makes it dark then flood with plenty of light. That’s the only thing I can think of.
yeah I was hoping to avoid lots of lights but will give it ago, thanks Erik
How much does that weigh? I’m afraid of splinters. Haha
Looks great - Will be interesting to see when you have all the great mounted on it and move it around etc how it performs.
