EEVblog #759 - Mailbag

[Stonent]

I was wondering, where's Dave2 been?

[EEVblog]

I was wondering, where's Dave2 been?

Busy with study and other stuff. He's beavering away on various projects that will eventually see the light of day.

[apis]

That magnet device is very cool, didn't know you could do that.

And thumbs up for Ryan from me as well, nice to see another face on the show!

[technix]

Thanks for putting my board in this post!

Tindie screwed up my store address But I think Tindie support staff changed it back...

I chose the full sized USB Type B for its reliability. Once I had snapped the USB micro-B off a board and damaged it beyond repair... Not wanting that happen in my own projects I will probably always use full-sized Type B if size allows.

[JackP]

Mini B's a pretty good compromise between size and robustness

[Dave Turner]

Dave,

I really like your latest mailbag format with or without a partner; opening a lot to get through them and then later running 2 minute tear downs of interesting items or putting aside others for later and longer attention. It all seems to flow better, at least in my view.

A minor frustration that I have had is that when you present an item to the camera by hand your camera takes so long to focus that one does not get a chance to see it properly before it is removed from the field of view. Having said that you are better/more polished than other bloggers that I am pleased to subscribe to.

Perhaps you could have another camera arranged to focus on a plane immediately within reach, then possibly you could take feeds from both cameras via a mixer to a recorder. Thus a switch to pick which feed is recorded could speed production.

Just a thought! You're the expert.

Regards

Dave

[Rasz]

Perhaps you could have another camera arranged to focus on a plane immediately within reach, then possibly you could take feeds from both cameras via a mixer to a recorder. Thus a switch to pick which feed is recorded could speed production.

game streaming pr0s use OBS and switch between cameras live seamlessly with keyboard/remote shortcuts with no editing
example repair with such setup:

shitton of turtorials on ze web how to set it all up, random one from google
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLADO0ZcWBBb62Fn-ExV1PwiAliCA-j7Rw

[technix]

Mini B's a pretty good compromise between size and robustness

Those are not really cheap, and are not updated for USB 3.0/3.1 should I ever need it. USB micro-B are just pain in the ass to solder with an iron and are fragile like balls to me. I still trust a good old through hole Type B soldered down solidly to the board - you will probably destroy the board to snap it off unlike micro-B that snaps off way easier.

[EEVblog]

Perhaps you could have another camera arranged to focus on a plane immediately within reach, then possibly you could take feeds from both cameras via a mixer to a recorder. Thus a switch to pick which feed is recorded could speed production.

It wouldn't speed production up a huge amount, and ultimately quality is going to suffer with these sorts of systems.
Take for example Chris Gammell's video for Contextual Electronics. He has multiple cameras setup, switches live, and pauses the recording when required. The result is direct MP4 file that is automatically uploaded. No editing required. 15 minutes of content takes 15 minutes to shoot (unless he pauses).
That's great for the sort of stuff he does, but poor for what people expect of my (more polished) videos. Framing suffers, exposure suffers etc, and unless you use HDMI capture from real cameras (not webcams) quality suffers.
My editing doesn't take that long, a 1 hour mailbag takes not much longer than an hour to edit.
Also, unless you are 100% fixed setup to produce the same style of content day in day out, you'd always be dismantling rigs, moving camera, tripods etc around. And it takes longer to set back up to start a shoot. My cameras are always constantly moving around the lab shooting all different sorts of footage. Even having a power cable plugged in to power the camera is a PITA, let alone a big long awkward HDMI cable going off to a PC. It's my idea of a nightmare.

Although I do plan to have such a system like this for putting together quick videos. e.g. a fixed PC with multiple webcams and/or production cams, the Targarno microscope, PC screen capture, monitor screen, X-Split software for live switching, pausing, and recording, and a dedicated wireless mic system to handle the audio no matter what the situation. So I can do live shows as well as record a semi-polished version to upload for people to watch later.

[Dave Turner]

Thank you for your explanation.

Given your camera set up, which I believe usually auto-focuses on faces, is there any practical way of speeding the focussing on the hand presented items (particularly the smaller ones) without interrupting the flow of your presentation?

Regards

Dave

[jwm_]

Mini B's a pretty good compromise between size and robustness

Mini is significantly less reliable than micro.  Mini connectors are designed for only 1,500 insert/remove cycles. micro are designed for 10,000. There is no reason to use mini in anything nowadays and it has been officially deprecated as a bad idea all around.

Full size B are also not designed for many insert/remove cycles, but are more robust due to their size, you may find yourself having to "tighten' it a bit by rebending the retaining grounding springs a little after a few thousand cycles, but I have never had one fail in a way a little cleaning didn't fix up. I tend to use them too for anything that already has some bulk to it, unless it is a pure charging/power port. in which case it is always micro.

The connection between the connector and the board can be a weak point for micro though, They make versions with through-hole prongs that are going to be signifigantly more robust, especially if your pcb traces have a possibility of delaminating due to overheating or stress, surface only micro port + cheap pcb - extra mechanical strengthening beyond solder connection is asking for trouble.

[EEVblog]

Given your camera set up, which I believe usually auto-focuses on faces, is there any practical way of speeding the focussing on the hand presented items (particularly the smaller ones) without interrupting the flow of your presentation?

Not really, no. The depth of field change is too large. It's simply a hard limitation of trying to do that sort of shot.
I can attempt to set the camera further back and up the depth of field manually, but that requires:
a) More light (so no video noise)
b) Wireless mic setup instead of shotgun on camera
c) Potential to get it wrong and screw all the footage (done that before)

I could of course have a 2nd cam setup close I can show to stuff too, and then switch in editing, but then I'd have the problem of:
a) Twice as much raw footage to copy and backup
b) Extra editing time (syncing and fades required etc)
c) Potential to forget the start

In which case it would likely be better to go two a live camera switch system like you proposed. But all simply to too to fix a problem that isn't a huge issue, and I think the mailbag would end up with a "live" choppy-feeling camera feel that would have it's own drawback in terms of what people like.

But ultimately it's a simple solution to your issue, I just need to hold the object up to the camera for longer, make sure it focuses and stop yapping for a second until it does, and then edit out that delay. It's a laziness/discipline issue. People like to think of all sorts of complex workflow solutions for things like this, but it's usually not as complicated as you might think.

[Dave Turner]

 

Bingo! I'm a firm believer in the principle of KISS. 

regards

Dave