Golf Swing, Camera Trick...

[Midpack]

I was going to post this on the Golf Talk thread, but I thought it might be interesting for other amateur videographers or applications.

I am relearning golf after a very long layoff, and I took my GoPro to the driving range yesterday. I set it on the fastest frame rate (60 fps), hoping I could slow it down on playback and examine my swing, and it was somewhat useful. I hadn't planned it beforehand but just for fun I started looking frame by frame, and I was ALARMED for a few minutes. At the start of the downswing the shaft is bending back some, makes sense. But just before the clubhead makes contact with the ball, the shaft appears to be significantly curved forward, that makes no sense. W T H ! It's even more exaggerated with my driver, but the graphite shafts are dark and much harder to see with the background, so I used pics with my 5-iron. For a minute I thought maybe I needed different club shafts (mine are stiff for players)!!! Sorry DW, I HAVE to buy new clubs.

But I Googled (what did we do before) and learned that unless the camera is truly slow-motion capable, there are some crazy distortions that occur - that bear no resemblance to reality. Has to do with rolling shutter, frame rate and/or shutter speed - I am sure some experts here know already know all about the phenomena, where I did not.

Anyway, I still learn something every day...

 

[ponyboy]

This should probably be moved to the golf talk thread.

 

[Sunset]

.... I thought it might be interesting for other amateur videographers or applications.

......
But I Googled (what did we do before) and learned that unless the camera is truly slow-motion capable, there are some crazy distortions that occur - that bear no resemblance to reality. Has to do with rolling shutter, frame rate and/or shutter speed - I am sure some experts here know already know all about the phenomena, where I did not.

....

I would never look at a golf thread, since I don't play.
But I do photos and video for fun, and didn't really think about this distortion effect before, so thanks for posting as I'll have an idea if I notice it.

 

[ChiliPepr]

This is often also noticed when taking photos/videos of propellers...
check out some of these images.

 

[HFWR]

Newer iPhones will do 240fps at 720p.

 

[Huston55]

I was going to post this on the Golf Talk thread, but I thought it might be interesting for other amateur videographers or applications.

I am relearning golf after a very long layoff, and I took my GoPro to the driving range yesterday. I set it on the fastest frame rate (60 fps), hoping I could slow it down on playback and examine my swing, and it was somewhat useful. I hadn't planned it beforehand but just for fun I started looking frame by frame, and I was ALARMED for a few minutes. At the start of the downswing the shaft is bending back some, makes sense. But just before the clubhead makes contact with the ball, the shaft appears to be significantly curved forward, that makes no sense. W T H ! It's even more exaggerated with my driver, but the graphite shafts are dark and much harder to see with the background, so I used pics with my 5-iron. For a minute I thought maybe I needed different club shafts (mine are stiff for players)!!! Sorry DW, I HAVE to buy new clubs. . AND BUY LESSONS

FIFY

 

[eytonxav]

I am no coach, but perhaps you need a bit more club head lag on that downswing before ball contact. Should get you a nice increase in distance as well.

 

[Midpack]

This should probably be moved to the golf talk thread.

I addressed your POV in my first sentence - it's not actually about golf, it's about a video/photography quirk. Just ignore the thread if it doesn't interest you...

 

[Walt34]

[mod hat on]The thread is fine where it is, it's more about the video than golf, I think.[mod hat off]

As I understand it the effect comes from the object, in this case the shaft of the club, moving during the frame. Remember how in the old cartoons a "fast-moving-car" would be illustrated as leaning forward a bit, the faster the car went the more the wheels/tires leaned forward. This effect was also in old photographs of race cars.

It been a while since I read the article, but as I remember it the effect is the result of a focal plane shutter that has a slit in it, and as the shutter moved from left to right the tires were in a different position at the beginning of the frame when the slit was at the left. At the end of the frame the tires had moved forward, hence the "leaning forward" look. At least I think that was it. Here's a wiki article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focal-plane_shutter