Camera Shopping

[Shindig]

Hi all,

I am shopping for a camera for the express purpose of golf swing recording, so I hope it is okay if I place it in this forum.  I thought my next phone would have a camera that could get the 200+ fps at 720p, but the one I was looking at doesn't go on my carrier, which is too bad (it had the camera features I want and is within what I am okay spending on a phone) and the price difference for a lot of phones that do and have the camera I want looks to be quite big, when the only difference (among those I'd care about) is the camera.

So, onto a new separate camera.  My previous one, bought almost a decade ago, does I think 30 fps.  I am thinking I can get a separate camera, accessories if needed, and then I only worry about my phone as a communications device (which, other than filming my golf swing, is most if not all I use it for, leading me to the situation where a high end phone has the cameras I'd want, but every feature save the camera is in the "low end" phones).

I know pretty much nothing about cameras, other than I want one that will be good for filming my swing.  I don't plan to do much else with the camera.  I take my old one with me in summer golf to take pictures since my phone doesn't like being left outside in summer golf when I'm in Rancho Mirage. 

Can someone who knows more about cameras chime in?  I was looking through WalMart cameras and found the AKASO Brave 4 for under $100 (I have no idea if that's a lot or a little to spend on a camera that does what I'm looking for).   The description says it has "resolution of 4K/60fps, 4K/30fps, 2.7K/30fps, 1080P/120fps, 720P/240fps, etc. " (I have no idea what goes into an "etc" for this).  

Or maybe I just get the camera on my phone (Pixel 3XL) repaired and use that, even after I stop using it as a communications device.  The lens is cracked, so it gets dirty very easily, and it tops out at 120 fps when it's working anyway (and with my being regularly under the 10-handicap marker for strokes gained: long game, I figure the difference in fps may be relevant).

[iacas]

You could… just get an iPhone.

Or even just get an old iPhone and use it for video recording.

I don't think I'd get a camera JUST for recording your golf swing, per se, when phones have great high-speed cameras these days.

[saevel25]

It’s pretty much why I got an iPhone years ago. They had the slow motion video capability. 

[KoHo]

I use an old cracked Samsung S8+ and it works great. It records 720p @ 240fps. When I'm done recording a swing, I can trim the video and view it within 5 or 10 seconds.

[Darkfrog]

I use my iphone or the Live View Pro camera. Seems like the majority of smartphones released in the last couple years have good enough cameras for filming swings in slo-mo mode, so this seems like the easiest path

The nice thing about either of these is you can review the recording nearly instantaneously.

On the iphone (or other smartphone), you can view the recording on a nice big screen, easily upload to youtube, or attach to email/text.

The LVP camera connects wirelessly to a tablet/phone for viewing. Getting the video out of the app is confusing, and the app sucks. I like the LVP camera as a digital mirror for slow swings/rehearsals, but the video quality, especially the frame rate/shutter speed is too low to really see detail in full speed swings. There is a new version of the LVP that is supposed to address this, but I think I'd rather just pay the subscription for mirrorvision since I have two iphones.

[mdl]

I agree you're off base going for solo camera. On slo-mo mid and high end phones have had good enough cameras for high quality swing recording for many years now. Even the iPhone 6 is capable of 240fps (I'm not sure it's the default but you can set it to that). I'd get an older refurbished high end phone instead of a current cheaper phone and a separate camera.

And it'll be WAY easier to review and save the clips you want. I use the InShot app on my iPhone. Take a video (even regular speed is fine on the newer iPhone versions), import there, clip, slow down to 20% if not already in slo-mo, can use the text insert feature with capital I's to draw lines/references. Won't get that on a camera.

[Shindig]

On 5/23/2022 at 7:06 PM, iacas said:

You could… just get an iPhone.

Or even just get an old iPhone and use it for video recording.

I don't think I'd get a camera JUST for recording your golf swing, per se, when phones have great high-speed cameras these days.

That's a good point.  I'm so far out of the Apple infrastructure I hadn't even thought about iPhones.  If it's the right thing for my needs, though, that may be what I get.

11 hours ago, KoHo said:

I use an old cracked Samsung S8+ and it works great. It records 720p @ 240fps. When I'm done recording a swing, I can trim the video and view it within 5 or 10 seconds.

Ooooh.  I did like my S3 back in the day.  720p at 240 sounds great. 

10 hours ago, mdl said:

I agree you're off base going for solo camera. On slo-mo mid and high end phones have had good enough cameras for high quality swing recording for many years now. Even the iPhone 6 is capable of 240fps (I'm not sure it's the default but you can set it to that). I'd get an older refurbished high end phone instead of a current cheaper phone and a separate camera.

And it'll be WAY easier to review and save the clips you want. I use the InShot app on my iPhone. Take a video (even regular speed is fine on the newer iPhone versions), import there, clip, slow down to 20% if not already in slo-mo, can use the text insert feature with capital I's to draw lines/references. Won't get that on a camera.

I hadn't even thought about refurbished phones (although I think my last two, Pixel 3XL and Galaxy S3, were both bought refurbished, so I clearly should have been).  I feel I saw a bunch of newer phones that listed 30 fps, but that's probably lower end phones today.

I love the idea of annotating to get lines too.

 

Thanks everyone for the help, I really appreciate it.  Camera just for the swing is off the menu now.

[Hohjoe]

Consider an iPod Touch. It  has the same OS as an iPhone but without a phone, so It's less expensive . And it can be used for quite a few more things.

[nevets88]

I think the Apple store is completely out of stock if you're looking for a new iPod Touch since they discontinued it 2 weeks ago.

I never traded in my iPhones and still use the 6S, 8, and more current model to record videos. The thing with the older models is maybe the lightning port is so worn out, you have to plug it in a couple of times to get the thing to charge, even if you've cleaned it out for dust.

I wonder where the Casio I used to record swings is, I remember having to bring an extra battery because capacity wasn't great.

[iacas]

I have a 10s in great shape if anyone wants an older iPhone. @Shindig?

[Shindig]

On 5/25/2022 at 8:25 AM, iacas said:

I have a 10s in great shape if anyone wants an older iPhone. @Shindig?

Let me get back to you on that.