Reviewers Recommend
Blacked Raw V110Blacked Raw V110 - review by Captain Jack
Director: Derek Dozer, W.C. Walker, Vorman
Starring: Amirah Adara, Riley Star, Anna Claire Clouds, Anton Harden, Damion Dayski, Nina White, Hollywood Cash, Mannie Coco. Read review
All Forums > Sex Talk > Sex Talk Forum Page 20 > Recording Home Sex Tapes
AuthorPost
ipop
Senior Member


1115 Posts
1/06
Posted - Jul 8 2011 : 8:05AM
This is sort of a tech question and sort of a sex question, so I'll post it here.
I picked up a cheap, Slick Simpleflix VC130 digital video recorder so I could try to film some home sex tapes with my fuck buddy. I didn't expect much out of the camera, but decided it was worth a shot since it was on sale for $20 with a 4 GB SD card. The camera is worse than I expected. I can't get a decent pic with the still pic setting. It is supposed to be a 12 megapixel camera with 4X digital zoom, and on the highest setting the pics are 2048 x 1536, but the picture quality sucks - especially in low light or up close.
The video quality isn't any better. Video comes in at 640 x 480, frame rate 29.99, bit rate 352 kbps. Biggest problem again is low light and up close. The built in LED light doesn't help at all. We aren't trying to do it in the dark - I had lights on and you can make out what's going on but the quality sucks, and I don't really want to light her up with a flood light. With the zoom all the way out, everything is still too close so I can't get much of the action in. I figured out that the mechanics of filming POV porn isn't as easy as the movies make it look, whether I hold it or put it on a tripod on the bedside table. Any suggestions on that would be appreciated as far as positions, camera angle, camera placement. We had taken some POV BJ pics with a Sony Cyber Shot she used to have that came out a lot better than this thing.
Now that I got this in my mind to film her getting fucked, I'm going to try to find a better camera to do it with. I'm not going to go out and buy a top notch camcorder as I can't afford it and it isn't that important, but I am looking on Craigslist for something better and used. I figure I can get something with 5 year old technology pretty cheap that will work better than what I have. Can anyone tell me what to look for as far as specs/features? I'm guessing this thing has no auto focus or auto lighting adjustment, so that would be a good start. I don't need to zoom in more, I need to zoom in less. Would 16X zoom be better for that?
ninja1
Senior Member

2939 Posts
1/08
Posted - Jul 8 2011 : 12:53PM
$20 is the going rate for a 4GB SD card; you can catch them on sale for $13-$14. So you're working with a $0-$7 camera. It needs lots of light, and you shouldn't expect to be able to use it exactly how you want. That type of camera has a "sweet spot" in which it might perform satisfactorily, and you will have to experiment to learn its ideal conditions (lighting and distance). Sounds like you've already discovered that POV and close-ups are out of the question.
ipop
Senior Member

1115 Posts
1/06
Posted - Jul 8 2011 : 1:01PM
Yep - it's junk. I want to find something used that works better.
ninja1
Senior Member

2939 Posts
1/08
Posted - Jul 8 2011 : 1:25PM
I wasn't exactly calling it junk; just saying if you're willing to adapt and cater to its requirements, you just might be able to finesse some usable stuff from it.
jayo All-Star Supporter
All-Star Member

2117 Posts
7/04
Posted - Jul 8 2011 : 9:58PM
Since it's a tech question, you might ask in Tech Talk. You may find more people who can answer.
I know jack about video (my expirience is primarily in stills) so I'll risk embarassing myself with this: many cams I've seen don't handle low light very well, and less expensive ones aren't engineered for it at all. If you can beef up the available light, and if you white balance it (it should say how in the manual), you may find that the image quality improves dramatically.
I'd experiment with it. You may not need a klieg light in your bedroom--another stop or two may make all the difference. And white balance. It's amazing how much cleaner a photo looks if you white balance it.
Edited by - jayo on 7/8/2011 9:59:20 PM
 
Macko69
Senior Member

Gone for a walk.
1985 Posts
5/08
Posted - Jul 8 2011 : 10:49PM
I have a small HD Sony camcorder that I've attached a lens adapter to. The lens adapter looks a little like this. Until I got it, I couldn't get in close enough to the action when I was shooting POV. The lens attachment now allows me to do this, but I no longer shoot in POV because it's really difficult to hold the camera steady for more than a couple of minutes. And it's really frustrating to try to hold the camera steady while I'm cumming.
I started to shoot our videos with a tripod. Although I had bought a light that I could mount to a clip on top of my camcorder, I didn't use it because it was really bright and distracting. Above our bed, we have a track that has 3 fairly bright lights and we have a light on the nightstands on either side of our bed, which seems to be more than enough. The more I shot with a tripod, the more I realized that our tripod, which maxed out at about 5 feet, wasn't tall enough. If your going to have only 1 camera angle, it's best to shoot it from as high a vantage point as possible. Right near the foot of our bed, we have an open wood box that I mounted to the ceiling. I have a tiny tripod that can angle the camera downward and it's the perfect angle to shoot. It's about 6 feet higher than the surface of the bed. If you don't have somewhere on your ceiling that you can place your camera, you may want to consider a really tall tripod.
Think about your angles before you start to fuck. Think of where your camera will be and how you want your bodies to be situated. Run some trials by yourself and the camera beforehand to make sure the angles look good and the lighting on the genitals is adequate (nothing more frustrating than watching you and your girl in your own porn but you can't see genitals). When we first started to do videos, we made the mistake of having the zoom out too much. It's cool to have a good view of everything that's going on, but it's best to zoom in close so that you both take up most of the screen.
One of the biggest challenges is how to capture a great cumshot. One thing I've learned - unless your cum is voluminous and thick, it will be difficult to see it unless your camera is zoomed in fairly close to the action. And it also needs to be well lit.
If you get yourself an HD camera and you don't yet have a Blu-Ray DVD burner, you may want to save the master video files in unedited form. I have hours of sex videos shot in HD that I've already burned to standard DVD, but I'm keeping the master video files until I can burn them onto a Blu-Ray disc. If you have a fairly large HD TV, Blu-Ray quality DVDs make a huge difference in sharpness and detail. In a few months, I'll probably buy a Blu-Ray player and some blank discs.
Good luck and have fun!
seedfeeder
Member

My balls are full, who's hungry?
716 Posts
4/09
Posted - Jul 9 2011 : 1:36AM
I film lots of our escapades. POV is pretty impossible without a wide angle lens. Most cameras have threads on the lens that allow for step adapters and lenses. There are settings on my camera that basically allow me to film almost in complete darkness-but it moves weird, so it's not optimal. With a tripod, wide angle lens and decent camcorder, you should be able to capture whatever you want.
Hope that helps a little.
Rod
Member

908 Posts
8/10
Posted - Jul 16 2011 : 9:11AM
Congratulations! For $20 you've discovered the most important aspects of shooting porn! I'd say you made a VERY good investment. Regardless of the quality of the camera, the most important thing (besides a willingness to experiment and a willing partner) in shooting porn is having enough light. Enough light is way more than whatever amount of light you're already using. WAY MORE! When you have too much light, you've got a good start. Unfortunately, you're gonna need more light than you'd like to get enough to shoot. The major difference between crappy cameras and good cameras is their ability to let light into the camera. Cheap cameras have small lens and small lens lets in little light so you need more light in the room. Better cameras have bigger lens and that lets more of the available light into the camera. Focus on the light regardless of the camera quality. I suggest buying halogen shop lights from your local home improvement store. You'll need at least 2 good size ones...make that 2 big ones!! They're much better heaters than lights so be careful, they're gonna get VERY HOT!! Point the lights toward a white wall/ceiling and bounce the light onto the bed. If you can shoot in a room with lots of windows, use as much sunlight as possible. Shoot mid day without direct light on the bed. Don't shoot at night. Remember - Lots of Light!! Mount the camera on a tripod to start and just let it run and have fun......Remember rule one - LIGHT!!!
Hardware All-Star Supporter
All-Star Member

Your other left
14595 Posts
3/02
Posted - Jul 16 2011 : 10:45AM
I agree with everything Rod said, except that he didn't put enough emphasis on the need for light.
Seriously, when Rod says shoot in sunlight it isn't just because sunlight is bright. It is because sunlight has color. Bright light doesn't suffice to make you look good, you also need the right color of light to keep you from looking like a zombie.
Rod
Member

908 Posts
8/10
Posted - Jul 17 2011 : 7:53AM
^ Yep, sunlight (and the halogen shop lights) are called full spectrum, meaning the light has all the colors of the rainbow. White light is the combination of lots of color light. That's what allows a rainbow to appear when it rains. The rain drops act like millions of little lens that separate the white sunlight into all the different colors that make up a rainbow. That way, all the colors that make up your scene, in particularly the color of skin, can be captured by the camera because all the colors are available to be bounced off your bodies and captured by the camera. You get a color image that looks correct because it has the right color. Halogen shop lights are surprisingly good sources of full spectrum light. Most florescent bulbs are not good sources of light because they have way too much green light. The combination of sunlight and halogen light works well to provide lots of volume of light as well as good quality light, meaning full spectrum light. Just remember to bounce all the light off of a white surface like a white wall or ceiling so you don't get the harsh contrast from direct light. Your camera won't handle the sharp contrast well.
All Forums > Sex Talk > Sex Talk Forum Page 20Recording Home Sex Tapes

Previous topic: Pictures
Next topic: How to get job in porn?



Jump To: