Canon Power Shot A540 motorcycle ride video test

This is a test video on my motorcycle using the Canon PowerShot A540. For an old camera being held together with duct tape, this camera records videos pretty well. In this clip, it's only duct-taped to the motorcycle's left handle bar behind the mirror, so hopefully quality will improve when I get it mounted better. I bought it some time ago for close-ups of flowers (my results were okay, not as good as others I had seen in ads) to replace a nice 35mm set up - I took a lot of pictures but most of them were unsatisfactory and wasted resources. Digital has worked well for me. And looks like I'll be using it for video as well until it finally breaks down.

It uses AA batteries, and eats regular ones for snacks (even the pricier special camera ones are a light lunch), so I invested in a few sets of rechargeables and a 15-minute recharging unit by Duracell which also recharges (I think) AAAs. This has worked out well. The camera still goes through batteries, but I'm not spending a ton of money on replacing them anymore. :-]

I didn't do anything special to make this video more steady (if there's a setting for that, I didn't use it - didn't get into the menus at all pre-ride - just dialed to video and pushed Record), and when I ride over the gravel in front of the construction site I guess it shows. But still not bad at all. I think it beats the newer camcorder (see other test) in that regard, as well as the wind noise reduction.

BTW, used Moyea Video4Web Converter to convert the PowerShot's .avi format to .mp4 for youtube - instead of taking nearly 2 hours for upload of the 820 MB .avi, it estimates 15 minutes to upload the 105 MB .mp4 (conversion at "high quality" setting took 20 minutes to reduce 820 MB .avi to the 105 MB .mp4). :D

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Canon
• PowerShot
• A540
• motorcycle
• ride
• test
• review
• camcorder
• camera
• video