Camera for FSX

[CBearsSB]

Also the video in FSX is not meant for golf swing analysis. It is nice to see your swing but can't do super slow motion, draw lines, do side by side comparisons, etc.

[p3eps]

Has anyone got a cheap but effective camera for this yet?
I have a couple of things that I have fixed during my lessons that I know I still do on occasion. I'd like to be able to play back my bad shots and see if it's because I'm bending my arm, or turning my hands!

I have a mirror as part of my setup, but it's impossible to watch myself and play at the same time!!

[Yongchai]

What would you consider cheap? I can confirm logitech's c920 works and you can get it for around $60 from Amazon. It has pretty good low light capture (useful for an enclosed sim room) and decent fps (30 fps if i'm not wrong). You won't get to see exactly what the shaft is doing at impact position, but you can get a pretty good idea. Main benefit would be being able to see body positions throughout the swing. (Using it to record down the line and not front facing, so not sure how effective it is for checking arm bend or hands turning)

If you want to look for other cheaper options, i think the main factor is to look for H.264 encoding (however don't quote me on this). I think thats the format that FSX reads since i also have the PSeye which does not work with FSX. If you want to look for a slightly better option, go for the recently announced c922 which has supposedly better low light capture and a 60fps retailing for $100.

Unless you are a pro and using the camera to teach or you know how to correct your own swing faults, a $100 video camera is more than enough. With the video replay, i noticed i have a problem with early extension- butt moving closer to the ball at impact and some head movement. I tried fixing it for a while but screwed up my swing so i've given up on fixing my early extension and don't really use the video replay option now.

Some notes on the video reply function in FSX.
1) video capture is triggered by ball impact - excellent
2) videos is automatically cropped to show backswing and follow through - excellent
3) replay has 3 speeds, normal/half/quarter
4) during replay at normal, wait time is 2 sec before swing start, at half wait is 5 sec, at quarter wait is 10 sec - terrible
5) no keyboard shotcuts to get you to the video analysis page, so with the new UI layout, it takes you a couple of clicks before you get to see your swing.
6) after spending $2k+ on FSX, its a no brainer to get a $60-100 webcam to add video replay functionality, but ease of use and usefulness is probably less than you expect

[p3eps]

Thanks for the info. I've just ordered a C922. Hopefully that'll be good enough for what I want without spending a fortune.
I'm happy to pay £100... but not £500. I got a PSeye last week for £5 and paid a couple of £'s via PayPal for the drivers, but FSX doesn't see it.

[Yongchai]

Yeah, let us know how it goes with the c922 and what frame rates you can get with it. For the C920 i had to turn off "right light" and fiddle with the camera settings before i could get 30fps.

[p3eps]

I've finally got the C922 set up, and am getting a miserable 15fps. Looks like I'll need to spend some time fiddling with the settings to try and get it better. I'm not really sure where to start though?!

[Yongchai]

"Exposure" setting is one of the main ones that eat up frame rates. Make sure you adjust both in FSX and the logitech device software.

Also, connect the camera to usb3 if possible, and if not, make sure u do not have too many peripherals on the same usb bus.

Btw, FSX ver 2.4 was just released.

[p3eps]

"Exposure" setting is one of the main ones that eat up frame rates. Make sure you adjust both in FSX and the logitech device software.

Also, connect the camera to usb3 if possible, and if not, make sure u do not have too many peripherals on the same usb bus.

Btw, FSX ver 2.4 was just released.

Thanks... I'll download the latest version when I get home, and have a go at the settings tomorrow! I'll let you know how I get on.

[p3eps]

I got the new version of FSX. The only difference I can see is the Bluetooth connectivity bit. I wonder if that's to enable the GCQ to connect?

I was wondering if there is a utility to check the FPS of the camera so that I can see what I'm getting as I adjust the Logitech software?

[p3eps]

When I put the C922 into a USB3 socket, I immediately got 25fps without changing any settings. I couldn't really do anything to make it any better within FSX.

[Yongchai]

If you installed FSX Ver 2.4. Go to Settings, Swing Cam and the page should show your current FPS with your webcam.

Uncheck the Auto button for Exposure and I find that the best setting for exposure is at -5, where its not too dark and gives the highest framerate (30-31 in my case with a c920).

If you can't seem to get higher than 30 fps, the round-about way i would troubleshoot this is to install kinovea, run the program and click Select Source. It should show what configurations your webcam is able to produce (ie 1920x1080 px @30fps). Check to see if the C922 has an option for 60 fps.

Also, you can click on properties there to get into the logitech device software where under Advanced Settings, you can uncheck RightLight.

[p3eps]

Thanks for the reply...
I installed kinovea, and can select 60fps @ 1280 x 720 - which is what the spec sheet said.
I can't get FSX to go above 31fps though. It's almost like FSX just sees the camera as 30fps. I can't see any specific settings in the Logitech app to force the camera to 60fps.
Please excuse the mess of my garage

[Yongchai]

In Kinovia, whats the fps you can get at 1920x1080?

Theres no option to select camera resolution in FSX, so maybe even if your webcam can do 60 fps at 1280x720, FSX is defaulting to the resolution of 1920x1080.

Another thing to check would be the amount of ram you have in your PC. Foresight recommends 16gigs for videocam, so if you are not up to spec on that, it might affect your framerates.

[p3eps]

That's what it seems like, as the FPS for 1920 x 1080 is 30fps. My PC has 16gb of RAM.
I wonder if Logitech are planning on releasing a specific driver for the C922, so that I can set it to a specific resolution.

[Yongchai]

I think its more an FSX issue than a driver problem. Try emailing Foresight customer support and see if they can help or ask them to put in an option to change resolutions in their next update.

But at the current 30fps, does the replay function meet your requirements and expectations?

In ver 2.4, i think they shortened the recording time for the backswing so video replay times are much improved with wait time of 1/2/5sec at normal/half/quarter speeds (compared to 2/5/10sec). Shortening recording time was the easy fix, i wished they put in a bit more effort to individually program each replay speed so that the wait time for all speeds are 1sec. But a decent upgrade nevertheless.