Is it hard? - Not if you have the right attitudes. It's having the right attitudes that's hard.

Robert M. Pirsig

Of late, probably partially due to COVID-19, I've been messing around with a number of different things. As a consequence of too much YouTube, I decided to get a drone. There was only one sensible choice for me - a dpi Mavic Mini. This only weighs 249g so is exempt from the current UK registration system. It's very competent - and relatively cheap.

To go with the video footage I expect to make I needed some video editing software. Now dpi includes a nice, straight-forward editor and I thought this would be fine. However, I use an Android 'phone (OnePlus 6T) and the screen is really a little too small for comfort (for editing video anyway). No matter said I, I'll download the video files on to my Nexus 7 or Samsung something or other Tab S. No problem - except you can't get the dpi Fly app for these. Initially I thought this might be due to the Android version and spent a day faffing around with rooting, ROMs and all things West (another story perhaps) - and then discovered that it's actually probably due to these 2 tablets being 32 bit machines. No problem, I've got an iPad - you know "It just works". Does it hell! Fine if you want to do what Apple wants you to do but otherwise …. Anyway, suffice to say I got no joy with this either.

So, Google being my friend, I found the Holy Grail. An unbelievably competent video editor that is free - I give you: DaVinci Resolve 16. Brilliant software - I can now cut and join bits of video, add titles and text, produce smooth fade-in/outs, music, blur out moving features (ref. numbers mostly) and so on. And, apparently this is just the start.

Also, after a couple of years off, I've resurrected my motorcycle (Triumph Sprint ST 955i) and drift around the countryside with Brian from across the road (Codger Biker on YouTube). The references about Dr John come from this - it's how Codger Biker refers to me on his channel.

So, the scene is now set for spectacular videos centred around my bike, my drone and the English countryside - which in my totally unbiased opinion, is the very best in the world - nay Universe.

Motorbikes

My Triumph Sprint ST

02/06/2020

It was used as a camera bike for sports events and only had about 500 miles on the clock when I got it. It's getting long in the tooth now but still a great ride. Ive used it for commuting, Chrissie and I have gone on holiday on it and, of course, it's mosttly ridden for fun now. Currently, it's blown a generator stator (not and unusual event it would seem) - except it's now burned out 2 in 100 miles. Not good and I'm still looking for a solution. Probably going to use a 'series' type regulator-rectifier which doesn't dump excess energy back into the generating circuits. We'll see and I might write it up.

Not much else to say - it's all in the credits at the end. I have had to cut the quality down abit. The Insta360 seems to produce huge files and I've not found out how to reduce these in my editing other than to reduce the quality. This might change - watch this space!

Back

Tags: Triumph Sprint,Insta360

GreyMamba

Thinking Allowed … (under construction)

Thinking Allowed … (under construction)

Thinking Allowed … (under construction)

My Triumph Sprint ST