Repurposing Compact LX7

[DuckDuck]

Hi all, Hope you can help with some advice. I bought a motorbike and have been doing quite a lot of touring abroad and one of the most frustrating aspects of this is that it's so inconvenient to take still photos on the move ! The obvious answer is to buy one of the latest and expensive action cameras but I don't need or want the video capability. I've been in and out of photography over the years and am currently quite happy snapping with my iphone but use this for my nav when on the bike.

I had a crazy idea that I could repurpose my old Lumix LX7 compact that's been gathering dust and not been used for years. I charged its battery and brought it back to life. I bought a mount and placed it onto one of the mirror stalks; it's within arms length when on the bike so can easily press the shutter.

I found myself having to relearn some photography skills. Initially I set the camera to auto with mixed results half the shots were a bit blurry. There is quite a lot of vibration when on the move and when I press the shutter that generally settles it a bit.

The camera does have some kind of image stabilization but i'm not sure this is enough. Are there any settings you would recommend to improve the quality like say having shutter speed priority? I'm thinking having a higher speed shutter would help with movement of the camera ?

Would be really interested in hearing your thoughts

Thanks in advance

[Simpo Two]

There are probably two kinds of blur going on. One will be motion blur due to the speed, most noticeable towards the edges of the image when you're going at speed. It can be a nice effect if you want it as it shows speed.

The second is because you mounted the camera on a wobbly thing connected to a vibrating thing. That's camera shake. A sufficiently fast shutter speed would fix it but I'm not sure your camera will be able to achieve it due to various other constraints. Putting your hand on it to take the photo improves it, but evidently not enough.

So if camera shake is the problem, try to improve the mounting - coping with vibration is rather a black art; sometimes a flexible mount can make it worse and a rigid mount better - it's all to do with frequencies and trial and error.

An easy way to reduce the visual effect of camera shake is to go as wide-angle as possible, but you may already be using that.

The part of the motorbike-human combo that's probably travelling in the smoothest line is your head, as you'll be a good shock absorber. However I'm not sure about the legalities or technicalities of fitting the camera to you helmet.

I think it's a case of trial and error and experimenting with the variables, but as you say, set your camera to the highest shutter speed it can achieve (I don't know the LX7 but 'sport mode' will bias it towards a fast shutter speed) and use image stabilisation, which it probably does by default.

[DuckDuck]

Thanks for that,

Just been out tried high shutter speed didn't seem to make much difference. Video is a no hope as its jiggling all the time. I'll persevere for a bit before I add action camera to the xmas list !!

[sgrimshaw]

Does the camera have the ability to use a remote release?

That might help to reduce camera shake.