Cheapest Bullet Time with a 9 Dollar Camera

Bullet time photography on a budget with a VHS retro style just makes me smile and I hope you enjoy my journey to make it happen.
More programming videos coming soon!
Link to camera. No affiliation.
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[@bumpybumpybumpybumpy]

"and it has several built in games". Here before someone runs doom on it.

[@HalloGaming]

Knowing 3D Sage he might just be the one to do it

[@KobiHameed]

or bad apple

[@Jeroen4]

First thing that came to mind

[@cloudpandarism2627]

what about the all time classic CRISIS? 🥸

[@quipher]

Max Payne would be on topic

[@CSKefka]

"$9.99" "For only 9 dollars" They got him

[@Crashentyre]

It's like watching videos from 2002. This is actually amazing. Also, calling $9.99 9 dollars is crazy.

[@CrAzYpotpie]

Not only is it not crazy, it is insanely predictable for the vast majority to ignore the change connected to the dollar amount completely. Did you never think as to why almost all prices are done in that way?

[@avengedlol6698]

Ever heard of the 19 dollar fortnite card?

[@oiytd5wugho]

@@CrAzYpotpie "Did you never think as to why almost all prices are done in that way" that's the point... it's crazy to not catch onto that fact by the time you're a grown ass adult

[@CrAzYpotpie]

@@oiytd5wugho You are just repeating what I said, but less detailed and explanatory as to the reasoning. Not sure why you would waste both of our time with that.

[@oiytd5wugho]

@@CrAzYpotpie dude

[@DVRKHORSE]

This style feels comfy I like it.

[@adityagautam4689]

+1 Dude

[@TFSned]

I wish AVGN videos still looked like this

[@vk8a8]

def nostalgia

[@Tacos135]

Comfy is a good word for it

[@CubedTV]

"Does doing this make me crazy? I don't think so. Me neither." is such a great joke

[@3DSage]

Thank you for noticing my humor! Mine too!

[@JustMamba]

Kind of reminds me of something my dad used to do when I was a kid. He'd sneeze then say bless you dad, then he would say thank you father and then finish it with a your welcome man. Haha

[@The1stDukeDroklar]

Came to make this same comment.

[@iwontbeforgotten]

"I think I'd be a wolf. I think so too."

[@CrAzYpotpie]

​​@@JustMambaHe was in mortal fear of losing his soul everytime he sneezed thanks to his heathen children not caring enough to bless him themselves. A true man of the cloth, unlike you.

[@mallupayans]

The fact that after the first few minutes, we completely forget that this is an old cam video proves it's all about content, not tech. This is art ❤

[@enricodesign619]

very true

[@trashtrash2169]

Audio matters way more than visuals.

[@Flahtort]

It's about audio. If it was bad audio you would turn video off after couple seconds.

[@lolwtnick4362]

its not about audio. kids always cry when a new video game gets released about graphics all day long. don't matter gameplay nor sound.

[@oddept]

@@lolwtnick4362 That is different, this ain't interactive media.

[@HolowatyVlogs]

1:28 sold me. That’s insanely crisp for a toy camera.

[@3DSage]

It's mostly about clean even lighting with low dynamic range but yes! I like it.

[@robooz]

I have one of these and it can range from looking surprisingly really good with decent lighting, to absolutely blown out if too bright or almost pitch black if slightly too dark. Still really fun to film with though!

[@tofuninja5489]

I like the time stamp feature because it really felt like it was a 90s home video when you were at the market. Without it showing, I would have believed it were from the past

[@brianpipa9397]

Anything you record is in the past. Did I just blow your mind?

[@thefrub]

I turn the time stamp on on my phone because I spent too long looking though albums and going "WHEN WAS THIS???" so now I like to know when pictures were taken. Metadata is too fragile.

[@pengwin_]

idk about the 90s but it definitely feels like the 2000s.

[@seaoftranquility7228]

I worked as a stand-in on the first Matrix and I can confirm that your rig looks remarkably similar. I saw them shoot a couple of bullet time scenes and I had absolutely no frigging idea what they were up to, it made no sense until I saw the movie and then I was completely blown away. They wanted me to work as a stand-in on the next couple of instalments but after reading the scripts I turned them down. That last sentence is untrue and is only included for comedic purposes.

[@3DSage]

wait really?? That is amazing if true and I wish I could have been a part of the movie.

[@seaoftranquility7228]

@@3DSage Totally true. I live in Sydney where it was shot and it was a lot of fun but I can’t claim to have had any real input, but I was there for virtually the whole production. My memory is that they used Canon still film cameras for the bullet time shots but I couldn’t swear to that. Obviously they used far more cameras than you but then I don’t think the technology existed to fill in the missing frames so they had to use a _lot_ of cameras. Also, I had no clue that it would turn out so great, I was really lucky that way, it’s the only big budget Hollywood movie I’ve ever worked on and it ended up being a classic.

[@MyFedora]

@@seaoftranquility7228 They used Canon EOS A2 film cameras, but news article contradict each other on how many cameras. Some say 100, others 120, then some more 130. I guess they rented the cameras, because that would've cost $684.98 (1992) for each camera body only or $1,524.88 inflation adjusted, so at least $1,524.88 x 100 = $15,248.80 in total, not including lens and film.

[@rorypuds]

I wonder if I've seen you on the making of the matrix dvd extra

[@Levibetz]

​@@seaoftranquility7228I believe they used what's essentially a morph effect to go between frames, but that's obviously much more limited than modern algorithms for frame interpolation.

[@JuanesChiwirosky]

very cool project, can't belive that you recorded all that 2011/11/11 and I'm watching it just in 2024

[@3DSage]

oh don't trust the timestamp. Sometimes I set it to be correct, sometimes not.

[@monad_tcp]

@@3DSage that must be the date0 for the camera, when it was made

[@moritz584]

@@monad_tcp It likely isn't when the camera was made but rather when the software was made. For it to know the time on its own, it would need to connect to a computer who knows the time, during manufacturing. That would be unnecessary. These cameras usually have to be set manually.

[@_Bence]

@@moritz584 I believe he did it to make the timestamp removal process a lot faster. When he told in the video that he had to manually remove them, I immediately thought of the easiest time to be removed would be 2011/11/11 11:11:11.

[@Visethelegend]

@@3DSageI think he was joking though

[@jimbob3332]

As someone who's context for consumer technology is still rooted in the late 00s, that looks amazing to me for $10

[@swedneck]

Even by modern standards it's kinda perfectly okay, it's not *good* by any stretch but if i was forced to record all my memories with it i wouldn't feel like i've lost anything important. It's a bit soft and washed out, but the resolution is sufficient that it makes up for it.

[@EeveeFromAlmia]

The footage looks absolutely fine; really just shows you just how important good audio is. I feel like I’m watching an old KZbin video from like 2008 that got the audio redubbed

[@SuperXzm]

1:32 a cat being precious

[@3DSage]

Being precious is all Leo knows :)

[@TheSpeakGeek]

Saw this on Hackaday. It has everything you need to love it. Cheap electronics, 3d modeling, 3d printing, behind the scenes footage, The Matrix, and a cat. More please!

[@3DSage]

AH! I'm so happy they shared my project! :)

[@niceatpingpong]

If you frame all your shots in the top 75% of the camera, you could probably crop out the timestamp and be left with a normal-looking 16:9 or 21:9 shot. This way you wouldn't need to actually fix all the timestamps. You lose a bit of the 4:3 nostalgia, but it may be worth it to achieve peak cinematography. I hope you still used that switch you rigged up to sync up the cameras which could make editing a bit easier. I think the next step should be a binocular vision helmet where you mount 2 cameras to a helmet roughly eye-distance apart so the video can be viewed in a VR headset.

[@Jaxrud]

Haha, I never thought bad digital would be nostalgic but here we are

[@jovianodd]

It hits the spot where "adult" camcorders were still in the DVD-qualityi-ish range, (I know I have a Sony Mini DVD burning camcorder, like it was magical) Ofc you didn't have the budget to shoot in HQ (mini-DVDs were expensive!) so you took bad video in Sony LQ mode and store it to a1 128Mb MemoryStick. This looks just like the Sony LQ mode, but with crappier optics.

[@Norgodir]

“Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit - all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. It’s the sound of failure: so much modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar sound is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them.” Brian Eno

[@ge2719]

nice build. though i would say one thing with starting out using 3d printing is its easy to get stuck in the mindset that when you make something you need to print the whole things. I think this build would have been a lot easier and a more practical result if you used something like plastic pipe for the camera mounting rail and then had printed brackets that attach to that. that way you also have a constant radius to the rail making it easier to position each camera and equal distance from the subject.

[@catfree]

This

[@TABBYMUSIC]

That cat was a great actor

[@3DSage]

He thinks it's his channel :)

[@spdcrzy]

The hardest part of bullet time isn't the camera work, the programming, or even the physical rig itself to set up the right perspective. It's the fucking lighting.

[@ProfessorRoguelike]

Dang this actually made me emotional and nostalgic. Reminds me of back when social media was about creating cool stuff not just trolling for attention. Thanks for making this.

[@1.618_Murphy]

Videos recorded in this camera definitely gives early 2000 KZbin vibes! So nostalgic, I love it! 😭😍

[@jawnney]

9.99 is TEN dollars, dude!! Don't fall for the .99 trick!!!! But kudos, neat project. I'm sure you could mod out the timestamp at the hardware level! could be fun..

[@Nuggery]

You’re ahead of the retro hipster curve! 4:3 aspect ratio, ccd sensor, low dynamic range, 90’s vibe ❤

[@SianaGearz]

That's a CMOS actually. A really really tiny one.

[@ViviSectia]

He's actually pretty late to the trend.

[@Nuggery]

@@SianaGearz 👍

[@Nuggery]

@@ViviSectia hipster know 🧔‍♀️

[@myyoutubeaccountgotsuspend8666]

I'm always so happy when I see a 4:3 youtube video because it is the better aspect ratio

[@3DSage]

It was scary to upload but I feel the same way :)

[@Blankult]

Why is it better? lol

[@myyoutubeaccountgotsuspend8666]

@Blankult Widescreen aspect ratios take up more space than they need to, while using a more closed in aspect ratio forces the creator to use the space more effectively. It also displays perfectly in a phone if you're the kind of person who scrolls comments while watching the video. I also just like it

[@Blankult]

@@myyoutubeaccountgotsuspend8666 Yeah i guess it's better for youtube videos, not for every type of video though. I thought you were saying 4:3 was better in everyway, which is not true, each aspect ratio has its own advantages, but i think 16:9 gets the upper hand in most cases. I also don't like watching 16:9 videos in portrait mode, so i get why you dislike it.

[@myyoutubeaccountgotsuspend8666]

@Blankult I also like watching movies on my crt, which is 4:3, and having movies edited for that aspect ratio on that TV is just natural. It's also very uncommon seeing a KZbin video in 4:3 so I should probably clarify that 4:3 is a better aspect ratio for youtube. Certainly it's not the best for everything, but given the choice of only one aspect ratio I'd go with 4:3

[@stefani.5737]

"Am i crazy for doing this on 9$ cameras?" Clearly not. Its a cool gimmick that drew new eyes to your channel.

[@mbsrosenberg]

This is proof that youtube is about being creative and being interested in what you're doing. This is such a fun video!

[@azieg9ygeb]

These cameras are absolutely adorable 😊

[@3DSage]

I know, right! :) I'm so glad I found it!

[@avg.player]

LOVE the aesthetic of the recording. Feels refreshing to watch!

[@fracturedfingers]

It's actually really not bad quality for $10 and I do kinda love the retro look of it.

[@AndyGaskin]

The cat mid-step atop the cooler was the best example. Being "mid action" really showcases what's great about bullet time.

[@DommoDommo]

Dude, I'd love to see this expanded upon. I was doing a relatively similar project earlier this year that used a technique like this!

[@3DSage]

Oh I'd like to see it! :)

[@MyBrothersMario]

I honestly love the look of this camera, it really gives the vibe of some old home videos you found on some old tapes lying around.

[@funx24X7]

Could also double as a decent photogrammetry rig. Anyone who’s ever tried to 3d scan a pet will know that it’s virtually impossible for them to keep still unless they’re asleep

[@tristanbased-af2159]

I love the look of the retro cam

[@Paul-Carson]

this is what being a maker is all about. great job. the fun is in the build. class.

[@3DSage]

Thank you for saying that! :)

[@TRYHARDMG]

This entire video with the project itself to using the cheap camera with its lower quality video is great, it all just works and feels like I'm watching something from back in the early days of KZbin. Feels good! Definitely will be looking out for Pt. 2.

[@treedoor]

We've gone back in time 20 years.

[@sander-wit]

This is what KZbin was meant for. I love it. Especially the behind the scemes - behind the scenes bit, brilliant. I actually tried this exact project 11 years ago with 7 random cameras, there is still a silly test video on my KZbin. After that test I bought 20 cheap Chinese cameras but the result was so terrible, it was never posted. Thanks though for taking me down memory lane.

[@mehedihassanshishir5615]

that old vdo style of 90's camera that brings back memories

[@jamesfield688]

I love this video, it reminds me of the good old days of youtube

[@3DSage]

I'm glad you said that! :)

[@natalie_v0.0.1]

the soft fuzzy look of the recordings is so comfy

[@grimcity]

Man, this was fantastically fun little journey. Back in '00, I tried to create a bullet time effect while skateboarding... I had one camera, and I recorded myself jumping down a little three-set of stairs 30 times, with my tripod moved slightly on each attempt. I never morphed between frames, but being that I was on an old Digital 8, your footage reminds me of the exact look and feel of the video texture. This was awesome. Proper boops to your little fuzzy one, as well.

[@jbholland1987]

To be honest, thats a pretty great style for the camera, it loooks awesome !

[@soundologe]

Wow, I dig the vibe of the camera.

[@davmandave]

I was so taken with the cameras and the footage you shot that I ordered 4 for my studio. Thanks for showing them.

[@3DSage]

Hey that's great! I have no affiliation but I so glad you like this camera too! :)

[@gicknardner]

Back around 2002 or 2003 I did a bullet time shot of my cat jumping down to the flood from my arms. But since I only had one camera, I just did it like 20 times and moved the camera each time. Not sure if that technically counts as a real bullet time.

[@frenches1995]

this video really shows that image quality isn't everything and effort always comes first when judging what's a good YT video for me!

[@joselu6459]

I would watch the whole channel filmed like this again

[@TheOfficialOriginalChad]

I love this. I love everything about this.

[@agepbiz]

Such a fun project!

[@3DSage]

Thank you, friend! I'm glad you enjoyed it :)

[@tubamacmac]

I wanted to "like" this video so many different times during it, and I kept scrolling down to do so, only to find I had done it within the first few moments of the video haha! Love it!!!!!!

[@DSLRguide]

love everything about this

[@WellnessOverFitness]

I think what they did for matrix was to take stills in 1 frames apart so basically each camera was taking an image 1 frame after the camera before it. That is how they created the super slow motion . Maybe try that for next video?

[@UncleJessy]

Okay this was pretty friggin cool idea!

[@Paul-Carson]

that new microphone before you re soldered it was brilliant

[@Andre-xr1hp]

great way to show that a good storytelling is far more important than the quality of the image

[@busterdcampbell]

Holy shit, dude! This is giving me so many ideas. I bet it would be easy to hide lower quality footage, like this, in a high-resolution video if you sized the video down to the average face cam cut. This would be useful for handcams, animal cams, or in something like the DankPod streams, an iPod cam.

[@3DSage]

I'm glad this gave you ideas! :)

[@PurpleBNR]

Damn dude, I really gotta go back to Houston. I miss traders village. I was kinda skimming the video and recognized it instantly. I went so much as a kid.

[@3DSage]

It was a beautiful day to explore Traders Village :)

[@WolfKingAka]

This was a cool project, thanks for sharing ^_^ Also, i'm a big fan of the nostalgic look of older video cameras too. Love that.

[@3DSage]

I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for the nice comment :)

[@J0N1B0T]

These results are astonishingly excellent!

[@YahyaDanboos]

funny and interesting video that I didn't expect from a channel about GBA 3D development 😆😆 Keep up the great work! 😁😁

[@-COBRA]

these cheap cameras have their settings sometimes stored on the memory card too, where they can be manually edited.

[@3DSage]

I will keep looking! :)

[@CarletonTorpin]

Right outta the Gaeta, I could tell this video was going to be great.

[@amoscaul3264]

Love how comfortable this video felt, also the real test is freezing something midair-you gotta try it!

[@stefevr]

What a great project! For the shot itself you should do something like throwing a bowl full of candy or spilling water, something that's really "wow" because you standing there could have been filmed just moving a normal camera while you stayed still Also you don't need the Interpolation in my opinion, it's more problematic than the little extra it does

[@thomaskuzma4360]

9 dollar bullet time sounds like a weird western movie

[@3DSage]

omg yeah it really does! :)

[@simonabunker]

Love that you shot the whole video on one of these. Would love to see a version where you double your budget.

[@bennnnnnnnnn18]

Only 99K views on this video should be a criminal offence. For real, this was such an incredible video. From the beginning of the journey of buying the cameras, to gradually revealing the cameras' true purpose, and the explanation of how you got everything together. So glad this is the video I stumbled upon of yours, subscribed!

[@RJiiFin]

The video looks ok, but at points your pet squirrel looks almost like a cat to me?

[@jpino528]

I want this camera. I WANT IT. HERE, TAKE MY MONEY! I WANT THIS CAMERA!

[@Bache___]

I like the oldschool youtube feeling of this video. Low Quality (picturewise) isn't always bad

[@e-stah]

That is some prime 2009 KZbin video quality right there

[@Wol333]

That fake VHS cam feeling from the bad upscaling feels warm

[@Massibuonventura]

I think that camera is the One liminal spaces are photographed with

[@JDL4]

The sheer dedication also filming the VLOG with the cheap cam 👌

[@cnmoro55]

I don't know why, but this video style just felt so good

[@MordecaiV]

what mic did you swap in?

[@MechaBorne]

Maaaan seeing Trader's Village in 720p was so nostalgic. You should upload move of that lol

[@3DSage]

That was a fun day and I'm glad you connected with that footage! :)

[@TheRumpletiltskin]

I unironically like the look of that camera... it has a very retro color grade to it.

[@bukachell]

dude im in love with the low quality camera look

[@seigeengine]

It's absolutely wild you can but a $10 camera that looks like a good YT video did in 2010.

[@nicholsliwilson]

$9.99 is essentially $10, not $9. Interesting camera though. Fun to “upgrade” the mic but I’m not sure it was worth it? 😄

[@envigraphy]

man this $9 is more crisp than the footage my parents shot in the early 90s on their $1000 VHS camcorder

[@TetPnk]

i like the idea of a film shot on this, with the timestamp and then it does the bullet time rotation and the timestamp becomes a floating 3d asset that rotates with you

[@iLife64]

You might be able to put a config text file on the micro sd card’s root directory to disable/set the timestamp, I’m not sure what text strings you’ll use to set everything as it can vary depending on the camera manufacturer

[@3DSage]

It was hard to find good information on this cheap camera but I will keep trying :)

[@MangoMotors]

I'm actually surprised by the quality when it has good lighting. Also, instead of manually editing out the timestamp, what if you just cropped it? And to make grabbing the correct frame easier, you could make it so they all start recording at the same time.

[@CyanTiger]

This was fan freaking tastic idea! Bullet time is the perfect meld of practical and digital effects and really like that touch of low-res goodness.

[@AJcore]

Rad. Love the nostalgic look of the video too.

[@silberblum]

Maybe you can disable the Date caption. Sometimes this cheap cams disable it if a "config" textfile exist with "date=off" or so in it.

[@3DSage]

I will give this a try and post an update! :)

[@joshmbrown42]

NINE NINETY NINE IS A TEN DOLLAR CAMERA Sorry for shouting. Cool vid.

[@OFFICIALsuspects]

I don't commit to many KZbin videos but I watched the whole thing. Great idea. Great cat

[@3DSage]

Hey saying that really means a lot to me so thank you! :)

[@NathanChisholm041]

I'm here for the kitty! 😂

[@NiloVelez]

Ok, now go for 50 cameras

[@RevolutionFalls]

I want this camera

[@SLAVKINGRED]

awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i love the home video style

[@IsraelStorey]

This is actually exactly how they shot some parts of Crank: High Voltage. They were using small prosumer cameras, with 4 of them mounted on a semi-circle of pipe. The way you quickly move from one camera to the next at 6:50 is exactly what they did in the movie. I tried to find behind the scenes footage of it on YT, but unfortunately it seems like either no one's uploaded it or it all got taken down.

[@3DSage]

Hey that's interesting! I will try and find that video. Thanks for sharing! :)

[@Felix-zv6rx]

Dope

[@GamrokFeddy]

This thing really gives back that 2013 vibe for 9 dollars

[@JustMamba]

Definitely gives off 90s vibes lol. Thats pretty cool man.

[@mrharvest]

Very interesting. And I think these cameras are a real gem of a find. Quite often on Reddit I see people asking what camera should they get if they want to shoot that classic early 2000's look, and I always say Sony VX1000, no comparison. But they're clunky to work with in modern workflows, unless you go all out and rig them to run to an external recorder. These cameras, they don't look the same of course, but it's comparably nostalgic quality, and at $10 per unit you could give these to a whole school class and not worry if they break a few.