oaksmodelrr

For those who haven't noticed, I have finished uploading all my standard definition video which I stopped using in August 2019.

And now for the high def.

The initial video will be from earlier this month, August 13 2023, when I spent a day in Jim Thorpe with the T1 and other Reading and Northern passenger trains ... and it is going to be a long one, over an hour. Stay tuned.

2 years ago | [YT] | 14

oaksmodelrr

Let's go to the video tape, my last video tape 😢😃

2 years ago | [YT] | 6

oaksmodelrr

I am winding down posting the last of the video tapes that I have digitized. 2011 was the year I retired the tapes, but the good news is that 2010 is the year I started recording pure digital, initially with a Canon SD800 and a Lumix FZ200, and I have started posting those today. The biggest advantage of pure digital is that I know exactly what date it was taken, so the titles will reflect that. The separate digital files will be combined into one video for the day as some of the clips are as short as 30 seconds. The aspect ratio is still 4:3, but when I switched to HD Digital those videos will be 16:9.

2 years ago | [YT] | 21

oaksmodelrr

A recent comment mentioned the fact that some of the same trains are featured on multiple videos, and I wanted to address this, and other issues, for those who are not familiar with my previous videos.

I used multiple cameras to get different angles: typically zoom approach, close up approach, broad side, close going away, zoom going away (sometimes had 5 cameras). When looking at a old photo, film or video, I often wondered what was just out of frame to the left or right or even behind the camera, so when I was filming, I tried to capture as much as possible.

When I started uploading videos to the web over 20 years ago, there were limited software and storage options, and upload/download speeds were nothing like today. Because of these limitations, I would edit together the footage from the multiple cameras into one short video in low quality MPEG1 format to keep it small, even for dialup users. You can see the difference if you look at my older videos.

Oh, and if you don't know what dialup is, go ask your parents.

And you may notice that some of the footage suffers from tracking problems as cameras and tapes had intermittent issues like dew, dust, bad alignment and general wear, eventually wore out all my cameras from use. Over the years, I have used 2 VHS, 1 S-VHS, 3 VHS-C, 1 Hi8, 5 Digital8 and 4 MiniDV. I still have several VCR's and a MiniDV player that I used to convert my tapes.

And of course magnetic tape ages as well, so as a public service announcement, if you have any, get them captured to digital sooner rather than later.

I am available if you have any questions regarding DIY low cost digital capture options.

John

3 years ago | [YT] | 23

oaksmodelrr

Getting a little bleary eyed looking at all the videos, but while ripping the DVD's I remember seeing an Amtrak Clocker with SEPTA Bombardier coaches on one of the recent videos I uploaded in the past week and now I can't find it. The reason I remember it is because it did not have a SEPTA cab car on the end, so you just see the blind end of the SEPTA coach as it is going away, which is an unusual sight. Has anyone seen it? It would have been at Eddington. I forgot to write down the video and would like to add it to the description. Thanks.

3 years ago | [YT] | 22

oaksmodelrr

I have spent the past year digitizing my 30+ years of videos and have just started to upload them.

The videos will be up to a hour long and will be raw and unedited. Comments have been re-enabled so I would appreciate anything you have to add.

Hope to upload a few each day, there are hundreds of hours to come.

3 years ago | [YT] | 25