Play with a video camera

How to obtain surprising effects with a video camera

Film your television screen !

Put the camera on a tripod in front of the TV screen.
Connect the video output of the camera to the TV.
Film your television screen !
Play with ALL the buttons of your camera and your television.
Have Fun !
What ? That's All ?
Yes.
With a Sony TR series, Hi8 camera It is important to disable the steady shot mode. If not, the top half of the screen will be altered.
I obtained interesting effects with
So, what happens that is so interesting ?
When you shoot the screen, you see the typical view of the screen - in the screen - in the screen - etc...
But, what happens if the zoom factor is very close to 1 ?
The picture auto generates.
Picture n+1 is picture n with a small transformation, so that an impression of movement and self generation is created.
Typically, one can start with all factors as close to identity as possible. Set brightness so that image n+1 is almost like n. Put the brightness of the camera in manual mode. It is important, because in automatic mode, the video camera may try to increase sensitivity when the screen is almost black, the screen will slowly become clear, then the shutter will close, and the system may oscillate or reach a steady medium gray. But you can also play with this phenomenon.

There is a dependency between the zoom factor and the brighness tune. A high zoom factor will stretch the picture, so the picture will be less bright.
The only limit is your imagination.
For example, you can start with a still image and look at what happens to it. You can do that if your TV can switch from one video source to the camera source in only one frame time with no black frame in between.
You can interpose some object, an image, some light in between the camera and the screen. Move it. Look at what happens to the picture as time goes.

A video Game with your camera !

Chose
Create a starting point then move it toward the center by slight bearing/elevation tune
ZOOM IN gently
You get, an autogenerating fractal.
ZOOM MORE
It's a video game !
The goal of the video game is to keep an evolving fractal frenzy. To do that, orientate the camera so that you avoid to zoom in black areas which would finally lead to a dark screen

Here is a view

Evolution Video 1 (1020KB) --- Zoom Faster & Faster Video 2 (3391KB) --- Blast Zoom Video 2 (512K)

Belouzof Zabotinsky Chemical reaction simulated ?

Chose
Here is a view
It makes me think about three things:
The drawings on the fur of some animals
The belouzof zabotinsky chemical reaction
The organization of the visual cortex maps showing the areas under control of the left eye and those under control of the right eye

The belouzof zabotinsky reaction uses a chemical product that can have two forms. Each form is the catalizer of the reaction that lead to the other form. Thus in certain conditions, the product oscillates between the two forms. If the reaction is limited to take place in a two dimensionnal setup, a complex organisation appear.

View then Zoom Video 1 (1148KB) --- Saturated Colors Video 2 (860KB)

Characters to the end

Chose
In the center of the spiral, you get a constantly evolving mess of characters
Here is a view
I played with it by interposing a cable in between the camera and the screen. It is the white line that you can see in the video. I move it and then you can see its remnant image spiraling in a very weird way. Video 1 (840KB) --- Video 2 (875KB)

Through fractal landscapes

Chose Here is a view
The Video (532KB)

Reminds you something ?

Here, we have an auto sustained evolving system.
The output of the system is the input of the system.
The system is purely dynamic.
The overall quantity of memory is small and two dimensional.
External events can interact and modify the internal content.
Complexity is higher than expected.

Reminds you something ?

If you have yourself experienced other effects I would be interested in reading from you,.

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