Syncing five cameras

[markkaz]

I have some fun multi-camera videos so that I can catch the action from multiple areas of the track. Plus, it allows me to us a different camera angle so that I can not capture me in a shot =)

I mainly use Sony camcorders and have no problems syncing them in Sony Vegas. If I record 15 minutes, all files are timed the same.

Recently, I used a toy Hot Wheels Video Racer. But after a few seconds, the timing doesn't sync up with the other files. After ten minutes, it was off by more than 15 seconds. Now, I can deal with this through editing but...

what causes them to have different recording/running times?

 

[AlexGotBeats]

could you not pressing record at the same time be the problem? and do all cameras run with same settings? there could be a small timing difference if some of the cameras run on 30 fps and another on 60

 

[Shane]

Is one at 29fps compared to 30fps maybe?

If you are shooting in 1080i 30-60fps make sure the memory cards in each card can support this write rate or you may be left with some lagging behind.

 

[Tarmack]

29.97 to 30 (standard) shouldn't be an issue. After 10 minutes, you're only out 18 frames, or half a second. The other standard at 25 fps wouldn't either as you'd be out 3,000 frames over 10 minutes which would peg the time variance at about 50 seconds. Being off by 15 seconds after 10 minutes would need the racer to be recording at 28.5 fps which is a frickin weird number.