Would you pay for time on a Launch Meter?

[jedimater]

I was thinking of buying a Launch Monitor and setting it up in my garage. I was wondering if you guys would pay to use it in say 30 minutes blocks? I was gonna do this just to subsidise the purchase as I would really like to have it so I can work on my swing over the long Canadian winter?

If you would how much would you pay or would be a fair price? I would think like 20 dollars per half hour?

[mikpga]

I think if you are looking to get reimbursed for the price you pay for it, it would be a mistake. Most golfers won't know what to do with the information. Do you think you will learn more from a launch monitor or video?

[jedimater]

Well, I was planning on having both the launch and digital camcorder hooked up. I am surprised that indoor driving ranges aren't buying these things up as things to rent for people to use while at the golf dome.

[Solutions Etcetera]

First... a digital camcorder (even a progressive scan HD one) is not going to have a high enough frame rate to be really helpful.

 

Second... If you were a neighbor of mine I would certainly come by and drop you a sawbuck or two to try it out. But if I had to travel more than a few minutes or so, I think I would be feel better spending a bit more for a more in depth analysis from a better equipped/staffed facility.

 

You might be better off getting a group of friends together for a kind of time share deal if you are looking to amortize costs.

[againstthegrain]

I pay $500 a year for unlimited access to a studio where there is 3D video, launch monitor, and about 25 courses to play. It's probably too much money, but there aren't many (like none) other than this place.

[johnu]

First... a digital camcorder (even a progressive scan HD one) is not going to have a high enough frame rate to be really helpful.

 

You may be confused by looking at cr*ppy video from cell phones or poor quality uploads to youtube. Using something like V1 and a clip recorded at 60i fps, you're going to get approximately 120+ very nice looking individual frames from beginning to end of a swing if you have a fairly decent DV camcorder (and whether it is HD or not doesn't make any difference in the number of frames).

 

Better camcorders have manually adjustable gain/shutter speeds so you can get a better capture of the hands and club moving instead of a blur.

[jedimater]

Mine is a pretty decent camera and should have a decent frame rate, although I haven't bothered to check. I would definatly pay for a membership somewhere that had access to a Launch meter. Anyone know of one in the GTA in Ontario.

[Solutions Etcetera]

First... a digital camcorder (even a progressive scan HD one) is not going to have a high enough frame rate to be really helpful.

 

You may be confused by looking at cr*ppy video from cell phones or poor quality uploads to youtube.

 

John, I am not confused. The term used was "digital camcorder" The DV format has a frame rate of 29.97 frames per second. Hardly enough for analyzing a golf swing.

[johnu]

First... a digital camcorder (even a progressive scan HD one) is not going to have a high enough frame rate to be really helpful.

 

You may be confused by looking at cr*ppy video from cell phones or poor quality uploads to youtube.

 

John, I am not confused. The term used was "digital camcorder" The DV format has a frame rate of 29.97 frames per second. Hardly enough for analyzing a golf swing.

 

Progressive scan (optional for those camcorders that have it) may be 29.97 (or 30P (25P in PAL land) as shorthand), but that is still 60 still frames (about 2 seconds) per swing, more than enough to see anything you need to see on a video analysis. If you want twice as many frames, use interlaced (60i (or 50i in PAL land) recording. The still frames are not quite as sharp as if you used progressive scan, but if you aren't comparing directly to a progressive scan still, you probably won't notice the difference.

 

If you aren't convinced, go to http://www.v1sports.com and download their free home version software, and then dowload some of their sample clips of tour player swings and you'll see what I'm saying. My video clips from my camcorder (Panasonic GS-400) look much better than the downloaded clips because I can view the orignal avi files instead of the very compressed mpegs.