Video camera setups

[jlumba81]

I'm kinda curious what you guys use for your on car video camera setups. Has anyone had any experience with the GoPro HD video camera?

http://www.goprocamera.com/

I saw this video shot w/ it on youtube.

YouTube - cat R500 go pro HD 720i

[scannon]

Flyin' Miata sells the GoPro Motorsports Hero system, don't know if it is the same model as used in this video but people who have them have had lots of good things to say about them. Very reasonably priced at $200.

 

http://www.flyinmiata.com/index.php?deptid=5679&parentid=0&stocknumber=21-50000

[Croc]

No surprise that he is in Dubai for that video. Wide open roads and no traffic equals speed. No twisty stuff though - all dead straight and roundabouts.

[xflow7]

Those GoPro cameras have been the hot-ticket item at the couple of autocrosses I did this year. Everyone seems to like them.

[Usher]

I just got my GoPro HD camera a few weeks ago and used it for the first time last weekend. It has much better sound than the previous versions and the video looks great. Here is the scaled down video from this weekend:

[slngsht]

Home brew setup here.

I have a bunch of videos with it somewhere, but not online

 

 

more about it in this thread: http://usa7s.com/vb/showthread.php?t=3602&highlight=camera+quad

[Boxologist]

if u don't have a camera setup, the go pro set ups are very good. the HD version is an immense improvement on top of that. I expect its only issue will be wind buffetting in our cars. Other than that, there is the inherent problem of CMOS vs CCD. at this price level CMOS is what u'll find.

 

I used an Aiptek HD camera starting this season and the picture quality is really nice, wind noise absolutely sucked even taping over the microphone opening. at the end of the season i picked up an inexpensive all in one bullet cam setup. wind noise is something i'll try to find a work around, and its not HD, but it doesn't have the shake issue that the weird shaped Aiptek can suffer from.

the aiptek records to .mov files and thebulletcam is .avi files.

thebulletcam.com unit -> Nov 1,2009 MetroNYPCA Tobay AutoX on Vimeo

the other 2 videos are the aiptek unit.

 

Really wondering what Randy Chase is working on. maybe the HD unit will be unveiled in 2010?

[TheDingo8MyBaby]

I have the gopro wide and it's ok. The nice thing is the 170 deg polarity. I throw it on the front fairing of my go kart and I can see what my feet are doing. You definitely have to play around with mounting positions, volume settings and seal or no seal on the case. The motorsports kit is pretty cool because it comes with a suction cup (which holds very well. Should work on a 7 no problem), and 4 sticky pads (2 curved for heltmets and 2 flat for flat surfaces). Don't pay $200 for it...you can find them on the internet for $130 or so.

 

There are some other alternatives. Vholdr hd is one... I think they tend to be better with wind noise. I think there's also a kodak zx-1 or something that does ok. There's also the motocam 360 which is basicly a mounting system for a sony camera. Then there's also the option of a lipstick camera with a solid state recorder.

 

If you don't mind waiting a bit for the absolute highest-quality video, both the ContourHD1080p and the GoPro Hero Wide HD 1080p both come out soon I think - if they're not already out.

 

If money's no object and you want to record data and sync to your video - smarty cam by aim is pretty cool. It's a plug and play system with their data recorders - gives you GPS data. If you have one of their high end data acq. systems you can even run your throttle, gear and brake position to it among just about any other sensor you can think of.

 

I've also been interested to see what chase cam comes up with...

[slomove]

I have been doing a lot of video over the years, especially on the longer tours. But now I notice I still have hours of unedited video on the hard drive that will probably need another 5 years to process if I keep working at the current rate. So, I will probably hold off with new equipment until I am ready to use the output.

[sdca7]

I bought a GoPro last year, and although I think it is a neat package for the price, it does have a few things I didn't like. There are only two buttons, so to program it, choose modes, and start/stop the camera, you use some combination of these two buttons, which is not always intuitive. You cannot tell if it is running except from the front of the camera. Unless it is mounted behind you, you need to get out of the car to turn it on and off. It comes with suction mounts, which work great on the hood, but would need extra hardware to mount it on a rollbar.

 

You need to use lithium batteries for it to work, and have about twenty minutes of record time before the batteries run out.

 

Mine stopped working after the first few uses, and I didn't like it enough to go through the trouble of having it fixed. I'm sure it's a reasonable option, but I am going to look for something different.

 

Justin