On board cameras.

limpabit · #1 15th February 2010, 09:21

Hi everyone.

Been looking into onboard cameras for track days. Been playing with the Iphone, but is just too bulky to fit for recording.

So been looking at on board cameras. Don't what to spend a fortune.

So far seen the veho muvi. But though it has not bad video, the wind noise it picks up is shocking! Turn the volume down time (have a search on you tube for them).

Anybody got any opinions?

limpabit · #2 15th February 2010, 12:48

Someone suggested the Gopro Hero. Had a look at these and can get a really good price on the HD ones.

GreatOldOne · #3 15th February 2010, 13:10

I've also heard good things about the Go Pros - they had one on the Gadget Show last monday, filming bob-sleigh footage and it did a very good job.

http://fwd.five.tv/gadget-show/blog/...cameras-action
http://www.goprocamera.com/

limpabit · #4 15th February 2010, 13:43

Cheers for the links.

I'll have a look at thoughs tonight.

limpabit · #5 15th February 2010, 14:29

The seller also has these for a little extra as well.

http://www.vholdr.com/

Again, can't really watch at work.

chrislandy · #6 16th February 2010, 19:54

I have always found dogcamsport to be helpfully and pretty reasonablly priced

limpabit · #7 17th February 2010, 06:28

Funny enough, I've been looking at that site quite a bit.

Decided what I'm going to do. I have a solid state camcorder here willing to be tested. I'll get someone in the passenger seat to hold it while I drive and see how the video comes out. If it's ok, I'll get one of these:
http://www.cameragrip.co.uk/acatalog/info_587.html

If not, I'm going to look at getting eith one of those Hero HD ones or the hd-vr-720 ones.

chrislandy · #8 17th February 2010, 07:35

That arm would vibrate and move around a lot I would have thought, the shorter the arm the better, especially when the camera is large or heavier than a bullet cam.

Get an adjustable gain powered mic otherwise you are likely to get a lot of distortion/clipping and most likely just static as the noise will overload the normal gain settings on a video camera

limpabit · #9 17th February 2010, 07:58

Sound to be honest is what put me off the cheapy md80 camera's. Once up to and type of motorway speed, the wind noise is terrible.

Not sure if the hdvr-720 ones on the sigh has separate gain control. But has a separate mic.

chrislandy · #10 17th February 2010, 08:55

Just give them a ring, they were very helpfull when I've spoken to them in the past, I think all of their mics now have a gain control on them but if they don't you might be able to pursuade them to include it in the kit

spritely · #11 29th March 2010, 22:01

Now I know this is a saloon....but I mounted an ordinary digital movie camera on the rear shelf. The tripod was in the boot and the camera bolted to it via a small hole. The set up was excellent with zero camera shake and the sound was wonderful. I could hear the engine and voices clearly and also other vehicles on the track. The view was as if you were sitting very close behind and in between the two front seats
You can see the camera in this shot, it's mounted in the centre of the rear shelf. We got over two hours of track footage with different drivers, you could also see the speedo as well.

limpabit · #12 1st April 2010, 05:30

Cheers Spritley.

If you look at this video (quite shakey), this was from the lower bulk head using a strong section of steel as a test. And still shook. But it gave my the ideal position the camera needs to be in and that the ordinary camcorder works well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYaEdEdfnPk

If you look at this picture:

You can see the roll over bar at the rear going across the top. This is the only other place I can mount it.

So.. My idea is to get one of these with maybe a longer extension arm.

http://www.cameragrip.co.uk/acatalog...sc1_clamp.html

Hang the camcorder up side down to get correct position. Then in the software, once on the computer, rotate the video 180 degrees.

Love your project by the way. Can't wait to see updates.

GreatOldOne · #13 1st April 2010, 07:25

Which editing package are you using? I know that iMovie '09 can do video stabilisation whilst you edit:

http://www.apple.com/uk/ilife/imovie/#stabilization

limpabit · #14 1st April 2010, 07:42

I'm using Pinnacle Studio. It might be able to do the same....

spritely · #15 8th April 2010, 22:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by limpabit

Cheers Spritley.

If you look at this video (quite shakey), this was from the lower bulk head using a strong section of steel as a test. And still shook. But it gave my the ideal position the camera needs to be in and that the ordinary camcorder works well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYaEdEdfnPk

If you look at this picture:

You can see the roll over bar at the rear going across the top. This is the only other place I can mount it.

So.. My idea is to get one of these with maybe a longer extension arm.

Think the camera shake is due to suspension being hard and quite rigid engine mounts. Not a lot to be done about that unless you can isolate the camera from the vibration like the moviemakers do. They have the camera on a suspension type thingy so as there is no sudden movement transmitted to the camera.
Just using rubber mounts might isolate the camera from the vibration.

I'm toying with the idea of fitting mine on a mount just inside the grill apperture with a perspex shield but not sure of the sound quality. May be better with a remote mike fixed in the cockpit somewhere.
Google Mike Solan and have a look at some of his footage, I've driven his car and for a 1600 it's bloody good fun. That was filmed with a remote lense and the camera in a box, bit expensive for me though.
Cheers
Pete

chrislandy · #16 8th July 2010, 18:07

Which camera did you go for in the end John? Have you got any more vids?

limpabit · #17 9th July 2010, 07:15

Not had a chance yet. But looking at getting a camcorder mount and try my camcorder. It took some good videos, though a bit shaky due to the mount I made.

chrislandy · #18 9th July 2010, 18:15

The mount I'm using clamps to the roll bar. It's a Manfrotto 035 clamp with a 155 tilt head. The 155 is a double ball clamp joint with a standard mount threaded for your camcorder. The double joint means you can point it in any direction.