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In car camera.


metal mickey

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A friend of mine has one of these that he uses for his rowing training and which he's started using for mountain-biking too. I'd been idly wondering how good it would be for in-car footage.

 

Obviously it doesn't have the same recording capacity as a bullet-cam route and I haven't compared the quality but it struck me as a low-cost alternative without the need for an external recorder or associated power.

 

I'll have a go at recording some footage when I'm back on the road to see what it's like and post on the website although IMHO the bulletcam route and topcat's great recommendation look the best bet *thumbup*

 

Darren E

 

K80RUM Website and Emerald maps library

 

Superlight R #54

 

 

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The bullet camera bit is the easy part, what you record onto is the tricky bit. Lots of people use camcorders (which is what I've used before) but I think there is trend towards solid state recorders now. I've been looking at them for a while now but I'm still not 100% sure which is the best choice.

 

These guys know what they are doing and their recording devices will be very good quality but they aren't cheap.

 

 

 

Rob G

www.SpeedySeven.com

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If you use the ATC use high speedcards as standard (cheap) ones can cause problems; as i understand from someone who uses one (and I can't remember who 😳)

 

Ian - MI 5EVN - Slightly Vider SVelte model 😬 now repainted to match the Autocom headsets 😳

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Looked into this recently . . . weighted up the pros and cons of various options, and ended up buying a Chase Cam PDR100 because it's basically the bee's knees of solid state, hi-res, MPEG2 recorders. Couldn't find anything else that was properly G-load/shock tested, with decent features, and capable of recording hi quality MPEG2 format video(best for editing IMO).

If you want one, it's cheapest to buy from the US as they're almost as much in £ as they are in $.

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"..if you use a 2gb sd card on 30 frames per second you can get an hour and 45 minutes of action.."

 

I have one of the ATC 2000 Action cameras and it does about 1hr on a 2 gb SD card at 30fps or 1hr 45 at 15fps take a look first time i used it here

 

Quality of picture is ok and Sound is not brilliant but for price is *thumbup*and its waterproof .

 

Mark

 

 

 

Car Webshots Here

 

 

Edited by - markiebabes on 30 Dec 2007 23:38:57

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Superb VFM as you say Mark - it's really great to be able to see some footage. At around the £100 price point, it's roughly the price of a bullet cam lens on it's own.

 

From a personal point of view, although i've got a camcorder I could re-use, having a completely portable self-contained system that's relatively cheap (and so not something I will worry about too much) is a big *thumbup*

 

Darren E

 

K80RUM Website and Emerald maps library

 

Superlight R #54

 

 

 

Edited by - k80rum on 31 Dec 2007 00:18:51

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I have a bulet cam and this goes into a canon vidio camera. I have been looking at sold state recorders and think the most importent thing for me is playback. the recorder needs a screen. also would want LANC control as well.

 

As for the atc 2000 i am not convincedwith the qulity of the picture. Have a look at u tube and the quility of the vidio's

 

David

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I still haven't got round to getting a bullet cam setup for various reasons. I'm only prepared to do it if the quality of picture and sound is watchable, so many videos are made unwatchable by wind noise.

 

I'm pretty happy with which bullet cam / mic setup I am going to go for but the recorder is the issue. I don't have a camcorder, never liked home movies that much, have always preferred stills so for me to buy a camcorder seems pointless, also so many of them no longer offer AV in for the bullet cam.

 

A solid state recorder is more interesting, but you really need a screen so that you can check where the camera is pointed before you start recording. I would be interested in peoples experiences of various systems and seeing examples of some of the recorded footage.

 

Simon Bell - Caterham 7 Duratec R

I`ve seen the future.....and it`s powered by duratec Check out the website here

 

Edited by - simonbell on 31 Dec 2007 11:43:59

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On a related note, I came across a site by a guy in the states who wanted a good quality but cheap home-brew setup.

 

He decided to try using a phone in his Elise and I have to say the results of his latest venture using a Nokia N95 here look very good given the outlay (around £200 for the camera).

 

The advantages for someone like myself, wanting in-car footage on a budget are that it's solid-state (recording to an SD card) and is recording at 640x480 in .MP4 format so it's a direct USB transfer to play on a PC. Its BIG disadvantage is obviously mounting the thing. I doubt it'd mount too well on a 7

 

Darren E

 

K80RUM Website and Emerald maps library

 

Superlight R #54

 

 

 

Edited by - k80rum on 1 Jan 2008 18:28:56

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I'm thinking about going solid state for speed of transfer (with a tape you have to play it back in real time to load it into the computer for editing) and have exchanged a few emails with a guy from ChaseCam who is also on SELOC. Might have a look around again at Autosport....

 

Like David though I'd definitely also want a screen added to make sure it was pointing in the right direction! LANC is also very convenient

 

The recording format has very little to do with the noise - that's all about where the mic is positioned. For that reason most of the unwatchable footage that I have seen has been from camcorders rather than bullet cams, using the camcorder's inbuilt mic which is invariably in the airflow. The mic in my bullet cam set-up in in the boot, though many others favour under the dash

 

FireBlade pilot and Regalia Manager

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"How SONY's LANC™ protocol works

 

LANC™ is a bidirektional serial open collector communication port, where two devices can communicate with each other. The camcorder or still video camera is able to receive commands and sends back its status. The camcorder provides even more data like time code, remain time etc...

The master (camcorder or still video camera) generates the telegram frame, creating 8 startbits, followed each by 8 bits (1 byte) and a (long) stopbit. Then everything starts again. One bit has a duration of 104µs.

The distance between two startbits can vary between 1200µs and 1400µs depending on the device.

The distance between two telegrams is 20ms for PAL/625 and 16.6ms for NTSC/525. The timing conforms to RS232 at 9600 Baud.

Of course also the service mode is accessable, but I won't enter into this. In the internet you will find ready-to-use devices to buy."

 

Are you any the wiser now?

 

Steve *wink*

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Simon

 

No experience but some useful links to other devices

 

here

 

and here

 

Ian B pointed out to me that the PV-500 seems very good for recording resolution at 720x480 @ 25-30FPS. Only trouble is it is £235 inc VAT ☹️ Need to save up for one *smile*

 

Nick

 

 

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I got the RF Concepts Pack 5 for Christmas along with this:

http://www.archos.com/products/gen_5/archos_405/index.html?country=global&lang=en

and the travel dock.

 

Early indications are that the DVR is particularly impressive, but I need to play with it a bit more to confirm whether or not I would recommend it.

 

Ian 😬 1.6K SS Superlight #006

Penn Sevens Here

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