On Board camera's

[mattyaddis]

Are there any good quality camera's apart from the Go Pro range? And also where do you mount the camera?....apart from the roll hoop.

Regards

[andrewc]

for mounting on what? Tristan used a GoPro Hero HD this season on the Dallara, mounted on the roll hoop and wasn't happy with either the footage or the build quality.

It has been replaced with a Replay XD camera.

Don't buy a Contour HD, battery clip is too flimsy.

tristancliffe may have a Chasecam system for sale.

[mountainstar]

I was actually just about to buy a GoPro and didn't realize other options were out there.

I looked at the Replay and it looks comparable in price.

I would be interested to hear other opinions.

[gtmac2008]

There are quite a few action cameras out in the market. GoPro is the best known.

CAMsports, Contour, Drift and VIO POV are other brands worth having a look.

I sell action cams on my website, if you want any more info or advice please send me a private message.

[Elitemotorsporteng]

Hi,
I use a bullet type camera, This is what it records:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb1QI...eature=related

I can get them for £50, PM if your interested.

[MarkG]

I use one of these, very pleased with it. had to get the roll-bar mount extra.

http://www.actioncameras.co.uk/X170

[andrewc]

For a single seater we have tried the following, on Reynard 883 and Dallarae F398 and F304

Oregon Scientific Action Camera (early generation)
various Hard Disc based systems
Chasecam system
Contour HD
GoPro Hero
Replay 1080 XD

Chasecam was a solid piece of kit, but unlike the others isn't self-contained.

ContourHD battery retaining clip is a flawed design. We had one break. This was replaced under warranty. Its replacement failed in exactly the same manner. This all happened within seconds of going on track.

GoPro Hero HD - good quality footage, but very susceptible to vibrations, which is mostly due to a fairly flimsy mounting case.

ReplayXD - not tried in anger yet, but appears to be nicely made.

The Oregon Scientific Camera was an early one and gave OK results but low resolution.

Do not consider any hard disc based systems for a single seater. Too much vibrations. It must really use solid state memory.

[DX20VT]

I use a nomal digital camera on video mode.

Bought a second one for car use for $100 s/h,
records for 1/2 hr on an SD card with sound.
Does not too bad a job for a cheap solution.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8535P5PNEo

Now that we are getting a bit more serious I am also waiting on a Smartycam to arrive to try for the next season.
http://www.smartycam.com/on-board-camera.htm
Put some details into the video such as speed etc etc.

[Tuatha]

The Replay XD 1080 can also do 720 @ 60FPS (apparently) & I've seen some positive reviews & some very nice action videos.

Anyone know where I can get a kit from as most links I've seen so far are reviews/blogs & not shops (UK).

[andrewc]

We bought two ReplayXD's directly from ReplayXD in the USA. They arrived promptly by US Postal airmail.

I think they are working to get UK distributors signed up.

[NCharman]

I've seen various cameras used on Superkarts. On the singles the vibration is wicked, so they make a good test case. The best output seems to be with wide angle lenses, which I think is because any vibration makes a smaller 'blur' on the screen. (A 1 degree wobble is a smaller blur on a 180 degree picture than on a 45 degree picture). I use a non-HD Go-Pro, and the picture is only mediocre, due to the vibration. The vibration also affects the sound. Some people have got good result from Wide-angle HD Pros, and also Smarty-Cams from AIM.

[Triple J Motorsport]

Try DogCam they are as cheap as anyone and very helpful

[andrewc]

Vibrations is partly exaggerated due to the sensor technology used in the cheaper cameras which record on a line by line basis. Vibrations caused by the engines can cause the same item to appear on subsequent lines of the image - in the same way that in Ye Olde School photos, someone on the far left of the picture could run around the back of the group and appear again on the right hand side. Except this happens at up to 60 frames a second.

In terms of where to mount. It depends on want you want from it. Many wish to use it as a learning exercise, in which case it would be best to position the camera so that it includes some of the cockpit action as well.

Other times it may be interesting to watch what the suspension is doing during a lap or as a rearward camera.

I would second DogCam as being very helpful.

[barnettracing]

I know that you've asked for camera's other than the GoPro range but I would seriously recommend the 1080p HD Hero.

Initially bought a bullet-cam kit from 4Kam. The quality was poor and the camera itself shook itself to bits within a few sessions. I then bought the GoPro and I have pretty much nothing but praise.

I mount it under the roll hoop on the engine cover of my RF00 using the 3M tape mount. I don't have any problems with vibration degrading the quality; the footage looks brilliant on an HD TV.

The only problem was that at the end of the season, I discovered the mounting brackets on the case had nearly snapped off. This was just a case of getting a £35 replacement case, rather than replacing an expensive camera.

Here's an example of the footage; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E9BU...el_video_title

[Tim Falce]

I use a mini dv which is on my dash top, cost about £30 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io9mgdkolmw

[McMuttley]

I use a bullet cam and dvr recorder from dogcam. Has a seperate mike in the engine bay and thus avoids wind noise - you can hear all the crunched gears perfectly!

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

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by barnettracing

I know that you've asked for camera's other than the GoPro range but I would seriously recommend the 1080p HD Hero.

Initially bought a bullet-cam kit from 4Kam. The quality was poor and the camera itself shook itself to bits within a few sessions. I then bought the GoPro and I have pretty much nothing but praise.

I mount it under the roll hoop on the engine cover of my RF00 using the 3M tape mount. I don't have any problems with vibration degrading the quality; the footage looks brilliant on an HD TV.

The only problem was that at the end of the season, I discovered the mounting brackets on the case had nearly snapped off. This was just a case of getting a £35 replacement case, rather than replacing an expensive camera.

Here's an example of the footage; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E9BU...el_video_title

Looks pretty good. The one thing I like with Go Pro is the protective case.

[tristancliffe]

The silly case is one of the most horrid things about the GoPro.

Silly flimsy case that wobbles
Massive frontal area
Dodgy buttons
Poor audio (though not too bad if you have a loud engine)

Having used one for six months, and had the case wear the camera away where it touches inside the case, had the case 'lugs' break, and had the camera occasionally reject the memory card, and have it occasionally just stop recording for no apparent reason (it works when the car comes back to the paddock), I couldn't recommend a GoPro HD to anyone that uses a single seater. The wide angle lens (170°) is nice in terms of seeing around the car, but even flies hitting the lens look about 3 miles away, and the distortion is fairly horrid.

As said, not tried the Replay XD1080 on track yet, but it's nicely made, easier to mount without wobbles, better aero, simpler to use, easier to charge or remove the memory card, and more configurable via a text file on the memory card (for mic gain, contrast, saturation, white balance, sharpness etc etc).

The only thing (the ONLY thing) the GoPro has on the Replay currently is one-touch recording (i.e. turn on the GoPro and it can start recording immediately). I'd imagine that'll be an easy firmware addon for Replay in the future.

Replay are also planning external mics, links to dataloggers for record-start-when-datalogger-starts, different lenses... GoPro prefer to sell fugly 3D versions (two GoPros cobbled together in a very nasty fashion) rather than things the end user actually wants.

[JohnMiller]

Having successfully used most models which people complain about, the mounting needs serious attention to get right.

The GoPro is used for all in-car footage in British F3, so is far from bad, though it is a bit bulky to mount where it should be mounted.

We currently use ten of the incredible dogcamsport DogCam Bullet HD.

Just eighty quid and works perfectly well - if mounted properly!

[GORDON STREETER]

As I had an old small Sony DV camera kicking about I just fitted it onto the roll cage with a home made mount. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B_pzddtkn0
I have noticed a few of my customers road cars have a small cheap SD card recorder fitted onto the windscreen that seem to work OK but I don't know what the resolution is like on a TV screen.
I suppose like everything else in this fast changing electronic world a year down the line and a twenty quid minivid HDcamera will be available with a brilliant output

[tristancliffe]

Originally Posted by JohnMiller

Having successfully used most models which people complain about, the mounting needs serious attention to get right.

The GoPro is used for all in-car footage in British F3, so is far from bad, though it is a bit bulky to mount where it should be mounted.

We currently use ten of the incredible dogcamsport DogCam Bullet HD.

Just eighty quid and works perfectly well - if mounted properly!

The british F3 boys have a nice carbon casing made for them, and they have newer cars which have the shoulder on the tub (behind the headrest thingy and beside the roll hoop). They've also had relatively unlimited budgets and pooled experience to make the most of it - if I ran a GoPro for 5 years (or whatever the equivalent amount of running is - probably closer to 20 years!) then I'd expect to have sorted out all it's flaws.

[JohnMiller]

Case made by Carlin for FOTA. Was cheap, I am sure they would sell them. Problem with the BF3 mounting is it might give a decent view for TV, but the wrong place for engineering/coaching.

[SAMD]

Well, sod the expense I have gone for the ultimate. A Chinese MD80 Copy I think it was £3.99 on ebay + £12 for a card to suit. It is MEGA or at least it will be as soon as I work out how it works (no instructions), Although I have found some info on google! So hopefully...

[mountainstar]

I ended up getting a GoPro Hero 2 which apparently is a refinement of the older Hero camera.

I really need to play with the different resolution settings to see which I like. For starters I just ran the 960 setting.

With setup I found it easy to use and mount and one thing I like is plenty of mounting options and accessories available. Mine came with a solid back door and one door with 2 slits in it for improved audio(not water resistant though). I mounted it in the car on the dash and also on a bumper for on a rally course. It's very simple to turn on and operate.

The video quality was awesome. The only complaint I have is there is a "fishbowl" effect with the video. I'm going to try the other settings and see how that works out. Also the video sizes are huge so I had to order a 32 gb card.

The audio with the solid back door was as expected, a bit muffled. With the holed back door which I used in car, the audio was very clear and sounded good.

It ended up being a useful training aid for myself, as I could here and watch myself do demos for students and then listen to myself when the student was driving. It was great because I could see where I can tweak some of the stuff I say, how I say it, maybe add something more here, take away more here and so on.

[DX20VT]

Has anyone tried the AIM SmartyCam ??