Santa wants to bring be a video camera for me to use at the track. Any suggestions on make and model? What about features to look for?

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

I'm eyeing one of these but I don't have any experience with them yet. I do like that they are extremely compact, save a good amount of data, have a rechargable battery and have quick connect mounts that you can leave on your car. They aren't terribly pricey either. Someone else on here probably has had experience or knows someone who's used one though so someone chime in because I'm curious too.

http://cgi.ebay.com/GoPro-Motorsport...1%7C240%3A1308

 

I use a panasonic SD9, with a mount on my harness bar
http://www.vimeo.com/1655661

with some tricks (disable OIS, fixed focus and fast shutter) works pretty well. the HD quality is priceless


*edit* I also have an oregon scientific... it sucks.. big time. no way too keep it steady somewhere because has its own mounting. I'll use it to record wheel movements with a good amount of duct tape on the side skirt and a safety cable to don't lose it.

 

Wow nice quality

 

http://www.goprocamera.com/index5.htm

Fletch, a friend of mine has this camera, and all things considered, it does a better good job. They have some sample video posted on their website. Check it out.

 

I will have to check the price because that has nice video quality.

Thanks....

 

Take a look at www.cam-fx.com we are installing a pair of these in our car for next year. I've heard great things about their equipment. They have a couple of ways to approach the camera question. They came highly recommended. Bob[/B]

 

damn that's awful nice, clear video

 

the price... depends. if you already have a roll bar or a harness bar you need this kind of mount
http://www.chasecam.com/mounts/clamp/EZ20

and the camera, you can go from a cheap used dv camera you get on ebay (that will still have way more quality than any "toy") or go for an HD camera on SD card (hard drive and dvd don't works in a car) that you can use for other stuff (so I didn't consider it as the real expense) the only thing.. now they use cmos instead of ccd and they suffer from vibration. canon has the best video quality but doesn't work. panasonic has 3ccd and it works... but now they switched to an hybrid sensor and I don't know if it's going to work or not.

btw I paid my camera less than 500$ including a 16gb memory card.

*edit* the video is WAY BETTER than what you can see on vimeo, their compression sucks.

 

Thanks for the info. That sounds like a great price on your camera. I have not seen it anyone close to that yet, but I will keep looking. Most likely, I will only ise the camera for track video.

 

I'd recommend something with a remote control.. I dislike having to twist backwards to power-on/activate mine at the start of each session (but it was free.. ).

 

just an fyi: on monday we tried using a HDD based sony and failed miserably. granted my car probably vibrates 1000 times more then yours but the camera failed first time we got up to speed. I can only assume its to much vibration for a HDD camera. Used an old JVC mini DV and it worked just fine.

 

I run the Chase Cam setup (bullet cam-kinda similar to that FX posted above), suctioned to my front window. It is synched with my TraqMate data recorder, so it is nice to synch the video and data together. Too bad it is crazy expensive for the whole setup.

Also, with having it synched to the TraqMate, I have it set to only turn on when I hit 20MPH and turn off after 5 mins of sitting at 0mph.

Again...very expensive, but after installing it, I haven't had to worry about tapes or vibrations or turning it off and on.

Before I got the Chase Cam, I had a normal tape vid-camera mounted to both my harness bar and a bar attached to my passenger headrest. But I could never get an angle that I liked. For some reason, on the harness bar there was too much interior and not enough exterior to get the apexes in the shot...and on the passenger headrest the instructors helmet was always in the way.

Good Luck with you search! Like someone mentioned above....I wouldn't get anything that uses a cd or dvd. With the vibrations going through the car, it will make it skip.

 

I have an Aiptek A-HD+ with an 8GB SD card and for a cheap setup the video quality is quite impressive. Here is a video from my last race weekend. Vimeo downgrades the quality somewhat but at 720x60fps I'm happy with it so far.

<object width="400" height="300"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1969579&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1& show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1969579&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1& show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://vimeo.com/1969579">Eagles Canyon Race 1</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user786756">Sean Farrah</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.

 

I just did that research that Aipetk HD really is a great deal for the money i will get one for this season

 

that panasonic has the remote
especially if you use 4+ point harness is quite handy.


btw the aiptek is 124$ here
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...efinition.html

and my panasonic 499
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...sh_Memory.html
with some free stuff (bag, memory card and a second battery... that is a quite good offer)

 

As mentioned previosuly don't use a hard drive or DVD camcorder. The vibration renders them useless. You have to use a flash drive camera. I just picked up a Canon Vixia HF100 for $525 from Amazon and I will be using it next Sunday @ Sebring.

Camera

I got this camera mount to use on the back window with the camera facing foward.

Camera Mount

 

Keep me updated, I was thinking about buying that one or the VIXIA HF10. let me know how the mount works coming off you back window.

 

I will post the video up next week when I get back.

You should skip the HF10 in favor of the HF100. The SDHC cards are dropping in price and getting larger in size so you can pick up an HF100 camera and 16mb card for less than the cost of an HF10.

 

let us know... the HF100 didn't work for me.. no way to keep the damn cmos steady.