On board camera suggestions

[snookwheel]

I am looking to upgrade my camera that I use for on board filming. I prefer a small digital camera. The one I have does not have enough image stabilization capabilities for use with the Vee. It worked fine on 'normal' cars, but not enough dampening for clean pictures with this one. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks, Scott

[sweenrace]

try the go pro camera (google it)

its less than $200 and i was impressed by the quality.

ian

[SR Racing]

We carry the Go-Pro Digital Video cameras. Under $162 with ~54 minutes of recording time.

Jim
SR Racing

[Keith Lawrence]

Jim,

Do the memory cards provide more filming without the need to download at a race. For example, if I got a camera and 3 cards, would that provide for recording 6 - 20 min long sessions?

Sorry for the stupid question, but I'm not real high tech and would love to be able to record video cheaply but without taking a PC to the track.

Thanks
Keith Lawrence
Pittsburgh PA
64 AD

[Mystique Racing]

Yes, you could use 3 memory cards, one for each session. The 2mb card will hold about 54min of video. I would also suggest changing the batteries when you change the cards.

[snookwheel]

The Go Pro looks pretty good. Especially for the price. Do any of the mounts allow attachment to a roll bar? It did not appear to have a way to attach it to a traditional camera mount that would screw into the bottom of a camera.

[FV80]

Scott,
FYI - I bought one of those Hero3 cameras and have had extremely poor luck using it on the race car. It works VERY well when hand held. I've used it skiing - both water and snow and had really good results (next year, I plan to devise a method to attach it to my ski helmet <G>). However, on my car, in approx 10 attempts, I have managed to get only TWO LAPS of video. Every other time, the camera has gotten good video until I get on the track - NOTHING after that. In almost every case, the camera is 'locked up' at the end of the session. Cannot turn it off, cannot take it out of 'video' mode, nothing. I have no choice except to remove the batteries - when I do that, any video that is saved to the card is not properly closed, so the file is lost. This is the second camera - they replaced the first one due to the same issues, but the results are EXACTLY the same.

I use the included strap to strap it to my rollbar. It took some 'ingenuity', but I was able to reconfigure the wrist strap to use most of it as a pad against the roll bar to reduce vibration and it APPEARS to work pretty well - when I crank the car in the pits and rev it up, I can see no vibration at all. (the camera itself weighs almost nothing.) However, I must assume that hitting curbs or potholes at apexes is just more than it can take. The shock must confuse the camera and it's DONE. Possibly, if I drove a bit more 'conservatively', it would work well... but I haven't figured out how to do that yet .

I have heard that others have used the setup quite successfully, but I have had NO luck with it at all
YMMV,
Steve

[Ed Womer]

I have a Sony digital camera with a remote lense (on roll bar) and remote mic (in box that hols camera) as well as a switch that allows me to turn on and off the camera since it is located above my legs. I have very good pictures from this system even though I had some intial problems with some of the components. I did get the system from Sampson Comm. in CA who advertises in SportCar but bought the camera at Circuit City.

Ed

[fvracer]

Scott,

We got one of the Hero 3 cameras from SR Racing and used it at Gateway last year. We were able to strap it to the roll bar and got excellent video for all 4 sessions of the double-regional. We have multiple 2mb SD cards so we don't have to download at the track.

Doug

[FV80]

Scott,
Can you send me a pic of your camera strapped to the roll bar? I can't imagine what's wrong with my setup, but neither of the TWO cameras I tried would work. Are you using Alkalines or rechargeables? (I've tried both with same results). How long are your batteries lasting?
Steve
Steve [at] WedgeRacing dot com

[sweenrace]

Steve,

here's a pic of the camera mounted on my car. I've hado problems with it. I also mounted it to the beam for one session and it also worked great.

http://www.sweeney-racing.com/images/home/new_cam.jpg

There are a couple of samples of video taken with the cam on our home page: http://www.sweeney-racing.com

Ian

[FV80]

I meant DOUG rather than Scott in my previous post .
Ian,
Thanks for the pic - that's pretty much exactly what I did with mine. Can't imagine why it refuses to work on my car - there's not a heck of a lot to it. Maybe it thinks I just don't NEED any incar video? . The 2 laps that I did get were certainly acceptable - just didn't last long enough to get to the part I wanted to see... <sigh>
Steve

[snookwheel]

Thanks for all the replies. I think I may give the Hero cam a try. Hopefully I will not run into the same problem that you did Steve.

[jpetillo]

I have a Sony digital camera with a remote lense (on roll bar) and remote mic (in box that holds camera) as well as a switch that allows me to turn on and off the camera since it is located above my legs. Ed

I have pretty much the same setup.

[snookwheel]

I have a Sony digital camera with a remote lense (on roll bar) and remote mic (in box that holds camera) as well as a switch that allows me to turn on and off the camera since it is located above my legs. Ed

I have pretty much the same setup.

Ed & Jpetillo, What model Sony camera are you using?

[jpetillo]

Ed & Jpetillo, What model Sony camera are you using?

I'm using a Sony DCR-TRV320, which allows a remote camera, mic. and Lanc control (control it from the cockpit). It's an older DV tape camcorder, but I had it and it works! The benefit about mounting the camera where you want is that you don't have to rigidly mount the camcorder part, minimizing the effects of shocks. Of course the remote camera can be as small as the lipstick type.

There are other solid state memory recorders on the market as well that are much smaller - and you still run remote camera, mic. and they have the Lanc control.

[Ed Womer]

I think mine is a DCR 22 and I got it 3-4 years ago so I doubt it is still for sale but you need one with the setup that allows remote start so you can mount it anywhere and use the lipstick camera on the roll bar or anywhere you want it.

Ed

[Samiam]

Steve, I have heard another story like yours regarding a Go Pro that would work fine on one car, then put it on another car and it will not work. The only theory that I can come up with is that there could be a electronic noise (emf) causing interference. I would try mounting the camera further away from the engine, or possibly making sure that the engine has a good positive ground cable. My Go Pro has worked flawlessly.

Scott

[fvracer]

Steve,

I can't send you a picture of the roll bar with the Hero 3 mounted as the car is at my brother's house 45 minutes away and the camera is out my house. We did have to use a piece of roll bar padding to space the camera out far enough for the "wrist strap" to work. I am using Energizer Lithium batteries and they seem to last for the entire session, but I don't turn the camera on till the one minute warning. All the other batteries I tried, including alkalines, only gave a very short recording time. I want to try some of the high performance rechargables this year since the cost changing batteries for each session adds up. I will be at the birthday party so you can see how it is mounted there.

Doug

[SR Racing]

We have found that the best and easist place to mount the Go-Pro is on the font beam. (If you have from beam exposed.) The camera comes with everything to mount it there with nothing else needed. (We put some race tape on the strap, just to make sure.) We have recorded in the dry and in the rain with perfect results. (Sound leaves something to be desired. It seems the engine noise swamps the audio. You can hear everthing, but when the engine is wound up it's pretty scratchy sounding.) We have sold dozens of the units to Vee guys, bike races and others with no complaints.

We had one mounted on the beam at Mid-O in the rain last year and even in the pouring rain it provided great results.

Steve, Go pro is very ewasy to work with, you can call them and they will replace the unit and/or assist you. Or feel free to send it back to us and we will swap it out with a new one. The early units (before yours) had some problems with poor battery contacts and some would dropout after some vibration. But we haven't seen any problems with the new ones.

Jim

[go-vee-or-go-home]

Just came across this topic. I bought my hero 2 cam last summer from sr and I have been having trouble with it ever since. Seems that it does not want to stay on for more than 10 seconds. I was using recharchable batteries and the cam keeped showing low battery. This year I decided to go with regular batteries incase the others were not charging right but I am having the same results. Brand new battery and the camera flashes low battery and shuts off after about 10 seconds or so. Also I seem to have misplaced the cable to connect to the tvand computer, I have tried to find one local but no-one seems to carry the right size.
Thanks for your time
Colin

[clubford00]

Read your instructions, the camera has a 10 second setting and if it is on this setting you will only get 10 seconds. I used mine the first day i got it and i recorded a complete 30 min practice then a 30 min race with no problems at all. good luck !

[Hal]

I have had the same problems Steve has had, the Hero camera will lock up and you can't shut it off. Although it initially it says you have a file, there is nothing. Had a terrific race at the Regional in April at Blackhawk, and I got nothing. Other times it has worked flawlessly and got some great footage, worked great for the April MC race the week before. I altered the waterproof case to be able to mount it with roll bar padding to a mount I made that screws into my covered roll bar on my D-13. The quality is excellent when it works, but for what ever reason it at this point has proven to be very un-reliable, you never know for sure if you will get any results. I think perhaps the quality is such that there are good ones and bad ones out there in use. I know some people who have just strapped it to a roll bar and it works fine, others it doesn't. Mine is set up and mounted the same way each time but whether I actually get anything on it is usually up for grabs. Really GREAT when it works though.


Hal Adkins
FV 88

[SR Racing]

Hal, Yours was purchased a year ago. In the earlier cameras some of them had simple metal tabs for the battery connectors. They later went to springs. It is possible you have one of the early ones. Vibration would cause them to cut out and/or record bad files. Go-Pro was replacing them for anyone that contacted them. Call them or send them an email. If they don't take care of it, give us a call.

Jim
SR

[jpetillo]

My daughter used a Go-Pro when she rented for the recent Nelson Ledges school. The camera worked fine and we have a full 5 sessions of movies without a hitch. The frame rate is barely adequate for smooth movies, but overall the movies came out great. I've done a lot worse paying a lot more.

The only thing I'd suggest for any camera system is some kind of cleanable or replaceable protection for the lens from the stuff that collects on it when it kicks up from the car in front.

John