In car video - what kit do you use.???

[cheekymonkey]

Interested to know what kit you folks use for capturing footage from in-car. Particularly hbaumhardt & shagani, you guys seem to have it licked.

Been looking at 3 options

1. Buy a bullet cam + recording device i.e. http://cameras4sport.com/ but understand recording quality isn't amazing but is very flexible to install

2. Buy a miniDV camcorder plus mounting bracket (suction thing) assume fits to back vertical window?

3. Buy a miniDV camcorder and link to a bullet cam (not possible on all cams) so camcorder can be hidden and camera can go anywhere.

What are peoples thoughts, and can you stick links to kit you have bought & rough prices please.

I like the idea of a 2 / 3 as I can use the camcorder for other thigns too....

[molydood]

I bought a canon mv500 for less than £100 on ebay (uses dv tapes, links to PC, and quality is very good IMO), and I am just about to buy a bullet cam for ~£100. then the suction mount is £50 and that should be all you need for some decent footage.

If you wait a while I can show you some footage from this setup once I get the bullet and try it, but I wouldn't hold your breath, have been meaning to do it for ages and it could take me months to get round to it!

martin

[TonyHetherington]

cheekymonkey said:

3. Buy a miniDV camcorder and link to a bullet cam (not possible on all cams) so camcorder can be hidden and camera can go anywhere.

That's exactly what I did. Look at the megahoon videos in my profile they were taken with a bullet cam mounted on the car (in differnet places). I've used the kit at 170mph at Bruntingthorpe (not in the Elise of course) and it's been spot on stable too.


Take a look at these threads which will be of huge use to you (from me asking the same questions last year).

www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=109&t=189634

www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=109&t=194903

Hope they're of help

Tony

[hbaumhardt]

My FAQ type recommendations for video camera set up. I dont use a bullet cam because I am happy with the current setup. When I eventually get a proper datalogger overlay unit (£500-£1k) I will need a bullet cam to generate the upstream image.

Vdeo Camera
Good Image stabalisation (really important) Sony super steady shot is ace
External AV input (for eventual bullet cam)
External Mic input (to avoid wind noise, gustbusters are crap)
USB2/Firewire output (for grabbing)
Remote control or LANC input (for wired remote control)
Storage MINI DV or MPEG to SD Card *** NOT direct to CD/DVD**. If MPEG make sure you can capture sustained at 640x480 30 fps which generally needs a 133x or 150x SD card and 500Mb will hold an hour.

Video camera Mount
Suction mount (Pump cup with double ball tilt top head) for the back window (may need to scrape off some logo), or superclamp (Superclamp + double ball tilt top head) if you have a shoulder height harness bar (the ones mounting in the inertia points are too high). Mounting at the back of the cabin you can angle to get the track and your speedo/rpm as well for pikey "datalogging" ... no more arguments on how fast you really were through that corner.

Grab & Cut
If you have a MAC I dont know. Windows XP built in (or FOC addon) Windows Movie maker. Grab MINIDV the over iLink/Firewire or USB2. If you cut your vids to < 25Mb chunks (thats about 3mins at 640x480 30 fps) you can host for free e.g. www.putfile.com/hbaumhardt

Sources
www.fastfilms.co.uk
www.b-hague.co.uk

Edited by hbaumhardt on Thursday 29th June 17:59

[cheekymonkey]

Wow thanks for the feedback everyone, lots of useful resources to read up on. I'll try and look over all of this properly at the weekend (as uber busy today) and will let you know if I have any other questions..

Quality PH advice as ever

[shangani]

As Hans said. He taught me everything I know - which sadly isn't nearly as much as he knows.

[cheekymonkey]

Looks like the rfconcepts bullet cam pack 3 is the puppy, (is this the one you ended up getting Tony?)

Now I need a good camcorder with the best possible optical zoom as i want to be able to film surfing from the beachas well as in car antics. Gonna go off and research this but if anyone has any suggestions in the mean time please shout.

Ta

[TonyHetherington]

cheekymonkey said:

Looks like the rfconcepts bullet cam pack 3 is the puppy, (is this the one you ended up getting Tony?)

That's the one! (I detailed it fully in on eof those threads I linked to I think)

[cheekymonkey]

Just an update to let you know what I ended up with...

I bought the RFConcepts Pack 3 as recommended by TonyHetherington. www.rfconcepts.co.uk/helmet_cameras.htm
The PAL 4.3mm for £120. Plus I ordered a ciggy lighter adaptor to power it all in car which is very useful.

I also bought a canon MV750i off ebay for £180 which has the AV in for the bullet cam, plus it's got pretty good optical zoom which i wanted too!

The brucy bonus comes in the fact that the chick that sold it left a tape in it with some footage on it.... yes it is what you're thinking... only it cut after a couple of minutes, still very, very funny! You'd think they woudl check that before sending... unless she wanted me to see it???

Finally I got a little suction mount from Maplin www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=45383&TabID=1&C=SEO&U=strat15&doy=search for £6.99 so I can stick the bullet to the back window, or the wing, or anywhere which is excellent!


Gonna string it all together tonight and give it a bash. Will let you know the results!

[TonyHetherington]

Excellent work - that's exactly the set up I have and it works very well indeed

[XTR2Turbo]

This thread is worthless without videos. Was her name Paris?

[cej]

what are you waiting for ? Upload the video clip

[cheekymonkey]

ha ha.. her name is Suzi and she likes her boobies

i haven't hooked the camera up to my PC yet, and am busy for the next couple of days but will sort it out on the weekend for ya