Recommend an onboard trackday camera please?

[stuzzer]

After my trip to the ring this weekend and the pain of trying to rig up some sort of mount for my HD camera i've come to the conclusion that hardwiring in a stealth camera an mic might be the way to go.

Ideally i'd like a front mounted bumper camera and the mic in the boot to eliminate wind noise, then hook them both to a portable pvr or laptop.

Dont really want to spend megamoney so can anyone give me some pointers?

Cheers

[Wh00sher]

What about a quick release `shoe` for your HD camera ? They mean the camera can be fitted in seconds.

[F1Yorkie]

We had some bullet cameras at Nurburgring. I'll get the spec and post it on here.
We managed to hide them in front grilles, rear spoilers and allsorts.

[stuzzer]

thanks chap, that would be great

[edb49]

Check out some of these vids - took me a while to get a working solution I was happy with, and beware of cheap HD cameras like the GoPro.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8OO0P0TQWA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9j3dNWGbIU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN6xw4b4nkw

End result:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWtssRG_QF8

[edh]

I would start here

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

My first effort is on p14 I think. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-37wSMmMXvE

You can't go very far wrong for £7, and the quality is surprisingly good. A mate of mine has tested it up to 169mph on his bike, simply mounted via velcro

[krisa9977]

I've got cruisecam mount. You can put any camera you want.

http://www.cruisecam.com/products.html

My video from the Ring using CruiseCam:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MH20vCgBDQ

[F1Yorkie]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Oregon-Scientific-ATC2K-ATC2...


Try one of these, they worked well for us.

[Matt UK]

http://www.dogcamsport.co.uk/mini-dvr-2-helmet-cam...

I bought this one, works well enough for me.

The sound is OK so long as you mount the unit out of the airflow.

Here's a track day I did with the camera mounted high, but the unit mounted low in the passenger footwell - sound is OK.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6JCR2IKZ-M

Edited by Matt UK on Sunday 1st August 11:57

[CinqAbarth]

F1Yorkie said:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Oregon-Scientific-ATC2K-ATC2...


Try one of these, they worked well for us.

Have you solved the problem with the sound, though? - I've been using one for a few years, but can't get any decent sound quality from it.

I have it strapped to the passenger head rest on track days, but any movement of the camera completely ruins the sound.

I've now bought one of those MD80 copies from ebay, in the hope it'll be better.

[stuzzer]

krisa9977 said:

I've got cruisecam mount. You can put any camera you want.

http://www.cruisecam.com/products.html

My video from the Ring using CruiseCam:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MH20vCgBDQ

Thanks for all the advice so far but i'm looking for something to be stealth mounted, not on show. Ideally i want to go for a bumper mounted camera on the front then a mic inside the boot or car, hooked up to a laptop or PVR.

Krisa, i'm interested in how you get the speedo on the screen? I've seen other cars with g-meters, rpms etc on them but dont know how its done. What do I need?

[Joe911]

Not HD, but very good ...
http://videovbox.co.uk/

[stuzzer]

lol, thats worth more than the car!

Doesnt have to be HD, just a decent SD resolution.

[krisa9977]

stuzzer said:

Krisa, i'm interested in how you get the speedo on the screen? I've seen other cars with g-meters, rpms etc on them but dont know how its done. What do I need?

I had Traqmate GPS Data Acquisition System. It comes with special software to make this kind of video.

[mattdaniels]

Have a look at ChaseCam solid state recorders coupled to a bullet camera.

Regarding the on screen graphics, I have some software called OverLap which does this but you need something like a Racelogic box to record the telemetry data.

[Goon]

Sorry to hijack for a moment. I have an iPhone 4 - and the video camera is pretty good. Got a track day coming up in a few weeks and wondered if anyone had any experience of mounting it to the windscreen to take some video?

[Nur Links]

I use two VHoldR Contour 1080HD cams in my racecar. I used to have camcorders, but they are not shock and vibration resistant because of the optics and the moving parts.

I think the Contour HD is fantastic value. Picture quality is true HD good enough to watch on a TV, they don't break (mini SD so no moving parts), they record for over 2 hours in HD on a battery charge (can also be hardwired to 12v), they're wide angle and easy to operate. Sound is fine (but don't expect dolby surround). You can hook them to a computer to transfer files quickly and they charge easily through a mini USB port. I also like the fact that they are very small and light and that you don't need an external storage device. This makes them easy to mount in different locations (view of paddles, driver face, inside wheelarch).

If you insist on mounting in a bumper, they have some disadvantages: they are not remote controlled and you can't hook up an external mic. It also has no built in screen for fast playback. Alignment of the field of view by two lasers. I was sceptical about this feature, but it works perfectly. The mounts are fixed in the car, so for me it was a one time job to align them (couple of minutes) and I now just slide the cams on and of their mounts.

I looked at several other systems, but thought they were either low quality video or very expensive. Only alternative for me was the Go Pro HD, which has similar picture quality. This however is a little bit more fragile, slightly less easy to mount and less foolproof to use.