on board camera
Discussion
I'm thinking of getting an onboard camera system for our formula Foed. Has anyone got any experience/recommendations.
These are two companies I have found. I don't want to spend fortunes, but on the other hand the video must be watchable.
http://www.4kam.com/action_rally_package.htm
http://www.dogcamsport.co.uk/
Thanks,
Andy
These are two companies I have found. I don't want to spend fortunes, but on the other hand the video must be watchable.
http://www.4kam.com/action_rally_package.htm
http://www.dogcamsport.co.uk/
Thanks,
Andy
We use Gold Star Racecam kit, it's more expensive than what you have listed but well proven broadcast quality.
We use this with an Archos AV500 30Gb hard drive recorder, which allows us to record endurance races without the need to swap memory cards, it has enough capacity to record 17 hours at full resolution, over 24hrs at TV watchable quality. You can get newer versions that would allow you to record an entire 24hr race weekend at broadcast resolution.
I've just bought a cheap bullet camera to try with the AV500, thats £75 and plugs straight into the DVR. I havnt tried it on a car yet but it looks like a viable choice for a clubbie.
We use this with an Archos AV500 30Gb hard drive recorder, which allows us to record endurance races without the need to swap memory cards, it has enough capacity to record 17 hours at full resolution, over 24hrs at TV watchable quality. You can get newer versions that would allow you to record an entire 24hr race weekend at broadcast resolution.
I've just bought a cheap bullet camera to try with the AV500, thats £75 and plugs straight into the DVR. I havnt tried it on a car yet but it looks like a viable choice for a clubbie.
I bought a 4Kam setup last year and although the recordings aren't too bad, in hindsight their packages were/are very over priced IMHO. The DVR supplied (the "DV1", different to that package above) and sold seperately on their site for £120 I found on Ebuyer for £40 (Goodmans GPDR1), the admittedly free microphone supplied was simply a tie-pin mic that you'd use to do a presentation, it came with about 4 adapters to convert it from 3.5mm jack to coax AV plug for inputting into the DVR which leaves you with about 8" of solid adapters plugged one into another in the middle of the mic lead! To top it off the mic was under-amped for the task so you could hardly hear the engine at full chat, even in a kit car.
The mount pricings are also rather optimistic, £8 for the suction mounts which are actually two suckers that would hold a tubular fish tank heater to the glass that you could probably get from the local aquatics shop for 50p, and the rollbar mount that's advertised for over £20 is an exhaust bracket with a cheap knuckled adjustable arm bolted to it to hold the camera, an arm which has to be done up with pliers to even have a hope of holding the camera steady, at which point its only a matter of time before the thread strips and it becomes completely useless.
I ended up getting a partial refund just keeping the cameras and switchbox then rigged up my own mic and bought the DVR from Ebuyer. I then built my own sound amp using a small electronics kit from maplin.
There's a few of my recordings on Youtube here, the Cadwell and Rockingham videos were done with the camera. The results are slightly better in raw format than they are on Youtube but not a huge amount, although for a 320x240 recording its actually pretty good, recording using a CCD based camera rather than a digital CMOS sensor makes it look a lot more natural IMHO, even at lower res.
If I did it again I'd just buy individual components from ebay etc, you can pick up equivalent spec cameras (1/3" Sony CCD 480/520TVL) on Ebay for about £50, and there's various MP4 recorders available for around £100 or less, even an Archos for not a lot more.
The mount pricings are also rather optimistic, £8 for the suction mounts which are actually two suckers that would hold a tubular fish tank heater to the glass that you could probably get from the local aquatics shop for 50p, and the rollbar mount that's advertised for over £20 is an exhaust bracket with a cheap knuckled adjustable arm bolted to it to hold the camera, an arm which has to be done up with pliers to even have a hope of holding the camera steady, at which point its only a matter of time before the thread strips and it becomes completely useless.
I ended up getting a partial refund just keeping the cameras and switchbox then rigged up my own mic and bought the DVR from Ebuyer. I then built my own sound amp using a small electronics kit from maplin.
There's a few of my recordings on Youtube here, the Cadwell and Rockingham videos were done with the camera. The results are slightly better in raw format than they are on Youtube but not a huge amount, although for a 320x240 recording its actually pretty good, recording using a CCD based camera rather than a digital CMOS sensor makes it look a lot more natural IMHO, even at lower res.
If I did it again I'd just buy individual components from ebay etc, you can pick up equivalent spec cameras (1/3" Sony CCD 480/520TVL) on Ebay for about £50, and there's various MP4 recorders available for around £100 or less, even an Archos for not a lot more.
Edited by LocoBlade on Wednesday 23 April 22:49
i bought a dog cam sport bullet cam. It is pretty good. you can see some of the results here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h_VzWu2X6A
you need to make sure you have a dv input digital camera, to get the feed to work from the bullet cam. i am not sure about the viability of fitting a handycam in a ff - its fine for a saloon as you have many roll bar locations to use.
dog cam are pretty good as a vendor. it takes a little while to set up, but once done is quite easy to use. however like i said, its getting all the wires, battery pack, cameras etc securely mounted that will be your biggest concern.
i think my bullet cam with extras cost around £100.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h_VzWu2X6A
you need to make sure you have a dv input digital camera, to get the feed to work from the bullet cam. i am not sure about the viability of fitting a handycam in a ff - its fine for a saloon as you have many roll bar locations to use.
dog cam are pretty good as a vendor. it takes a little while to set up, but once done is quite easy to use. however like i said, its getting all the wires, battery pack, cameras etc securely mounted that will be your biggest concern.
i think my bullet cam with extras cost around £100.
Scrutineers like to take a good look at your camera mounting too, so make the fixing good enough so you don't have to remove it for the race.
We have gone from a camcorder on the rollbar last season to a bullit(sp?) cam on a different car this season. Not worked out were to put everything yet.
The camcorder on its own was brilliant, but the fly and dust pelting have made the lens cover difficult to open and close.
If you are getting a separate mic. make sure it is protected from the wind as you really don't want that drowning out the engine noise.
We have gone from a camcorder on the rollbar last season to a bullit(sp?) cam on a different car this season. Not worked out were to put everything yet.
The camcorder on its own was brilliant, but the fly and dust pelting have made the lens cover difficult to open and close.
If you are getting a separate mic. make sure it is protected from the wind as you really don't want that drowning out the engine noise.
Thanks for starting this thread, I've had the same thing on my mind since I started racing last year.
Those in my championship that use video equipment seem to all have small camcorders, which I think have those mini-DV tapes, but I might be wrong. I'd much prefer to have something solid-state, just incase the vibrations (or my novice inspired trips into the gravel) cause some damage.
It also appeals to me as I'd like to mount the camera in various places around the car, particularly low down at the front to make the speed look even faster!
Those in my championship that use video equipment seem to all have small camcorders, which I think have those mini-DV tapes, but I might be wrong. I'd much prefer to have something solid-state, just incase the vibrations (or my novice inspired trips into the gravel) cause some damage.
It also appeals to me as I'd like to mount the camera in various places around the car, particularly low down at the front to make the speed look even faster!
One of the guys who races in our series owns a TV production company which broadcasts many of the UK motorsport shows on Men & Motors and Channel 5.
Contact him via the weblink below (Andy Glossop) for advice, but suffice to say, half the stuff which is 'broadcast quality' isn't, and a lot of it isn't as reliable as the manufacturers would have you belive. The cheapest widescreen compact camera/bullet lens is around £8k at the moment
http://www.amgtv.co.uk/
Would be worth an email prior to wasting cash, as Andy has raod tested a lot of the units currently available. Recording to solid state definitely recommended.
Contact him via the weblink below (Andy Glossop) for advice, but suffice to say, half the stuff which is 'broadcast quality' isn't, and a lot of it isn't as reliable as the manufacturers would have you belive. The cheapest widescreen compact camera/bullet lens is around £8k at the moment
http://www.amgtv.co.uk/
Would be worth an email prior to wasting cash, as Andy has raod tested a lot of the units currently available. Recording to solid state definitely recommended.
Elmo wins hands down
http://www.elmo.co.jp/suv-cam/en/index.html
http://www.dogcamsport.co.uk/elmo-suv-camera.htm
http://www.elmo.co.jp/suv-cam/en/index.html
http://www.dogcamsport.co.uk/elmo-suv-camera.htm
Edited by Scuffers on Thursday 24th April 19:17
I totally agree with Locoblade
I would recommend DogCam Hands down, the 4Kam units are just rebadged highly inflated rubbish
I bought the DV1 which is actually a Goodmans unit that was available from Amazon for £45 before they discontinued it (it's that old)
It only records at 320x240 resolution which they fail to point out on their web site and I'm certain that non of the demo video's are taken with that recorder, you need a minimum of 640x480 resolution for trackday/racing video's.
I returned my DV1 for a refund which they are refusing to give because I have used it (how else do you test an an-board camera !), they are also saying that they haven't received my returned DV1 despite me sending it via Special Delivery and having a signiture.
Looks like I'm going to court, absolute crooks !
I would recommend DogCam Hands down, the 4Kam units are just rebadged highly inflated rubbish
I bought the DV1 which is actually a Goodmans unit that was available from Amazon for £45 before they discontinued it (it's that old)
It only records at 320x240 resolution which they fail to point out on their web site and I'm certain that non of the demo video's are taken with that recorder, you need a minimum of 640x480 resolution for trackday/racing video's.
I returned my DV1 for a refund which they are refusing to give because I have used it (how else do you test an an-board camera !), they are also saying that they haven't received my returned DV1 despite me sending it via Special Delivery and having a signiture.
Looks like I'm going to court, absolute crooks !
I eventually bought a dogcam unit Quality is excellent and after sales is second to non.
The Sony camera (not the recorder bit) went faulty the first time it was used.
Callled dogcam and there was no messing about, they sent a new unit out immediately, trusting me to send the faulty one back. None of this oh send it back and we'll test it nonsense, just good old fashioned service. They also volunteereed to send out a new upgraded mike when it became available. They did send it out, and the new mike is better, with its own volume control.
Well done Dogcam!
The Sony camera (not the recorder bit) went faulty the first time it was used.
Callled dogcam and there was no messing about, they sent a new unit out immediately, trusting me to send the faulty one back. None of this oh send it back and we'll test it nonsense, just good old fashioned service. They also volunteereed to send out a new upgraded mike when it became available. They did send it out, and the new mike is better, with its own volume control.
Well done Dogcam!
I'm with John Felsted on this one. We use the Goldstar kit. The bullet cam we got in a cheap deal from a sewerage maintainance suppliers(we just took off the water/s
t proof cover) for £25 the kit is very easy to use, has a remote control so it doesn't look like you are giving your driver sexual favours when you turn it on (formula Ford, small cockpit)
It is a very light system too.
Make sure that you buy a quality camera mount too, otherwise scrutineering will hang off it and deem it unsafe.
t proof cover) for £25 the kit is very easy to use, has a remote control so it doesn't look like you are giving your driver sexual favours when you turn it on (formula Ford, small cockpit)It is a very light system too.
Make sure that you buy a quality camera mount too, otherwise scrutineering will hang off it and deem it unsafe.
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