best track day camera thingy

[Gandahar]

I have a normal camera but I'd have to duct tape it to my helmet and then try and find the start button half way through Eau Rouge/Conrod straight / turn 1 Indianapolis/ the dodgems at Margate so could you recommend a proper track day camera?

Something that takes an SD card, has good image quality and is easy to operate. I could go on the gadget sites but I am hazarding a guess they will not have done as many track days as you lot, you know the one that they recommend but falls off just before you do that impeccable 4 wheel drift around Paddock hill bend....

thoughts?

[anonymous-user]

Are you looking for an action camera stuck to your helmet or a fixed mount in the car/bike?

Any dashcam will do the job for you but the battery life may be a bit short. GoPro tends to be the go-to brand for quality.

Techmoan is a good site for camera reviews.

[mx5tom]

I use a Garmin Virb HD (not the Elite). I think they were originally a GoPro competitor but not quite as good, didn't sell very well and so now you can pick them up new for about £80.

I recently used both a GoPro Hero 3 and my Virb HD on track at the same time and to be honest I don't see much of a difference in quality. The supplied mount is pretty stable as well- I mounted it with a sticky mount next to the rear well and there was less vibration than with the GoPro (using a suction mount on the boot lid).

Have a look at this video which might help give a fair comparison. It has gone through some post-processing (*cough* I clicked a preset filter in a video editing program I have no idea how to use) but other than that it shows the difference between the GoPro (bootlid camera) and the Virb (rear wheel camera): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nEuai29SNk

[AdamIndy]

I am using an SJCam SJ4000. Its a Chinese go pro rip off. On another forum I frequent it was held in high regard so bought one. To be fair, it is excellent! It cost £48 with all the mounts and 2 batteries, delivered from chinaland. Took 3 days to arrive. The only downside is the sound for me. It is attached to the roll bar on my kit car so is directly in the wind so cant complain really. At £48 if it did fall off and get smashed, its not the end of the world really, I dropped mine on the garage floor and didn't even mark it. So far so good! I don't have any videos on the web but loads on youtube if you want to see the quality. I can soon upload one of my own if you would like to see one unedited.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-SJCAM-SJ4000-12M...

[Gandahar]

I started watching that mx5tom video and forgot all about cameras... I was egging you on Tom. Bloke in red convertible with blonde girl, reminded me of my Outrun days.




Having seen AdamIndy's post i think I might give that a bash ( hopefully not literally), love the cheap Chinese option always

Thanks everyone.

[Toilet Duck]

Mobius HD cameras are hard to beat for the money; full 1080p HD and for less than £60 from the UK. There are loads of different mounts available, and I've also fitted them in the girlfriends car to use as a dashcam I use two of these for rear/pedal views on trackdays and they have proved to be worth the money. If you are using these in a car, you can always run a USB lead to them so you don't have to worry about battery life. I also use a GoPro which in terms of quality is hard to beat, but the battery life is dire. I drilled a hole in the case so I keep that powered by a USB cable in the car, so no need to worry about battery life on that either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrAFOpv_cZQ

[Pachydermus]

Gandahar said:

I have a normal camera

what sort of 'normal' camera? If it does video then mounts are available.

[PGNCerbera]

AdamIndy said:

I am using an SJCam SJ4000. Its a Chinese go pro rip off. On another forum I frequent it was held in high regard so bought one. To be fair, it is excellent! It cost £48 with all the mounts and 2 batteries, delivered from chinaland. Took 3 days to arrive. The only downside is the sound for me. It is attached to the roll bar on my kit car so is directly in the wind so cant complain really. At £48 if it did fall off and get smashed, its not the end of the world really, I dropped mine on the garage floor and didn't even mark it. So far so good! I don't have any videos on the web but loads on youtube if you want to see the quality. I can soon upload one of my own if you would like to see one unedited.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-SJCAM-SJ4000-12M...

Just bought this one - hope it works out!

[jimi]

Here you go - plenty of choice..

http://www.chilli-tech.com/

[AdamIndy]

I see some have bought one of the SJ4000's.

Just for an idea of what the are like, here is a quick video of mine from last weekend.

OK, that didn't work! try this instead.

https://youtu.be/-9zmsw3I5gw

Quality is nowhere near as good on youtube though. Turn it on to 720p.

Edited by AdamIndy on Monday 28th September 19:39

[T0MMY]

Toilet Duck said:

Mobius HD cameras are hard to beat for the money; full 1080p HD and for less than £60 from the UK. There are loads of different mounts available, and I've also fitted them in the girlfriends car to use as a dashcam I use two of these for rear/pedal views on trackdays and they have proved to be worth the money. If you are using these in a car, you can always run a USB lead to them so you don't have to worry about battery life. I also use a GoPro which in terms of quality is hard to beat, but the battery life is dire. I drilled a hole in the case so I keep that powered by a USB cable in the car, so no need to worry about battery life on that either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrAFOpv_cZQ

That's great quality for £60! I may look at getting one of them.

I've got an old Drift Innovation HD720 which is pretty good. I went for it over the Go Pro as it has a screen to line it up and you can also rotate the lens (maybe newer Go Pros do all that now though). It survived falling off my bike at around 100 mph at Rockingham too so fairly robust.

Here's a vid so you can see the quality (again, you need to put it on 720 and 60fps). Sound is poor without the external mic but that didn't survive the Rockingham incident.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfStlGOk2oQ

[Matt106]

Another vote here for the SJCAM SJ4000, I opted for the WiFi edition which was around £60. This allows you to control the camera via a smartphone, bit of a gimmick but good for setting mount angles.

[evilmiyagi]

SJCam4000 Wifi

I use one in my Fiesta race car and the quality is actually better than the GoPro Hero 4 it is replacing oh and at less that £100 including a 32gb MicroSD its cheap!

edit - clip of me getting it wrong in qualifying at Oulton

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSjj6rguuzI

Edited by evilmiyagi on Thursday 1st October 13:50

[n90acc]

I Used my phone for my recent trip to the Nurburgring.

Sony xperia z3 has a great camera and storage already, so saved buying another camera. Plus you can download things like harrys lap timer which overlays all the data to your video if you wish!

The only tricky thing is mounting it. I wouldn't personally mount it externally but there are plenty of options out there. I on this occasion designed and 3d printed my own mount.
Only addition I would add is a little sponge external mic to cancel out the wind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CqCZeClpEQ

Edited by n90acc on Thursday 1st October 14:20

Edited by n90acc on Thursday 1st October 14:20

[binnerboy]

I also use the SJ4000 though the cheaper non wifi version. , the handlebar mount fits nicely on the rear view mirror.

quality is fine, there are fake SJ4000 cameras out there though I do not know if they are significantly worse than the SJ4000 but hey at least you know.

[docter fox]

n90acc said:

I Used my phone for my recent trip to the Nurburgring.

Sony xperia z3 has a great camera and storage already, so saved buying another camera. Plus you can download things like harrys lap timer which overlays all the data to your video if you wish!

The only tricky thing is mounting it. I wouldn't personally mount it externally but there are plenty of options out there. I on this occasion designed and 3d printed my own mount.
Only addition I would add is a little sponge external mic to cancel out the wind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CqCZeClpEQ

Edited by n90acc on Thursday 1st October 14:20

Edited by n90acc on Thursday 1st October 14:20

That's really good quality, I've got a Z3 compact but the couple of mounts that I've tried just wobble too much. Without access to a 3d printer, what options did you come across?

[petrolbloke]

I have an SJ4000 for trackday footage in my Clio and a Mobius as a dashcam in my daily. Both great cameras for the money. Just beware of fakes on eBay!

Here is some footage from the SJ4000:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SlUvlgSW4U

[g40steve]

What video editing software do you use with the sj4000??

[motco]

binnerboy said:

I also use the SJ4000 though the cheaper non wifi version. , the handlebar mount fits nicely on the rear view mirror.

quality is fine, there are fake SJ4000 cameras out there though I do not know if they are significantly worse than the SJ4000 but hey at least you know.

It's hard to know whether SJ4000 or one of the others is fake as they are all knock-offs of GoPro anyway. I have a Qumox SJ4000 (not the same as the straightforward SJ4000) and it is really good. Even set at 720p to reduce file size it's indistinguishable from my son's GoPro Hero on full resolution and a fraction of the cost on Amazon. Sound is always difficult with the integral mic and mine has no socket for an external one.