Video Cameras For Motorsport Use

[Beer Baron]

Nooby here...

Whats the best recommendation for budget smart people?

Can we have this as a sticky, but with say, proven good cameras for the money?

Oh, and how does everyone mount them?

budget option is a mini DV cam or just some kind of handy cam type camera with standard mount fitted to a roll cage mount or suction mount (not really an option for the handy cams though).

after that I'd go for a used POV 1 or 1.5. they are super reliable, easy to use and give great results and with a cheap external mic give good audio too.

mounting wise I always use a roll cage mount even with the small light POV camera heads but for a system like them with the small remote camera head you can get away with suction mount too.

[Ten Four]

Thanks for the replies.

What if I don't have a cage and am just tracking my road car? Don't really ike the idea of head cameras cause they'll shake all over the place, no?

Suction mount - goes on the glass?

Am looking at racerecall right now

[martyboy26]

Suction mounts are fine, so long as they are the lever action type and they need to be at least 4 inches in diameter.

[Ten Four]

^Where do they sit + what kind of view does one normally get?

Recommend me a few products

[boxheadmr]

why not got just a handy cam with HD and flash/sd card recorder (rather then the HD recorder type ones cause of the vibrations). they are cheap, reliable and avaiable at most major appliance stores.

The len's are excelent and you can use them to tape you kids birthday party as well.

[Ten Four]

why not got just a handy cam with HD and flash/sd card recorder (rather then the HD recorder type ones cause of the vibrations). they are cheap, reliable and avaiable at most major appliance stores.

The len's are excelent and you can use them to tape you kids birthday party as well.

Honestly, I'm most concerned about mounting it.

Don't really want it on the dash, rather middle of the car so I can see mistakes in driving etc, but still want to view the road.

[Beer Baron]

Thanks for the replies.

What if I don't have a cage and am just tracking my road car? Don't really ike the idea of head cameras cause they'll shake all over the place, no?

Suction mount - goes on the glass?

Am looking at racerecall right now

I don't mean a camera you put on your head. I mean camera set-ups with the camera head seperate from the recorder. like a VIO POV. I would look at one of those. lots of support, easy to use and great footage. you can pick up a used one on ebay for reasonable money these days.

[evade]

http://www.onsitecameras.com/car-camera.php

i reckon this looks pretty good for the price. $~330

sample:

[martyboy26]

http://www.onsitecam.../car-camera.php

i reckon this looks pretty good for the price. $~330

sample:

Try tihis one for size. $329 HD Video with GPS. Suction mounts to the windscreen

HDTrakka

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKyN-SBxgtU

[Ant97GTR]

, I'm most concerned about mounting it.

Don't really want it on the dash, rather middle of the car so I can see mistakes in driving etc, but still want to view the road.

Not sure if I have posted here or not, but I use a cheap handycam (tape) mounted to the parcel shelf. I just made up a central mount that fits using the babyseat mounting points, fit the camera to that and away I went. Captures a full view out of the windscreen and down to the gear lever I can watch any missed changes

[Ten Four]

Try tihis one for size. $329 HD Video with GPS. Suction mounts to the windscreen

HDTrakka

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKyN-SBxgtU

f**k yeah.

Will buy, probably next week

[boxheadmr]

http://www.onsitecameras.com/car-camera.php

i reckon this looks pretty good for the price. $~330

sample:

I actually really liked your video and thought it was great right up to the last bit where you lowered your std's to there level by swerving towards that car. You can see your frustration,

[martyboy26]

The ARC Chooses its Official On Board Camera for the 2011 Season. Blog Here

[Duncan]

Looks like Mark is trying to temp us away from POVs to Radcam....

-------------------------------

A RadCam for only $399!

Trade In Your Working POV 1 or 1.5

and Get $200 cash-back on a RadCam HDPro*

------------------------------

So Mark.....the POV has treated me well over the years....is the radcam going to be as simple and reliable?

[sav man]

I used a Radcam all Targa, didn't have any issues. Never used a pov, but I can't see it would have been much easier than turning it on and hitting the record button.

[Marlin]

Yeah RadCam is mint. Too easy Nd awesome pic. Initial battery charge takes forever. I thin that's where a couple of whinges have come from, lack of charge.

[PHaT MR30]

Everything needs an initial charge... Found it easier than a pov personally.

What did you guys have the EV (exposure value) on? I went with -1.0 as recommended in the manual (and Sunny) but found it blacked out the dash too much.

First experience was a good one though and the image quality is great, Should have some footage on YouTube soon from some of the 'ahem' "Good" stages we did in yesterdays rally.

[sav man]

apparently running a redcam on dirt makes you roll. I lent mine to Mark and Jason yesterday, and they rolled too.

I didn't touch any settings in mine, i've just run it as I recieved it

[PHaT MR30]

Might try that next time

My RadCam faired ok after 4 rollovers, but the rollbar mount snapped clean off at the ball joint!

[DJRIFT]

one key thing that anoyed me about the rad cam was the fact that when it shows battery being 2 thirds full its really about to run out. we found that it would turn off at low battery. id go to turn it off at the end of the stage and realise it had turned its self off. id then turn it on and it would show battery 2 thirds full. change the battery and it was good to go. we over come this by running the in car charger and interchanging the battery as soon as it would drop to 2 thirds.

other than that it was a pice of cake to use and footage was grate.