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What are the compact digital cameras used in BTCC cars and Top Gear
Surrey Dave - 18/7/11 at 12:57 PM

Does anyone know what the compact digital cameras used in BTCC cars and also seen in Top Gear caravans, they appear to be silver compact digital cameras?

They appear lotech but the results are good.


Surrey Dave - 18/7/11 at 01:05 PM

It might be these.

GoPro


Kwik - 18/7/11 at 01:11 PM

they are gopro as said above which are hidiously expensive for what they are.

there are cheap and cheerful chinese keychain cameras that now shoot in high definition, youtube for reviews, some are very good, some are very poor, but a 10th of the price of a gopro...


adithorp - 18/7/11 at 01:44 PM

Some interesting stuff here about the cameras used on Ski Sunday.

This is the head cam they use.


mr_pr - 18/7/11 at 02:49 PM

Say what you like about the price of a GoPro but there is a reason that they are huge in extreme sports worlds. I use mine for skiing, skydiving, wake boarding and on my MTB. It is solid as a rock, has taken a beating, is very waterproof and the quality is superb for videos or photos.

You can try and say it is due to high advertising but there are numerous other brands Contour, Drift, Cheap Chinese ones.... None of them have the same usability as a GoPro.


MikeRJ - 18/7/11 at 04:03 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Kwik
they are gopro as said above which are hidiously expensive for what they are.



I disagree, I think they are pretty well priced. Can you find something that does the job as well or better for significantly less?

The Chinese keyring cameras are certainly cheap and fun toys, but the Go Pro is in a different league when it comes to build quality and suitability for the task. The keyring cameras are very often poorly focussed, most of them seem to skip frames and they all appear to have a confusing interface consisting of of unlabelled buttons and flashing LEDs.


owelly - 18/7/11 at 05:22 PM

Having seen a fleet of GoPro cameras in actiom and then speaking to the production team using them (for tv work), I would say they are worth every penny. I saw the beatings they took and the images they captured. The guys pointed out that if you've only got one chance, you need the best gear. Once the cameras were set up and switched on, they lasted for at least a couple of hours. I managed to kick one off the roof of our vehicle and then see it get run over. The camera guy picked it up, blew the dust off it and put it back on the roof.
Incidentally, see the footage on Sky1 on 29th August......


Kwik - 18/7/11 at 06:55 PM

im not saying go pro's arnt good quality, if your going to throw it off a cliff i would say gopro, but if its just for filming a drive around you can buy cheap chinese ones which are the same quality.

ok the chinese ones wont survive anything near the abuse of a gopro, but if you are not going to abuse it then why pay for the gopro? i thought this was locost builders...

im off to find the videos that convinced me that the chinese ones are good quality...


Kwik - 18/7/11 at 07:16 PM

HD keyring camera

there you go, may not be better but at only £30 and 15g i would prefer one of these than a £230 HD GOpro...


tomgregory2000 - 18/7/11 at 08:19 PM

mmmmm...... The gopro is so much better just have a quick look at this link and make your own mind up, so much smoooooooother and better colours and waterproof


TimEllershaw - 22/9/11 at 09:11 AM

+1 for the GoPro


We use them at MIRA for all sorts of work from proving ground driving to crash testing.
( Also have stupidly expensive high speed cameras for the crash test footage which are amazing! )

We did a few tests with little cheep HD cams and their picture quality wasn't anywhere close to the GoPro. That was especially true when the light wasn't too good.


Tim.


franky - 22/9/11 at 09:30 AM

The GoPro camera's are good for the price and they do get used in low budget TV stuff. High end bullet cameras that are used on TV would cost you as much as your cars worth.


MikeRJ - 22/9/11 at 11:46 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Kwik
HD keyring camera

there you go, may not be better but at only £30 and 15g i would prefer one of these than a £230 HD GOpro...


Not a great advert of that camera, it drops loads of frames if there is much motion in the picture. Exactly what you don't want for a camera to stick on your car.