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On Board Video Camera System
Sonic7 - 26/4/09 at 07:52 AM

Am looking to invest in a small lightweight reasonably inexpensive Video recording system for the car and would welcome any advise from other enthusiast's that have experience in this area.

Currently thinking along the lines of a bullet camera, flash drive recording unit with helmet mike ????????

Suggestions Please.

Many Thanks Nigel

owelly - 26/4/09 at 08:10 AM

Tiys R Us had a helmet camera system in for £49. It has VGA quality recording, is as big as a marker pen, has a slot for memory card and uses AA batteries. I was going to buy one until I spotted that Curries had the newer version for an extra £20 but no-one could tell me what the difference was........so I didn't buy one!

Like this...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ATC2000-ATC2K-Waterproof-Helmet-Action-Camera-2GB-Card_W0QQitemZ160325521439QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_AudioTVElectronics_Video_Camco rders?hash=item160325521439&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1683%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1308

[Edited on 26/4/09 by owelly]

lsdweb - 26/4/09 at 08:24 AM

Video quality is ok - sound is not brilliant - here's one of mine - link

Wyn

v8kid - 26/4/09 at 09:23 AM

Wyn,

Picture is a bit "wavy" - the side rails appear to be bending!! Is it the camera or the hosting site?

Cheers

David

nitram38 - 26/4/09 at 09:49 AM

quote:
Originally posted by v8kid
Wyn,

Picture is a bit "wavy" - the side rails appear to be bending!! Is it the camera or the hosting site?

Cheers

David


I would think that it is vibration.
Afterall, he does have an R1 strapped to his arse!

Here is my camera.
It is not cheap at £273 from cpc farnell, but it has full gps tracking so you can watch playback alongside google maps, shows two views and records G forces on 3 axis.
I have it in my tintop permenantly because of london driving.
I get so many redlight jumpers when I am on my way to work at 3.30am!

Here is a screen shot showing my tintop:

Description
Description

[Edited on 26/4/2009 by nitram38]

gingerprince - 26/4/09 at 10:29 AM

quote:
Originally posted by v8kid
Picture is a bit "wavy" - the side rails appear to be bending!! Is it the camera or the hosting site?


The camera will be vibrating, but the wavyness is caused by it being a CMOS style camera (basically a webcam in a different package), rather than a more expensive CCD.

With the cheaper CMOS cameras each frame is scanned over the frame period, so the top of the picture is 1/25th of a second behond the bottom. If you pan quickly to the side you'll see the video skew.

Better CCD bullet cameras will scan the entire picture in one instance so there's no time skew.

It depends what you want though. If you just want to capture the moment and share they're fine, but if you want a more professional look then you need to spend a bit more.

hobbsy - 26/4/09 at 01:30 PM

@gingerprince - I always read that CCD's are superior to CMOS sensors but all the recent reviews of consumer HD camcorders seem to rate the CMOS ones over the 3xCCD versions. I need to read more to find out why - perhaps there have been some recent improvements?

lsdweb - 26/4/09 at 01:33 PM

quote:

Picture is a bit "wavy" - the side rails appear to be bending!! Is it the camera or the hosting site?


It's the camera! Martin's right - it is strapped not far from the engine of a car that I once described as like an ex girlfriend - screaming in my ear and kicking me up the ar*e at the same time!


The interesting thing about that video is that straight ahead with the steering wheel at the start is not straight ahead at the end - somewhere in there I sheared the offside front upright!

W

Sonic7 - 26/4/09 at 04:12 PM

Many Thanks for the info I suppose its about how much money you wish to spend.

Bottom end of the market ‘Oregon ATC3K’ £75
Middle Range ‘GoPro Motor Sport Hero’ £150
Interesting Option ‘T-eye ADR3000’ £300
Top end ‘Dogcam HQR-2 Sony Bullet Camera’ £600

Then I suppose the sky’s the limit, going to have to give this some though.

gingerprince - 28/4/09 at 01:19 PM

quote:
Originally posted by hobbsy
@gingerprince - I always read that CCD's are superior to CMOS sensors but all the recent reviews of consumer HD camcorders seem to rate the CMOS ones over the 3xCCD versions. I need to read more to find out why - perhaps there have been some recent improvements?


Have a read of this link which explains very well the "rolling shutter" effect of CMOS sensors.