DarrenW
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| posted on 9/8/06 at 10:20 AM |
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Bullet cam / Canon DV camera hacks (MV700)
Has anyone ever used one of these?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WIRELESS-COLOR-BULLET-HELMET-CAM-CAMERA-1GB-SD-CARD_W0QQitemZ330013552782QQihZ014QQcategoryZ96999QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZVi
ewItem
How do they compare to conventional bullet cams that you connect to a camcorder? it looks great and not too expensive. Not sure about resoultion or if
they will eat batteries. I guess the other downside is the cost if extended memory SD cards.
[Edited on 9/8/06 by DarrenW]
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gingerprince
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| posted on 9/8/06 at 11:02 AM |
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It won't be as good as proper bullet camera plugged into camcorder because: -
- It uses a CMOS pickup not a CCD pickup, which is inherantly poor quality.
- The resolution/framerate is not as good. The highest resolution is 480 lines but only at 15fps. To get a decent framerate you're down to 240
lines which will be very poor compared to PAL.
- The picture will be highly compressed to fit on a 1Gb SD card and you will therefore get poorer quality from this too - remember that you get 25mbps
with a pal DV stream so think how much more compressed this will need to be to give you a decent amount of time on a 1Gb card.
Okay it may be a "fun" item, but if you ever plan to watch any footage on TV rather than a small computer screen, then I'd steer
clear.
You'll probably find it'll also be quite poor for fast moving action (which is what it's designed for!) Here's why : If you
have a webcam then hold it, watch your screen and pan it fairly quickly. You'll see the picture "skew" as it draws each line as it
sees it. This is how CMOS and lower quality video capture units work because they can't scan a whole frame in 1/25th of a second - they build
it up which is why you get the skew. If you use it to capture track days you'll see the whole world skew as you corner 
[Edited on 9/8/06 by gingerprince]
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matt_claydon
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| posted on 9/8/06 at 11:03 AM |
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Frame rate is only 15fps which will be slightly jerky/flickery, but perfectly watchable. Image sensor is CMOS rather than CCD which does not produce
such a good image and it doesn't say what video compression is used but 10Mb/min ought to give reasonable quality if it uses MPEG4.
For the money it looks like a nice little gadget though - just don't expect DV camcorder quality 
[Edited on 9/8/06 by matt_claydon]
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DarrenW
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| posted on 9/8/06 at 01:55 PM |
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Thanks for the replies. Just as i suspected considering the lack of threads about them before.
My DV cam is a budget Cannon unit. Under one of the covers is a small jack plug socket with 'AV' stamped near it. It also shows a little
headphone socket. Is this what i need to connect a bullet cam to and record onto DV??
If i have the right DV cam what type of bullet cameras should i be looking at? Who are the best suppliers websites to look at?
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matt_claydon
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| posted on 9/8/06 at 02:13 PM |
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Most cameras only do AV out, although there are plently that can record AV input aswell - check your manual or the web for info on your unit.
Sometimes you're not supposed to be able to but you can with a hack!
Lots of bullet cams on ebay but watch where they're coming from - it's generally more hassle than it's worth to import from hong
kong / china. Sometimes they say UK but when you look closely (especially postage price) you see they are acually in the far east. As for spec, I
think 480 TV lines resolution is what you want for a good quality image, not an expert though so hopefully someone else will be along with advice.
RFConcepts (use google) ring a bell as a UKsupplier of equipment.
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DarrenW
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| posted on 9/8/06 at 02:28 PM |
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Bugger! Just checked dog cam sports website. My camera is a Cannon MV700 and it doesnt record from AV socket! That puts the hat on the idea of getting
a bullet cam then. I cant justify changing the camera as well.
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02GF74
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| posted on 9/8/06 at 02:33 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by DarrenW
Bugger! Just checked dog cam sports website. My camera is a Cannon MV700 and it doesnt record from AV socket! That puts the hat on the idea of getting
a bullet cam then.
seem to read somewhere that that is the norm otherwsie the camera is classed a video recorder or something - downside is it becomes more ££££
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DarrenW
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| posted on 9/8/06 at 02:43 PM |
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does anyone know if a hack exists for the MV700?
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gingerprince
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| posted on 9/8/06 at 07:16 PM |
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I bought my canon mv700i (same as yours with input) for 120 quid this time last year. was from the canon outlet on ebay, basically factory refurbed
stock with a years warranty - so as new basically. bit of a bargain!
They don't have anything there at the moment but if you do look at getting something similar it's worth keeping an eye out: -
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Canon-Outlet_Canon-Camc
orders_W0QQcolZ2QQdirZQ2d1QQfsubZ6QQftidZ2QQtZkm
Sy
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