What video recording device would you buy?
12-14-2012, 08:29 AM
#17
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www.gofasternow.com
"Combining the Art and Science of Driving Fast!"
Specializing in Professional, Private Driver Performance Evaluation and Optimization
Consultation Available Remotely and at VIRginia International Raceway
12-14-2012, 12:47 PM
#18
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I had a bunch of the Contour HD cameras but I just recently replaced them all with the new GoPro Hero3 cameras. Contour and GoPro used to be competitive, but Contour has really fallen behind in pricing, features, and reliability. GoPro's definitely the market leader right now.
The killer feature for me is the built in wifi in the Hero3. It worth buying the new kit just for that. You can have up to fifty cameras mounted all over the car (I use three) and start them all with a single button. This means you aren't needlessly recording 10 minutes of sitting in grid each session. It also means all the video files are +/- a second or so of each other. When I pull the video into Final Cut to stitch it all together I used to have to spend a long time getting them all synched together, but now it's pretty painless because they're all within a second of one another and the adjustments are minor and readily done.
Run them in the best resolution you can that supports 60fps. The Higher framerate is more important than the higher resolution. That's 1080, 960, or 720 depending on which flavor of camera you buy.
Ultimately my intent is to render my racekeeper overlay on top of a blank video (green background) so I can lay it on top of the HD gopro video, but I haven't played with that because my Windows partition is horked and you can't do the video processing in VMware. I still don't have a good workflow for that yet.
Here's a quickie I shot a few weeks ago at H2R failing to keep up with Andrew Davis in a 996 cup. Click through to YouTube to see it in HD. Hopefully useful to evaluate video quality, not driving skill or the lack thereof
The killer feature for me is the built in wifi in the Hero3. It worth buying the new kit just for that. You can have up to fifty cameras mounted all over the car (I use three) and start them all with a single button. This means you aren't needlessly recording 10 minutes of sitting in grid each session. It also means all the video files are +/- a second or so of each other. When I pull the video into Final Cut to stitch it all together I used to have to spend a long time getting them all synched together, but now it's pretty painless because they're all within a second of one another and the adjustments are minor and readily done.
Run them in the best resolution you can that supports 60fps. The Higher framerate is more important than the higher resolution. That's 1080, 960, or 720 depending on which flavor of camera you buy.
Ultimately my intent is to render my racekeeper overlay on top of a blank video (green background) so I can lay it on top of the HD gopro video, but I haven't played with that because my Windows partition is horked and you can't do the video processing in VMware. I still don't have a good workflow for that yet.
Here's a quickie I shot a few weeks ago at H2R failing to keep up with Andrew Davis in a 996 cup. Click through to YouTube to see it in HD. Hopefully useful to evaluate video quality, not driving skill or the lack thereof
12-16-2012, 06:27 PM
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http://www.aim-sportline.com/downloa...m_smartyhd.pdf
12-16-2012, 08:31 PM
#20
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Contour HD, Replay HD and GoPro Hero 2 and 3 will do "HD," which is 1080p 30 fps, most folks use those cameras in 960 (default setting).
Some people say 720P is not "true" HD, but it's better than the standard "DVD" or "SD" resolution of 640 x 480P and many vendors call it that (HD). I don't think 720P is true "HD" but that's what AiM has decided to call it. So be it.
The new CMOS is designed to get rid of the "rolling shutter effect" or the wavy lines under high vibration conditions.
We'll see...
12-18-2012, 04:14 PM
#22
Instructor
If you want the really inexpensive solution, get Harry's LapTimer Pro app for the iPhone (may also be available for android??). This takes video and does decent data acquisition (for non pro racers anyway). It does the data overlay onto video right in the app on the phone. You can literally come off the track and have a nice video ready to watch or share in about a minute. They updated the recently, to make it very, very functional for video.
All you need is the $16 app (I think), and a semi decent car phone mount.
You can enhance the data acquisition by adding a 5 Hz GPS chip for the phone, and there are a couple available. You can also add OBD info quite easily with a couple of widgets.
This certainly won't be the best available solution, but it's very cost effective, and very easy and convenient to use. I have several GoPros with wifi, and they are great and I often use them. But I often find myself just using Harry's for casual track days because its so painless.
I've even imported GoPro video onto the phone, so I could use Harry's to do the overlay.
The app also allows very easy data analysis and comparison of laps (your own or imports from friends/instructors, etc. I have data from pretty much every lap at every track event I've done in the past several years in the app, so I can see exactly what I did when and in what car in one easy place.
Just throwing another option out there to consider, either alone or in conjunction.
-Christian
All you need is the $16 app (I think), and a semi decent car phone mount.
You can enhance the data acquisition by adding a 5 Hz GPS chip for the phone, and there are a couple available. You can also add OBD info quite easily with a couple of widgets.
This certainly won't be the best available solution, but it's very cost effective, and very easy and convenient to use. I have several GoPros with wifi, and they are great and I often use them. But I often find myself just using Harry's for casual track days because its so painless.
I've even imported GoPro video onto the phone, so I could use Harry's to do the overlay.
The app also allows very easy data analysis and comparison of laps (your own or imports from friends/instructors, etc. I have data from pretty much every lap at every track event I've done in the past several years in the app, so I can see exactly what I did when and in what car in one easy place.
Just throwing another option out there to consider, either alone or in conjunction.
-Christian
12-18-2012, 05:03 PM
#24
Rennlist Member
Data acquisition important? If not, GoPro3. Quickly becoming the standard for outdoor cams, excellent WiFi capabilities, wide array of accessories.
If data's important, the SmartyCam HD's worth waiting for. Supposed to be here in a couple months if recent trade show promises are anything.
If data's important, the SmartyCam HD's worth waiting for. Supposed to be here in a couple months if recent trade show promises are anything.
12-18-2012, 05:05 PM
#25
Rennlist Member
If you want the really inexpensive solution, get Harry's LapTimer Pro app for the iPhone (may also be available for android??). This takes video and does decent data acquisition (for non pro racers anyway). It does the data overlay onto video right in the app on the phone. You can literally come off the track and have a nice video ready to watch or share in about a minute. They updated the recently, to make it very, very functional for video.
All you need is the $16 app (I think), and a semi decent car phone mount.
You can enhance the data acquisition by adding a 5 Hz GPS chip for the phone, and there are a couple available. You can also add OBD info quite easily with a couple of widgets.
This certainly won't be the best available solution, but it's very cost effective, and very easy and convenient to use. I have several GoPros with wifi, and they are great and I often use them. But I often find myself just using Harry's for casual track days because its so painless.
I've even imported GoPro video onto the phone, so I could use Harry's to do the overlay.
The app also allows very easy data analysis and comparison of laps (your own or imports from friends/instructors, etc. I have data from pretty much every lap at every track event I've done in the past several years in the app, so I can see exactly what I did when and in what car in one easy place.
Just throwing another option out there to consider, either alone or in conjunction.
-Christian
All you need is the $16 app (I think), and a semi decent car phone mount.
You can enhance the data acquisition by adding a 5 Hz GPS chip for the phone, and there are a couple available. You can also add OBD info quite easily with a couple of widgets.
This certainly won't be the best available solution, but it's very cost effective, and very easy and convenient to use. I have several GoPros with wifi, and they are great and I often use them. But I often find myself just using Harry's for casual track days because its so painless.
I've even imported GoPro video onto the phone, so I could use Harry's to do the overlay.
The app also allows very easy data analysis and comparison of laps (your own or imports from friends/instructors, etc. I have data from pretty much every lap at every track event I've done in the past several years in the app, so I can see exactly what I did when and in what car in one easy place.
Just throwing another option out there to consider, either alone or in conjunction.
-Christian
12-20-2012, 12:16 PM
#26
Racer
I'm in Massachusetts for the next few weeks but somebody has bought the entire stock of GoPros in all the shops in this area.
