911GT3

Thinking about a GoPro Motorsport or some other video recording device. Any thoughts on which brand and model? Thanks.

CRex

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.

LVDell

I have two and couldn't be more happy. I have a GoPro Motorsports (HD) and an AIM SmartCam GP (the bullet cam model). The GoPro allows me to record virtually from any vantage point on or in the car. The SmartCam GP is mounted to my rollbar and gives me great video with data overlay.

RSMC

Anyone used the Contour+2? It has a built-in 5Hz GPS and accelerometer, and all the data gets sync'ed up together.

http://store.contour.com/ae/us/camer...+-2/invt/1700/

With DashWare or similar software, it seems that it could be a good all-in-one data system for someone just starting out. I just haven't seen anyone using it for these purposes yet (could be because it is relatively new to the market). I would worry about whether the GPS signal would be decent inside a car.

wanna911

You can mount it elsewhere and get a good signal. But the signal is actually not bad inside the car. I have a Contour GPS and Contour HD. If I keep my traqmate, I will upgrade to the +2 for it's quick on/off record button. It's a bit of an inconvenience turning the contour on via little button (long press) in the back and then starting recording. But they are great cameras.

The new software allows you to use your smartphone as a viewfinder, something that really comes in handy and you can even start/stop recording with your phone now too. I like the GoPro concept but have gotten attached to the Contours.

Their software is pretty lame though, wouldn't use that for data acquisition.

ProCoach

The GoPro is fine. I like the RePlay HD for the packaging, the Contour is good if a little bulky. If you buy a GoPro, be aware Costco has the HD 2 for sale for a good price right now and it is compatible with Traqmate, if you want to add that later. The GoPro HD 3 is not...

Video is good, but intelligent video (information overlaid onto the video either during or after) is better, IMO.

The GoPro3 in my opinion is not built nearly as well (?!?!?) as the GoPro2, plus the added pain of an microSD card and adapter, the lesser battery life and I think it will suffer failure eventually even sooner in a harsh motorsports environment.

The current SmartyCam is pretty good, the new one will be the same price and is actually 720P (not 960 or 1080 like the standalone deals). It should be available by May-June.

I remember waiting, as US dealers, a LOT longer than that (from the time the PRI announcement to the time they were readlily available), nearly 2 years!

But even the original is a simple, easy, well packaged "intelligent video" solution. I have a few low-time used units, if you're interested.

That's a good idea. Very good idea.

It's been out for nearly 15 months, IIRC (at tleast the one with GPS and accelerometer capacity).

No one uses that feature for motorsports that I know simply because of the clumsy software. Same could be said of Dashware... But they do have some cool dashes...

You might consider the RePlay HD when the Traqmate integration is done. Sounds like you don't use that integration now (except for joining the information together through TrackVision, RaceRender or DashWare) so don't need anything in particular, but the integrated hardware solution (Traqmate AND GoPro2 or RePlay HD) with TraqStudio software is the best of both worlds.

Less to do at the track, easy to see what you're doing right away.

Of course, the OP just asked about video...

wanna911

Peter when does the replay hd integration come out? Id be interested as long as I didn't have to pay $400 for some traqmate module and then $300 for a camera. Let me stop before I get angry with traqmate again.

ProCoach

I hear you, man. It's in testing now, out about the time the AiM SC HD and SC GP HD is out, hopefully.

I hope they offer a TraqSync RePlay cable option or be able to upgrade existing setups with just the cable to the camera.

The GoPro HD interface needed a new box because the instruction set sent to the camera were more complicated.

kernelofwisdom

I was thinking about a video only system, but seeing how easy it is to use the OBD reading systems (ProCoach let me hook up one of his) I'm thinking I'll get the whole thing at once. The data on the video, aside from the full data readout itself, to me makes the video a whole level more useful (speaking as an amateur!).

modoz61

I run an early Racelogic Video VBox 2 camera system

It is connected to the CAN bus of the car, not through the OBD port but spliced into the wiring loom in the steering column

The system is used by Top Gear and EVO magazines and provides both great Video but also excellent data review software which really helps in analysing your performance and how to improve

I originally got the system to use the video but now the analysis using both video and data with the Circuit Tools software is integral in working on lines etc..

I also have the OLED device which among many display options permits Predictivie Lap Timing which gives you sector by sector or overall time performance during your lap compared to best recorded, so you know at all times if you are in front or behind your best

While not inexpensive it provides excellent value if all features are used.

ProCoach

Don't want to get away from the OP's query. He's looking at just cameras in the $299-$499 range.

The SmartyCam is $999-$1099, plus a Bridge (connection to the car, if you want that information visualized but not logged separately).

The AiM Solo DL logger and display/SmartyCam GP system (that I've provided NJ-GT, Eddie, ShakeNBake and many others) and the Video VBOX Lite (that I've supplied to TRAKCAR, Izzone and several others) are both in the $1900-$2100 range, plus accessories.

I hope AiM, with some test information provided graciously by kernalofwisdom today (THANK YOU!), will make the AiM combo work even better, unobtrusively and portably, through the OBD-II port for 2009-2011 GT3, GT3 RS and 4.0 cars. It has already worked well with direct wire.

As Video VBOX's leading US dealer with dozens upon dozens of units sold, I believe that FINALLY, it is NOW a great system.

When it was introduced here in the winter of 2010, it was not.

Limited and non-working CAN (they developed the 996 GT3 protocol after I complained all the way to the UK), clunky VBOX Setup software, no auto track map feature (which meant you had to tell it where it was before each event), very limited OLED display features and buggy firmware/software all conspired to make it very difficult for people to have a pleasurable, easy experience.

While the demos looked great, people who bought the system and even dealers like myself that sold it configured and ready to use, had a lot of difficulty. Not ready for prime-time. It's easy to throw a battery-powered demo in the car with a basic scene and have it look great. It was hard to learn how to set up the scene, very hard to integrate the CAN info into the scene and you HAD to remember to tell it where it was...

With all the improvements since last October, it's now a pretty slick set up. I think the solely-GPS derived accelerometer data, especially with the render lag onto the video, is not as accurate or useful in a coaching situation as the actual accelerometers present in Traqmate or the AiM recorders. It is comparable among same driver session comparisons and different driver/same system comparisons, though.

For the Florida DE Cup champions comparing laps and for trouble-free operation, it's been very easy. After years of struggling with Traqmate, considering AiM, but finally settling on VVBL, TRAKCAR is happy!

I use several different systems on private coaching clients cars, often multiple systems. Video VBOX Lite, AiM Solo DL/SmartyCam combos and Traqmate/GoPro Hero 2 are all those systems.

If you want FAST, EASY, preset templates to view and compare DATA, plus use the fantastic HD Video TBL (Theoretical Best Lap) feature and DON'T care about CAN data (because there's no possibility for connectivity), the Traqmate/GoPro is great.

If you want more extensive, broader based vehicle CAN data, substantially more powerful analysis software or are looking for simple, "intelligent video," I think AiM is best.

If you want a simple one-box, multi camera solution that plays an "intelligent video" but provides similar analysis capabilities to TM, VVBL is it.

Pay your money, take your choice! You can't go wrong...

mdrums

Is it time to sell my Race-Keeper?

ProCoach

No, Mike. Not unless you want to. I might take it on trade, when it comes time.

I have several guys that do well with Comparo and their Race-Keeper equipment, but I felt for you when you said you forgot to plug in the OBD-II and therefore didn't have TPS info on your best run! BTDT

If there comes a time when the DE Cup pull is SO strong that you HAVE to be able to compare actual data and video, then you might think about it, but your system works well, is reliable and there are new features added to Comparo all the time.

If you'll be at DMTD in January, perhaps we can spend a half an hour together and we can compare notes on new ways to slice and dice R-K.

mdrums

Peter...really appreciate it! Only January event I'm doing right now is 48hrs.

I keep the OBDII cord un-plugged from the OBDII port when I'm not at the track because I'm not sure if keeping it plugged in 24/7 is harmful. This is not the 1st time this has happened either...ugh!

I had new coliovers and brakes this last event and a neighbor up the street was my student and it was his 1st time at the track and I was really focused on making sure he was learning and having fun....basically selling him the track crack! LOL..I totally forgot to plug into the OBDII...dang it!

Nugget

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