RJay

I've been thinking about buying a new video camera for in car to replace my old outdated HI-8. It would seem that the solidstate stuff is just not up to snuff yet (Fischer and D-Snap) so I've been contemplating a DVD based camcorder. I'm a bit worried about how vibration might affect a DVD-based recorder. Has anyone tried to using one of the beasts on track? Particularly interested in the Sony as apparently its seems to have the best steady shot stuff.

BrokeAss

Although I have no personal experience with a DVD based camera, I seriously doubt it would work in the car. The vibrations would just kill it.

I use and would recommend a mini-dv camera. They shoot in 100% digital straight to tape. You can plug it into your computer and edit as necessary.

Most importantly - get a camera that has a threaded lens. You want to be able to screw in a wide angle lens. Without the wide angle lens you often wind up with a great video of your rear view mirror. With the wide angle lens on my camera I can see nearly the entire dash and 85% of the steering wheel.

I also like to shoot the video in 16:9 wide screen format. (Great if you have a wide screen tv set!)

JackOlsen

One option is to put the camcorder in a padded case, and let a lipstick camera function as your actual lens (piping video into the camera through a port). This allows you to put a camera in a number of different places, saves the vibration damage to the camera, and even allows you to avoid the expense and weight of a heavy camera mount.

To give you an idea, here's a Quicktime clip (3.7 megs) of a couple of my recent offs that I shot by putting the lipstick camera on the wing of my car.

ltc

Jack,
Great video.

Once again, I am envious to those who can drive on tracks with acres of runoff!
Here in the Northeast, the tracks I normally drive on (WGI, LRP) have runoff areas defined by walls and armco!

JackOlsen

We have those, too. We're much more careful there.

TD in DC

Jack,

Where did you get your "lipstick" camara?

TD

RJay

Super Vid! Beyond cool!!! Lipstick does seem like the way to go. Gotta to say though, I envy you left coasters for your lack of armco. Having fun like that at any East coast track means no more fun until you buy another car!

TMH

I've had very good luck shooting directly with Mini DV camcorders, and I would have to echo the opinion that the DVD based units would not be a great option in a in-car situation. In fact I have recently read that the DVD based units really have not met expectations for any real shooting, at least the technology had not progressed enough yet.

I was originally shooting in-car video using my Canon GL2, and the 3 ccd's and optical stabilization worked great. I really didn't want to continue using my expensive camera in tha car, though, so I bought a used Canon Optima 10 really cheap, and it has also given excellent results. One thing to remember on any video camera: Using one of the higher capacity batteries puts a lot of weight on the back end (kind of like a 911 having the engine in the back). This can and does lead to significant vibration issues, which no image stabilization can compensate for. I have, therefore, purchased a Rat Shack 12vdc-7.2vdc converter for the new Canon, and wired it back to where the camera mounts on the roll bar. Now there is virtually no visual shaking as the whole unit is lighter and easier to hold stable in the mount.

Good luck,
Tom

Van

Jack, my setup is the same as yours, a lipstick camera with a remote recorder. For the Lime Rock race, I put the camera inside the car next to the rear view mirror, because of the rain.

I posted some Watkins Glen footage a few months ago that had the camera mounted on the nose of the car.

It's a fun way to go -- great bumper shots, fender shots, interior shots, etc.

-Van

RJay

So where did you guys get your lipstick cams? Any advice on that side?

SundayDriver

Here is where I have been buying:
Cameras
Good service, no affiliation. I have been using a Sony Watchman Digital 8.


These bullet cameras worked great on everything up to my DSR. Lifespan there is ~20 minutes until the camera shakes itself apart internally. So if anyone has links to better cameras with cleaning systems, I would like to see that.

Tom W

For lipstick (also called bullet) cameras try helmetcamera.com , Viosport , autoxcam.com or try a google search. After a search, I found rfconcepts in the UK that had good cameras, prices and a LANC that was not available in the USA.

A LANC is a great addition as it makes it easy to turn the camera on and off while in the car (nothing worse than being belted in and ready to go only to remember that you forgot to turn on the camera).

When using a lipstick camera, be aware that you may have issues with the microphone as the camera will be expecting line level input and the mic will likely not supply it.

trumperZ06

I've been using a Sony Digital 8 since Dec. 2000 with good success. The camera preforms well and stability is EXCELLENT! That was "high-end" back then.... newer systems have replaced this unit. It is a pain to down load the video to computer, ROXIO software, and then burn DVD's...

dmoffitt

I'd recommend either a MiniDV such as the inexpensive Canon ZR60 or similar, mounted on a Bogen / Manfrotto SuperMount or remoting something such as the setup from HelmetCamera.com into any kind of mini-dv (just using the camcorder as a vcr).

This is how we shot all of the footage at the '03 Clash for my thesis, and I'd like to say it came out pretty well I did notice that if you placed the DV camera in a bag, that you have to be careful on a hot-running stripped out race car, as we did encounter a (suspected) thermal failure in 1 out of 12 cameras. We also had an issue with the g-forces affecting alignment on the tape-head but only in a few pretty extreme cup-cars, and I think that had mostly to do with the alignment of the camera in the car/bag.

for the mount and for camcorders, try b&h photo video (www.bhphotovideo.com) in NYC. they can often be talked into discounts too

N_Halbert

Ron,
Have you seen the footage shot by Mark Skala at the last Auto-X? It was posted to the NCR site. http://www.rcd-video.com/images/samp0919.mpg

He used a box from View-2.com to link two cameras into one video.