M758

Well no not now since motor in garage and the car is outside
....but....
....on a good day with motor in the car to right buyer.... Who knows

Laura

So Bill, does that nean the car is just about ready?

ngoldrich

Panasonic does have a solid state camera that records to memory cards. There are now 1GB, 2GB, and 4 GB cards. The camera is only around $400 I believe.

It is supposed to be able to record 2 hours on the larger cards. 2 GB cards are only around $400 now (I believe).

I have no idea how good the quality is.

On my Spice GTP I had a racecam and it worked well. On my CanAm car I simply purchased a good lipstick camera with 480 lines resolution along with a stereo audio board and plugged it in my camcorder. I had just as good luck with that at less than half the price of what I paid for my racecam.

Norm

Greg Fishman

I bought a mid level mini dv camcorder and a $150 warranty from circuit city. Sony model with vibration dampening. Seems to work good. The Race cam set up is the best set up I have seen. Mine works well when I mount the camera to the front downtube of the cage. Picture isn't as good if it is behind the driver, IMO.

JackOlsen

Wow. You're right. It looks like there's one made by Fisher and a 1/10th of a pound one by Panasonic. Both are pretty affordable.

ngoldrich

FWIW - For my current car I also simply use a tiny Sony.

However, I am putting together a 4 camera system with a realtime multiplexor so when I play it back I can even zoom in on any of the 4 cameras.

1 out the splitter, 1 out the back, 1 suspension cam, 1 side...

It will be able to record to a camcorder or a DVR - which I will probably use...

Norm

SkipSauls

The RaceCam is pricey, but in this case you do get what you pay for. The video quality is outstanding for a few reasons:

- It's a wide-angle lens that shows much more of the inside of the car:



- What's not obvious is that there is a filter on the lens, darker at the top to compensate for the difference between the cockpit and windshield. You adjust this and the result is a more consistent image top to bottom.

- The audio is via a couple of small microphones that you can place so that there is less wind-noise, etc.

- The remote on/off start/stop button is great if you're like me and have ever forgotten to start the tape and only realize it while you're on the grid.

For examples, see Skip's Club Racing Videos.

I have no affiliation with the RaceCam folks, I just like their product.

ltc

Sorry, I was thinking of larger format NTSC (most camcorder native format) rather than 320x240.

mskala

Things in the video arena change very quickly. But there are recorders that will store NTSC
~640x480 quality on 4Gb flash cards. I'm just scared to ask the price. (www.ffv.com)

There are also ruggedized hard drive storage models that have been successfully used in rallies
and other high vibration environments, but they're like $1400. (www.autoxcam.com)

For bullet cameras, you can get quality ones for $200-$300. Both of the types that I get from
autoxcam.com and chasecam.com have 480-line resolution and the 90degree lens so the field
of view is similar to the expensive racecam but for way less $.

The price and size of digital camcorders which have the analog input (for external cameras)
is going down very quickly, and I don't know if the flash card recorders will ever catch up.
I expect that very soon as the cost of the cards goes down and the power of the mpeg
encoders goes up that that technology will be fully incorporated into the average camcorders.

One thing that annoyed me, is that the Sony digital camcorder I got last year made a point
to advertise mpeg storage on compactflash, but all it will do for you is 8 frames/sec, which is
worthless. They have an out-dated encoder and scrape the bottom of the mpeg spec.

Disclaimer: I know the people of autoxcam and chasecam, and I would stand to gain if a person
bought a picture-in-picture unit that I'm responsible for

Dbltime

Wow. Thanks for all the great input but lets boil this down to the non techie people like myself. If you were installing a Video system that was user friendly but had easy to operate and quality results say in the $500. or $1500, range what would they be (for those two sytem budgets).

Thanks again!

rs911t

You'd be surprised the quality acheivable with just a Sony MiniDV camera and simple mount.
I literally have a $25 tripod head attached to the rollbar with a hose clamp. The camera does
a very good job stabilizing the image. Check out below for an example of a rough ride.

http://www.trackvision.net/gallery/v...Point_DL90.wmv

RJay

There are a bunch of them now. The problem is they all pretty cheap and its questionable as to whether or not they'd take well to an on track environment given the compression algorithms which don't do really well when theres a lot of continuous movement. Musetek makes one you can get for $120. GoVideo and Audiovox do as well for more $$$. There are more expensive ones, but they are hard disk based and I doubt they'd last long in my car given the shokc they'd be subject to. LCD screens, composite input and SD cards. Go to cnet.com, and search for them, have no idea how well they work, if you buy one, let us know!

ChaseCam (a manufacturer of bullet cams) has been trying to design and build a unit for about half a year now, took a few orders a while back and have yet to deliver.

NetManiac

I'm looking into this also Bill. One of the options I am considering is an Archos DVR with a Helmet Camera camera on the roll bar. Here are the links.

http://www.archos.com/products/photo...duct_list.html
http://www.helmetcamera.com/

I am still researching this so I am not sure how this will work out. But it looks promising. A RaceCam type setup for $500-600 rather than the $1500. Plus I *should* be able to upgrade to the RaceCam when/if I decide to later (using the Helmet Cam as a foot camera or something...).

My $0.02

JackOlsen

I've been mounting my lipstick-type camera on the wing. It gives an interesting perspective, compared to most in-car footage.

7-Meg Quicktime Clip

95m3racer

www.jonescam.tv