APKhaos

Skip,
This is the adaptor I'm using:
Rokinon Digital .45x Magnetic Wide Angle Lens

Bobby,
Its a plain old IO Port mount. The Aiptek is not the studiest of cameras, a has a very high center of gravity package. Pogue designers, obviously. I plan to make a simple support frame to stiffen the package and reduce vibration.

All,
Stand by for the mega hack. I've got the thing opened up, and have a plan for a remote Record button and Record On LED. After a few days on track with this camera, its clear that the Remote is very marginal. I want positive confirmation that the thing is recording!

Gary R.

Tony - I use the IOPort also, and what I found was that the camera was bottoming out and didn't sit on the mount as well as it could. While at Summit I hacked up a piece of rubber from Sean's floor jack (about 3/32" thick) and placed it between the camera and the mount. It seemed to take away most of the vibration that Summit's track provided. As for the camera being in record mode, can't you clearly see the "STOP" in the LCD panel (in your mirror)? If it says STOP, it's recording...

Palting

Looking for one for home and in-car use. Had a Sony DVD cam, but it would shut down if there was too much vibration.

Anyone have experience with those high-def cams that write directly to their own hard drive rather than use removable media?

Bull

My hard drive camera can not get out of the garages without shutting down to protect the hard drive from vibration. To get it to work, I have to record to SD cards.

Qwickrick

Now guys, you have to agree with one choice for me.....

Rick

BobbyC

Gary, I have the Aiptek HD camera, and I/O port camera mount and now a wide angle lens on the way. Could you be kind enough to post a pic/instructions (for guys like me who are seriously challenged) on the "piece of rubber" cutout and it's placement on the I/O mount...so that I can get my Aiptek securely mounted. thanks a ton...

BobbyC

Rick - if you're like me (video/software semi-literate ) then Aiptek is the way to go. It's cheap and effective. I also have a Panasonic HD (SD - 5) which records great HD video on SD cards but...unlike Charlie and Tony...I don't have the skills or software to convert/edit those files into easily viewable clips. The hard drive video cameras are a no no. Chasecam integrates well with Traqmate but video quality is poor.

Did I confuse you more? Go with Aiptek for now. Hopefully, there will be easier HD solutions soon.

Cheers!

Qwickrick

Bobby
thanks for your help/that might be my choice.

Plavan

FYI- Stay away from the Panasonic HDC-SD9. I tried it in my race car after I tried the Canon Hf100. They both were horrible. CMOS made it unwatchable and also gives you a headache. I returned them both and went back to my cheap Digital 8 tape.
I'm gonna try the Aiptek.

Gary R.

Bobby -

You simply cut a piece of rubber mat (approx 1"x3") and place it on the IOPort mount under where the camera contacts the mount. Mark the hole where the bolt will pass through and cut a hole out for it. You will quickly find out if the rubber is too thick (I think 3/32" is max, 1/8" will work, but I didn't mic it) as the camera won't engage the mount stud threads. Once it does mount ok you can mark off the edge of the camera (with the LCD lid open) and trim the rubber away on that side to allow the LCD panel to fully close while it's mounted (should you want to).. I came up with this to help at Summit as the bumps were so bad my magnet/taped on Wide angle lens came flying off. It can't hurt in general use to subject this plastic camera to less shock and vibration too..

ApexPerformance

IO Port is definitely the mount to use.

We also sell an inexpensive mini camera from GoPro and it comes with its own mount. Records 56 Minutes of video to a 2GB SD card. Picture is good, sound is fair. Fairly inexpensive to get you by for now while you decide on a final setup.

http://www.apexperformance.net/CartGenie/prod-1562.htm

Gary R.

Rick - You can also buy the lesser Aiptek 720 HD, which is plenty, on Amazon for $147.11 in a package that includes an 8GB card and free shipping.

DrJupeman

Sorry, guys, I see a few questions to me but haven't come back to this thread in a few days...

Tony, agreed no mic port on the camera, but I haven't longed for one yet. As for AVCHD, it is a bit of a pain in the ***. I use iMovie on my MacBook Pro (2.16 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 2GB of RAM) to "ingest" the video while at the track. It can take more than realtime to import the video, but once it is in the machine I can edit very quickly. I use an external card reader to ingest the video from one card while I use another card in the camera for the next run. I carry around an external hard drive because I can easily run >100GB of video over the course of a weekend. For the most part there isn't much reason to save all that video, of course, but I do in case there are cool passes, etc., and stuff that I'd want to put into a compilation. But I digress... My preference is to input the AVCHD into Final Cut Pro on my Mac Pro 8-core machine (12GB RAM) as it is saved on the Mac Pro in a higher quality intermediate codec than on iMovie uses (Final Cut Pro will not work with AVCHD on a non-Xeon processor such as in my MacBook Pro, if that gives you a sense of AVCHD's processing needs).

So, to summarize a bit:

I use iMovie at the track to ingest most video. I use iMovie to make quick videos.

I use Final Cut Pro at home to make more complex videos when I want to use motion effects, etc.

The only pain is the downloading of the video because it takes a lot of time. Once put into an intermediate codec, editing is quick and painless.

RJay

Hmmm... interesting as the SD9 is not CMOS, rather a 3CCD. BTW, the AIPTEK A-HD+ is CMOS-based.

Can you describe what aspects were annoying you, particularly with the SD9? The HF100's rolling shutter problems are well documented, but I'd be curious to hear what you found so objectionable.

RickBetterley

Hi Tony
Have you completed the megahack? I feel the urge to do unnatural things with my Aiptek (hey, you brought it up).