ir_fuel

I cannot justify the price for a SmartyCam to myself considering how much it costs compared to a GoPro and if we compare image quality

jakermc

I read about the work around on their website and could not get it to work for me following those directions. Perhaps there is a way to correct the problem I am having but I shouldn't have to. Win 8 has been out for a long time now and this is way to long not to have a proper update released.

Matt Romanowski

GoPro and SmartyCam are not in the same category. GoPro lets you get 20 minutes of track time and then 3 hours of your hood. Then you get to mess with trying to sync that one session with the data, which is a major pita.

SmartyCam lets you drive and it automatically starts, shuts off, and syncs the data. It's easily worth what you pay.

ir_fuel

On the other hand GoPro gives you 10 times better image quality.
I hope the new SmartyCam HD is at least at GoPro HD level.

Plavan

A little OT: What do you set your Predictive Timer on your Traqmate at? 1 sec or 2 sec?

ProCoach

That's not true. The GoPro is 1280 x 720 (the way most people have it set) instead of 640 x 480 (SD SmartyCam).

Sure, the GoPro is better, but what are you doing with the "no-data," "dumb" video, just reviewing your car placement and looking for highlights of the run?

I can't stand the lens distortion on the 170 degree FOV, nor do any of my race cars have so little vibration that there isn't massive "rolling shutter" (bands of distortion that run top to bottom) on my GoPro vids. I think it's WAY overblown, personally.

The new SmartyCam HD is equal to the 720p mode of the current GoPro Hero 3.

Remember, ALL SmartyCams are Linux computers. They have processors and memory to "write" real-time, the data collected by the GPS speed, lat and long accelerometers and any other data fed to the SC from the outside.

It's apples and oranges.

The GoPro is a cheesy piece of junk that won't hold up in a true race car environment. I've replaced dozens of them. I know.

THAT'S why I'll be adopting the RePlay XD 1080 as my preferred "dumb" camera and for adding to Traqmate in the future.

ProCoach

Shorter courses (LRP, BeaveRun, CMP) a second. Longer courses with more corners (VIR, COTA, Sebring, Road America) two seconds.

Another way to look at it is that it's more about the viewing resolution. If I'm working on a particular corner, I'll up the resolution by selecting 1 second. The whole track? If I suck (and I'm still learning at a great rate), I'll set it to two.

The best pro drivers typically are within .4-.7 of their TBL on the bigger courses, the best Platinum DE Cup guys are .7-1.1 and people who really need work are 1.4 and above. This assumes you're going reasonably quickly (and have a large enough sample size of laps) to get a representative sample to choose from.

I know lots of people who drive to a "comfort level," one that shows minimal difference between best actual and TBL, but they're going gently and relatively slowly. When people push, they are likely to achieve "Flowing Brilliance" at least one time in the session for most corners and THAT'S what you want to measure and duplicate. FB is also why there is a spread between best and TBL.

The best pros (and even very good am's) can do three or four FAST laps within tenths or less. THAT is when you know you're good.

ir_fuel

Just look at the difference:




youtube is filled with video from both types of devices. I didn't need to hand pick 2 to find big differences. The AIM one just looks like crap to me IMO.

I use it just to have video footage of some runs. Not purely for analysis purposes. When filming someone in front of you it's nice to be able to see the car in the video in stead of some blurry thing moving around on a grey patch


I won't disagree that the integrated data is handy and a timesaver ( especially since AIM lets you incorporate the smartycam video in your RS2 sessions! ), but it's just not nice to watch at all (or if you want to show off to your friends on youtube that you drive flat-out ).

ir_fuel

Hey Coach!

I put the SOLO in my car on the way to the office this morning and put it in "1000m" performance mode so it recorded some data (without zeroing the accelerometers, didn't care about the values).

I just imported it in RS2 and behold, I now have:

GPS_Speed
GPS_LatAcc
GPS_LonAcc
GPS_Slope
....
Acc_Verticale
Acc_Longitudin
Acc_Laterale

So it seems to pick up the accelerometer data.

Marc Shaw

I am on my fourth already.

Marc