I've read alot about the Cone Cam and a couple of other suction cup mounted cameras, but I wanted to see if any of you guys had played around with small exterior cameras (not camcorders) that feed back into a recorder secured inside the car.

I'm looking to use this setup for autoX and just some good 'ol fun. Wanted any input I can get before I go with the Cone Cam.

-E

p.s. I searched.

 

what's the cone cam?

 

http://www.conecam.com/

 

I have the cone cam and have hooked it up to the outside of my second gen. I took it up to 90 mph and it never phased it. I also hooked it up to a local guys GSX on the inside of the back window of his hatch and got his run on tape. All of his friends kept saying his car would launch too hard and knock the camera off but it did fine he ran a 7.7 @ 95 mph in the 1/8 which would make a mid 11 second 1/4 mile time possible. I had the video on my webspace but took it off because I needed the room I will given it to someone if they wanna host it. Its less than 2 megs. There are a few things about the cone cam I dont like. First the quality of video is fair. I mean its ok if you just wanna get some fun footage to watch with your buddies but it is far from any quality like you would find on even a little consumer camera. The second gripe is that I cant find a battery pack for it which means you have to locate the camera within about 3 feet of the cigarette lighter. This poses a big problem when I was trying to hook it up on some of the drag cars that dont have a 12V source. The final gripe is no microphone. It really isnt as dramatic unless you have some audio. I've tried hooking up a couple mics I bought and havent got them to work all the way. Maybe you will have better luck. I used a canon mini DV camera as a record deck and it seemed to work pretty well.

 

the site's not coming up i wanted to see some cams(cams as in cameras)

 

few questions:

what recorder would you use and how would you hook that up?
what about buying those small color security cameras from fry's electronics?
how would you hook up a mic if i had one of those fry's cameras?
thanks

 

How bad is it? Pixellated bad, or just not sharp as a "real" camera bad?

I though it came with a mic. I just heard that the wind noise was so bad that it almost wasn't worth getting the sound. Hmmm...

Dunno if I wanna spring for it or try and figure out something on my own. There's another really nice camera that I can't remember the name of for these purposes, but it'll cost ya.

-E

 

My mini DV cam has analog RCA inputs. Basically the cord that came with my camera hooks up to the mini cam thru a CAT5 line that is supplied. I dunno about the other camera option.

 

The camera is not pixelated really. Its just not nearly as good as a normal camera. Plus the camera has a really bad auto iris. It gets lighter and dark picture constantly and in a normal cloudless day the brighter areas are very washed out. It does not come with a mic. I got the combo cam plus the 3 mounts for 250 i think. I mean for the money it isnt that bad just dont think your going to get the best picture. Basically look at their videos on their site and it will give you an idea on how good they are. I also have a video of that GSX run if someone wants to host it. I am also very baised because I work with video for a living so Im pretty picky.

 

ok now the site's up...hmmm it looks pretty good for that price. now i just gotta wait for them to come out w/ a mic.
is there a way to hook up an external mic to a camcorder and put that outside w/ the conecam?

 

I work in video for a living also, so I'm with ya on that one. Looks like an application (small, lightweight car-mounts) that could use a little help.

Thanks for the input.

-E

 

One of our club members brought an external suction cup mount up to Brainerd. It was a single cup mount, and he had it sealed to the door just behind the passenger side wheel. The thing was rated to something like 25 lbs, and he had a pretty weighty (10 lbs maybe?) digital video camera attached, along with a custom clear lense cover he had made to protect the camera from dust and rocks. He probably had it up to 110 mph (nice slow parade laps ) with no problems. He's also into video (professionally), this camera cost $5k+, so if he can trust it sitting out there...

If you hunt around our forum you might be able to find a copy of the video...

Northstar Rotaries forum

I think he also posted it on the Minnesota Auto-X message board:

MN Auto-X

 

Sounds like a Canon XL-1. The Cone Cam suction mount is supposed to hold 75 lbs and the camera only weighs a few ounces. Its got some serious suction and is overkill.

 

Heh. What *do* you do for a living? I'd have guessed the same thing.

-E

 

Just graduated Xavier University with a my degree in Electronic Media. I work part-time at a local TV station in the creative services dept. (havent found a full time gig yet.) and I do some freelance stuff on the side with my friends XL-1 and my AVID Xpress DV at home.