What to use for video?
 

I'd like to get some on-track footage for when I do HPDE events. I don't even own a video camera so this is an entirely new avenue for me.

I would appreciate if you guys could share what you use to capture your in-car video? Any recommendations and prices out there?

Thanks in advance

I looked in pretty good detail when I bought mine this summer. I went with a Sony miniDV (digital cassette tape) recorder for around $275. Hard drive and memory based storage have the limitation of compression-on-the-fly, which means quality is limited and often isn't that great in the end. The hard drives are also shock prone, which makes them least suitable for motorsports.

My miniDV recorder has a firewire (IEEE 1394, Sony calls it i-Link I think) which means you can pretty easily copy/compress the video onto the computer. Since the source is uncompressed, you have complete control of the size/quality of the final file. It copies over at 1x speed, but since my clips are measured in minutes, not hours, it's not a big deal at all. Plus you can compress it down really far for YouTube and other internet sites and IME get better quality than if you recompressed a compressed format.

Sadly, I haven't gotten a camera mount yet to try it with motorsports. But it's a tested/true platform so I'm confident it will work really well. Consider getting one with a remote so that you can operate it from your driver seat.

Dave

Thanks Dave. Was this the one?
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1165610666190

I guess this can be mounted to the rear strut bar using some kind of camera mount.

Have you checked out what they have to offer here:

http://www.chasecam.com/

I used one of these in my street car before www.cruisecam.com with a Sony MiniDV. Any camcorder will work though.

I bought a Canon S3 IS for doing still shots, but then was amazed at the quality of the video it shoots. My old video camera collects dust now... With a 2 gig flash card, it will record over 1 hour of video. If it fills up, swapping in another card takes like five seconds.

There's a decent example of the quality a few threads below this one in "death to the miatas". But of course, that was after it was compressed by windows movie maker. Handles the shock of incar pretty well too. I'm very happy with it. I think I paid like 350 for it about a year ago...

Yes actually that's the exact model I have.

I'm looking to install it on the rear strut bar for simplicity sake, but there are many good methods.

I found that anything mounted in the back hatch area was simply too far back to provide a good view. I ended up using a standard tripod, with two of the legs just over the ledge of the hatch area (over the storage bins) and one leg on the tranny hump behind the console. After that, its just a matter of strapping it down.

This allows you to position the camera so it would be right between the head of the driver and the passenger. Works great....

i've been using this camera mount for years:

http://www.discoveryparts.com/cgi-bi...ameras&pid=304

mount to stock bar inbetween rear shock towers

+1 for the Canon S3 if you are looking for a still camera that shoots decent video. I used one once and brought along my laptop to downloaded the vids between the sessions. It was about 600MB for a 30 minute session, IIRC.

As for mounting, note that the IOPort Racing mount is a base unit that hooks onto the crossbar, with a Bogen/Manfrotto arm hooked up to it. The base has an integrated damper built into it. It's a nice piece.

Alternately, you can purchase the upper arm assembly for much less from B&H photo and fab your own lower base.

What I did instead is get the above arm with a Bogen "Superclamp" which works well both in FD (on the stock rear tower brace) as well as on the roll bar in my FC. Note that you need to make sure that the camera is strapped down and tethered in place (usually with nylon webbing).

Here is the unit I bought:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...with_3025.html

Hope this helps.

-b

I have the same mount as ^, it's a good mount if you have a rollbar and use a regular camera/video camera. I use a panasonic GS 150PP with MINIDV (it's a year or two old at this point). At least for the FB, you want to mount the camera pretty high to see over the dashboard and be able to see the track. When you pick a video camera, make sure you have good image stablization. My friend's videos turns out really shaky and you can't watch the video too long without getting seasick. Here are some pictures and videos

You can see the camera mount here mounted to the top of the rollbar

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...7/IMG_0311.jpg

I had to mount a separate windshield rearview mirror and remove the stock one just to get the best view.

You can find videos here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMxjOTB2uU0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXHst433xJM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E0tp-2JY1c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctFPVGDoJ4Y

Looks great but not in the budget. Its ~$900 all in if I read correctly.

Thanks for the info Bill. My ability to fab and lack of equipment make the IOPort a better choice.

Thanks Scott, Z and everyone for the recommendations and links.


If anyone has any other recommendations, please do share.

+1 for Ioport, if you have some kind of harness or Roll bar. If not you'll have to look at fabbing something sturdy.

I would highly suggest not attempting to use a strapped down tripod in the trunk, that would not pass most HPDE groups I've ever run with.

PaulC

Zyrano; that's some pretty smooth video man! Much better than my mickey mouse setup. :)

Bill, so you spent only $55 and you have a solid clamp mount with adjustments?

Does it leave any marks on the strut tower brace? How's the field of view from that point? (It looked fine to me, but...)

If it's all good then I'm not sure why I'd consider any other route for a basic in-car setup.

Thanks, one thing to add to the lighter the camera, the less vibs...

Here's one way to do cheap video:

http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=242011

Yup. :)

You do have to "squish" the cover on the brace a bit when installing. But I removed it after the event and it left no long-term markings (it took a couple days to pop back out fully, IIRC). That's going to be a problem in any system that mounts to the stock brace. Vibration is also an issue with the padded brace, but it's reasonable. The first time I ran with it I used an older analog camera w/o vibration reduction. The pictures weren't SpeedChannel quality, but they were good enough for instructional review.

Positioning was tricky. The funny thing about the 3-way arm is that it can be a challenge to get the camera positioned right in that "sweet spot". But if you play with it long enough, it will work.

Now in my FC and a roll-bar with a crossmember at a proper shoulder height, the clamp is rock solid.

The only issue I ever ran into was one of my instructors being concerned about the clamp not being mounted securely enough (in the FD). Strapping the camera down is required. I used some 3/4-inch webbing straps from my camping gear. A good, firm tie-down will help reduce vibration also.

Once I get the full cage put in the car (next years budget) I'm probably going to have the fabricator weld a plate to the cross member, and I'll directly mount the arm (without the clamp) to that.

-b

I think this is the cheapest...

$34.99 -http://www.racerpartswholesale.com/speedprod15a.htm

I bought one and modified it and used an extra Longacre mirror bracket as the cage mount. Works perfect and completely adjustable/solid. If you price sensitive, just use what you get for $34.99 - not sure you could make something adjustable for that price.

I use a Sony Bullet Cam that I purchased from ActionVideoCams off of Ebay. Very high quality Bullet Cam. That plugs into a Sony MiniDV Camcorder. You have to check before using this setup if your camera will accept video inputs. Not all do. If you camer cost less that $500 it probably does not support it.

I then mount the camera to one of two spots. My passenger side view mirror or to my helmet. I like the helmet views the best because you see what I see. Instruments are in view, you can see cars in the rear view mirror.

You can see the videos I have taken Here.
http://www.4113pittsburg.com/Garage/

Really any 480 line bullet cam will produce simular results. Remember, I have scaled down these videos to be more web friendly. The full res videos are superb.

Here's what I use and what everyone I know recommends, accepts any standard camera:

http://www.ioportracing.com/Merchant...gory_Code=IOPP

Out of curiosity, I already have a carputer (basically a computer integrated inside your car), would I not be able to use webcam and just hook it up to it? They're fairly cheap (you can usually get a decent one from around 30-50$) If you want to get fancy you can get the ones that you can actually control where the camera point at through a software. Isn't that doable? Or if you just have a laptop just hook it up to that ...

I use a sony mini HD cam ... excellent quality of video for those who have hdtv's

If you can find a track day organizer that will let you bring a laptop in your car while on track, and you're willing to have a 6 lb laptop flying around your car in a wreck, be my guest. I don't know how good a web cam type setup would do but at the very least it sounds pretty cheap to try.

PaulC