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video camera choices, questions

Scott Will

Scott Will

Well Known Member
With all these great posts and videos recently, I've gotten the bug to get in on the action. I see bullet cams taped here (i.e Doug's wheel pant), fastened there (i.e. Paul's bombrack on the wing), etc... question - are these cameras totally self-contained or are they attached to a camera and power source externally?

So in general what is the optimal equipment to use in general recording? I don't own a handheld video camera. Wondering the best way to ge in on the action at a reasonable cost.

If the cameras require external connections, are ya'll spending the time to run the wires?

Thanks for the help!

 
Scott-

Some of your questions are answered at the bottom of page 2 in my recent thread here: http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=18054

Scott Will said:
are these cameras totally self-contained or are they attached to a camera and power source externally
Click to expand...
Some of each. My bullet/lipstick camera needs external power and something to record its video. Several others have used self-contained camcorders mounted to various parts of the plane with great success. A lot of it depends on how much you want to spend & how much work you want to do.

Scott Will said:
So in general what is the optimal equipment to use in general recording? I don't own a handheld video camera. Wondering the best way to ge in on the action at a reasonable cost.
Click to expand...
I started dabbling with in-cockpit video using just a camcorder. There are tons of options out there...a good standard definition digital camcorder runs around $300 these days & can be found at your local electronics store. Several people have made in-cockpit mounts...Dan Checkoway's looked like it worked very well & he has details on his web site. I've used a RAM Mount with pretty good luck (although it's not as rock-solid as Dan's mount).

Scott Will said:
If the cameras require external connections, are ya'll spending the time to run the wires?
Click to expand...
When my plane was down for its last annual, I ran wiring from the cockpit to the tail for my soon-to-be mounted tailcam. There are wireless options out there, but I wanted a more permanent (and hopefully more trouble-free) installation. If you use a camcorder to record your video (i.e. no bullet cam), you shouldn't need any wires unless you want to connect your headphone audio to it.

If you want to go the remote-mounted lipstick camera route, there are other requirements besides just a basic camcorder. Many of those are outlined on the post I linked above.

Hope this helps! Have fun...and fly safe everybody!
 
A Sports Toy....

My little camera is basically a "sports toy" - it's maximum resolution is 640 x 480, and it records to an SD card - a 2 Gig card will last an hour. Greta for cool stuff to put on the web, but certainly not close to the quality of a real bullet-cam connected to a good recorder in the cockpit. I like the self-contained nature of it - except when I have to start it up then such into the cockpit and get started so I don't waste to much recording time on tasiing....

Paul
 
I like Paul's camera rack approach and there are certain advantages to having a self contained solution, that is easily mounted & removed. There are probably fewer conversions (A/D,D/A) in this type solution, all of which are lossy. I believe that most of the SD card cameras use MP4 compression which has gotten good enough to give web quality video.

However, wanting a little more; I have been thinking of using the tie down ring position but with a wired liptick camera. Some of the lipstick cameras also allow limited shutter, backlight, iris control through a separate control interface (RS-422).

I still plan to try to finish my Ball Turret CAM with pan & tilt control, replacing an old unneeded belly strobe.

normal_BellyCAM.jpg
 
Hey Paul... do you have a part number or web link for your self contained camera??

Maybe with this type of camera you can experiment on placement before moving up in price/quality and a more permanent place on the aircraft.

Thanks!
 
Scott Will said:

So in general what is the optimal equipment to use in general recording? I don't own a handheld video camera. Wondering the best way to ge in on the action at a reasonable cost.
Click to expand...

The new hard disk camcorders stop recording when they experience an increased G force. It's an inbuilt feature to prevent the head of the hard disk from crashing. In reality it doesn't take much to get them to drop out. I don't think they'd be any good for shooting videos of aerobatics.

Many of the people selling them don't know about the feature so you may not get correct info from a salesman. If they say it will not stop recording ask them to test it. Get them to turn on the camcorder and let it drop about 300mm and then catch it again. All the one's I tested stopped recording.
 
Uh-oh

So presumably this is likely to also happen with the Hard disk video recorder??

Frank
 
That's one reason I do like the SD card....seems to be G-tolerant!

Thanks for posting the link to the camera info Larry - I've been a bit busy with all this weather down here....looks like N164MS is goign to spend the week here....

Paul
 
DanH said:
I've been using a Sony GV-D800 editing deck to record a lipstick camera. Bought it several years ago. It flies in a little plastic box velcroed to the airframe, with a remote on-off switch in the cockpit. Records a digital signal to 8mm tape, which might be old tech, but it doesn't seem to care about G and shouldn't care about altitude.

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...me=dcc_DICamcorders_VideoWalkman&DCMP=FROOGLE
Click to expand...
Thanks Dan, for that report, as ....
My plans have been to use the miniDV version GV-D900 that I have, along with lipstick style cameras for the video, and intercom audio for audio. It's good to know the recorder seems immune to Gs and altitude.
 
Thread NOT Dead!

Just when you think this thread is dead, it comes back to haunt you........... :)

I think for my first try at 'video'; I've just about decided what I'm going to do:

I like Paul Dye's position at the tie down fitting. I have an older RV-6A that has an inspection cover right near that location also. Since my video solution is a wired one, required some wing wiring; I'm planning on just making a replacement access cover that is the camera mount and will allow cable to/from the wing. The camera mount will have adjustable pan & tilt but only on the ground.

Then for the camera; I have one of these High Res. Sony CCD bullet cameras, water proof (resistant) and with a minimal amount of built in remote control. I think you have iris (bright/dark) control, day/night, plus a back light control. The 3 leads shown are video, power (12VDC), and remote control.

e4d4_1.jpg


For the recorder, I plan to use my small GV-D900 miniDV VCR, mounted to begin with at the passenger seat (remote location maybe later).

516KKTGCB2L__AA280_.jpg


Recorded video will come from the camera. Recorded audio will come from the intercom system.

I won't be able to do the fancy stuff others have been doing as I am not acro or formation qualified (yet).

Which leads to the last part. Haven't seen any new videos lately?
Keep them coming!
 
I really like your potential solution GrayHawk...can't wait to see what you get video-wise!

I've said all along that the little waterproof camera was just something to play around with - if I really want to get into the video game for real, a descent camera and recorder are going to have to be needed....

Paul
 
Ironflight said:
I really like your potential solution GrayHawk...can't wait to see what you get video-wise!

I've said all along that the little waterproof camera was just something to play around with - if I really want to get into the video game for real, a descent camera and recorder are going to have to be needed....

Paul
Click to expand...
Not faulting you (or anyone) at all. Like I've said before, you are producing video, I am only producing words so far!

There are advantages to your system that most may have not thought of. For example, it is best to get the information (the picture) to digital as soon as possible and then stay in the digital realm (solid state recorder). My solution probably has a couple of A/D,D/A conversions in it that yours does not, each of which is lossy. I am just using pieces that I have available right now. I'm very impressed with the quality of your SD card camera.

What I'd like to have in the long run is a Digital HD camera, direct to a solid state recorder (no tape, no hard drive, no DVD, etc). We're not quite there yet.
 
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Video system aboard the "Enterprise" RV-9A.

Here is the beginning of my video installation. http://www.n2prise.org/rv9a212.htm I used a JVC digital video camera using 1-hour mini-cassette tapes.

You can see and hear the video going in and out of Oshkosh by going to this link and selecting the video of your choice.

http://www.n2prise.org/rv9a228.htm#Aug17

Jerry K. Thorne
East Ridge, TN
RV-9A - - N2PZ
"Enterprise"
Hobbs = 233.0 hours after two years of flying.
 
Jerry, I was a little disappointed...

n2prise said:
Here is the beginning of my video installation. http://www.n2prise.org/rv9a212.htm I used a JVC digital video camera using 1-hour mini-cassette tapes.

You can see and hear the video going in and out of Oshkosh by going to this link and selecting the video of your choice.

http://www.n2prise.org/rv9a228.htm#Aug17

Jerry K. Thorne
East Ridge, TN
RV-9A - - N2PZ
"Enterprise"
Hobbs = 233.0 hours after two years of flying.
Click to expand...
Your video didn't continue into OSH. I was an interesting clip, but I wanted more. Thanks for sharing.

Kent
 
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