Camera and mounting suggestions?
 

Hi all,

I am thinking of getting a camera to mount in the plane. Tired of trying to fly and snap photos myself:-)

I looked back in this section, and it sort of looks like the current camera selections are between VIRB and GoPro? Are there others I should look at?

I have screw holes where the tie downs go, and I was thinking about mounting the camera in the rear position under the tail. Does anyone make a VIRB or GoPro mount for a 1/4 20 (I think that is the thread) or am I going to fabricate it?

I seem to recall some talk about possible bad modifications to the flight characteristics. I did a search, but did not come up with anything. Both the VIRB and GoPro are fairly small, any worries about mounting either under the tail?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts you can share.

Geoff

objective?
 

I've not done much of this, but you might want to try just using your smartphone, some have amazing video quality!
I put a little wide angle lens on my iPhone, and a suction mount inside the canopy. seemed to work ok, for only $20.
The bonus is you can run headset audio into it pretty easily, and if you do invest in another fancy cam mounted outside the cabin, you can edit the two videos together for some really neat flight sequences!

Perry - there was a recent post here in which the OP was asking how to get audio into his phone to use the phone as a recorder. It seems you've found a way to make this work with your iPhone. What's your secret? (I don't do "i" anything!)

Audio cable for smart phone
 

just a lavalier mic
 

something like this;
http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica...e+lavalier+mic
I have not used this one, but basically you just pop the mike or tape it to the back of your headset cup, and it picks up everything you hear.
the fancy one inline with your headset would of course give stereo and some other options.

Good idea
 

Perry,

Great idea. Any suggestions on a mount for the phone? It needs to be able to swivel in 2 axes I think to get it aligned correctly? Most of the ones I have seen to swivel in one axis. This one is a little bulky but might work. This one has a ball on it that might work.


cheers

Geoff

Hi Geoff,

I'm quite heavily into making flying videos. If you follow this link you can see some of the stuff I've done so far. Basically, I use Gopro Hero 2's for all the external cameras (I have 4 cameras and 7 mountings on the Pitts, 6 on the RV.) The top centre wing mount on the Pitts is on a tilt/ pan arrangement that I can control from inside the aircraft using R/C servos.

I'm quite excited about the new "headset" mount cameras I have bought recently - Sony HDR-AZ1's. I have 2 of these. They are both mounted to David Clark H10 13.4's using a home made bracket from a little alloy angle. Both the "RV Aeros" videos are from these cameras. The nice thing about the Sony's are that they only cost around £120 - as opposed to roughly £300 for a high spec GoPro. Battery life is not quite as good as gopro, but they are very small and pictures are excellent.

http://vimeo.com/pittsartist

One final tip. I put extra cases for my gopros and leave them on the Pitts all the time. Because they dont change angle between flights you get better continuity if you are editing into a film.

For me the biggest safety issue is to always remember - "I'm a Pilot First, Cameraman second"

All the best,

Richard

Suction Cup
 

Don't make this harder than it has to be. Just buy the genuine GoPro suction cup mount and attach it to any smooth surface on your airplane. It will adhere like it's riveted in place. I've put mine on the top and bottom of the wingtip, the rudder, the belly, and the turtleback. If you give it a clean, flat surface, that suction cup mount will be rock solid.