Topic: Lesson learned and what are you running?

The setup in the Miata is currently a de-batteried GoPro 9 powered by a cheap UPS.  To correct the light balancing (so the camera doesn't reference the inside of car and bleach the view out the windshield) I have to manually set the meter each time I turn the camera on (I use a 1TB card so only have to go through this process once a day or once in a 24 race).  When I'm feeling saucy I overlay GPS data from a SOLO2 DL. 

This has been working fine enough but I found a flaw in my plan at this last true 24.  Once we got the car running again at 4:30AM I started up the camera and set the light meter as per normal.  When I went to edit the footage I found the post-sunrise video was completely whited-out.  It looks like setting the light meter to a specific place in the frame (the windshield) also locked in the light meter level (in this case, it locked to a very dark scene).  This is a bummer as I was hoping to have usable video of our wheel hitting the turn 5 bunker when it ripped off towards the end of the race. 

My solution (assuming the sensor isn't jacked) will be to mount the camera to the dash bar (so I don't have to set the light meter at all) and run a second cheapo camera on the driver and cabin. 

So there, that's my lesson learned in case it is helpful to anyone else. 


Also - what camera setups are folks running this year?  I'm always on the lookout for a better solution.

Re: Lesson learned and what are you running?

Have you tried turning on spot metering?  Spot metering just used a small area in the middle of the image to calculate auto exposure.

I use a Yi 4k with a 256gb card and I can get 8 hours @ 1080/30.  It also can do live streaming, but it can't record and live stream at the same time.  I keep the battery in and just have USB power that is connected to the kill switch.  It is hard to find the Yi cameras now.

Team whatever_racecar #745 Volvo wagon

3 (edited by Teuobk 2022-09-29 10:11 AM)

Re: Lesson learned and what are you running?

We've run a Vantrue N4 dash cam at the last two races and have been quite happy with it. Before that, we had a different dashcam (I forget which one) which was crap, but the Vantrue has been good in terms of reliability and video quality, even at night and even in the heat.

Here's an example from the start of the race through the end of the first stint: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LzNZ9mwgmo

Jeff

Turbo-Encabulators -- 1999 Mazda Miata -- Winner overall, BFE GP '22, runner-up a bunch of times

Re: Lesson learned and what are you running?

rb92673 wrote:

Have you tried turning on spot metering?  Spot metering just used a small area in the middle of the image to calculate auto exposure.

I use a Yi 4k with a 256gb card and I can get 8 hours @ 1080/30.  It also can do live streaming, but it can't record and live stream at the same time.  I keep the battery in and just have USB power that is connected to the kill switch.  It is hard to find the Yi cameras now.

Yeah, I use the spot metering all the time as otherwise all that can be deciphered is the interior of the car.  I think the issue was that the metering locked in when I selected the spot. 

I think I've read that others use the Yi 4k.  Seems like a good choice!

Re: Lesson learned and what are you running?

Teuobk wrote:

We've run a Vantrue N4 dash cam at the last two races and have been quite happy with it. Before that, we had a different dashcam (I forget which one) which was crap, but the Vantrue has been good in terms of reliability and video quality, even at night and even in the heat.

Here's an example from the start of the race through the end of the first stint: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LzNZ9mwgmo

Jeff

Oh neat.  Yeah, your videos look pretty good!

Is the picture-in-picture stuff automatic or do you edit it together after?  Separate files for each camera?