1 (edited by kalpol 2009-05-03 07:15 AM)

Topic: Cheap in-car cameras

Anyone have ideas on cheap in car cameras?  I'd thought of finding an old VCR and plugging in a digital camera we have with a broken LCD that will record vide via video-out, but I don't think the VCR will track with all the vibration. sooo...any other ideas?

Josh Poage
Poage Ma Thoin Racing - 1981 Fiat Brava #09 - 2009 Yee-haw It's Texas
Prison Break Racing - 1986 325e #27 - 2010 Gator-o-Rama
Poage Ma Thoin Racing - 1981 Fiat Brava #09 - 2011 Heaps in the Heart of Texas

Re: Cheap in-car cameras

We used the Flip cameras during Altamont last year. Pretty good image stabilization for a cheap video camera. Use two, their good for an hour of video and then you need to upload them to a computer. Rotate them and you will get some pretty good video. You can get them for about $100.00  a piece. We mounted one on our back deck, we got some pretty good video of some bumping action.

Team: V-Ram/Altamont Team: Knights of the Round Track/Reno/Buttonwillow/Thunderhill Team: Death Mobile/Sears 2010/Thunderhill/ChumpCar  Spokane/ MSR Houston/Buttonwillow/Sears. MRolla Project /Reno
http://stickfigureracing.blogspot.com/

Re: Cheap in-car cameras

The Tunachuckers got some surprisingly good footage with a crappy little $60 camera ziptied into the grille. I'll try to find out what it was.

Re: Cheap in-car cameras

we picked up some JazzHD cams from wal-mart @ $100 a pop. they can support 8GB memory cards but unfortunately the battery doesn't last that long. they also stop recording when the filesize reaches 2GB, but given that's at least one full driver rotation, you may be able to get'er done by rotating/charging

Re: Cheap in-car cameras

on the camera battery situation...  see if the camera will run on a charger?  Some will, some won't, but it does... then put an AC inverter in to power the charger.  We did that over a year ago with miniDV camera to minimize the time needed to service the camera in the pits.  only needed to change and NOT the battery.  installed an autoparts cigarette lighter to plug the AC inverter into, the DC power cube to that and on to the camera.  Lots of zip ties and duct tape and it worked very well.  I also think, but can't prove, that doing it this way keeps interference down too.  We've sinced used a solidstate unit that was a 12 volt direct plug in and the audio had a horrible noise in it...  we will go back to the above situation.

btw, the miniDv was EXCELLENT video and audio quality... now If there was a way to get 2 hours, or more, on it that would be my soluiton again.

Re: Cheap in-car cameras

saabsgonewild wrote:

on the camera battery situation...  see if the camera will run on a charger?  Some will, some won't, but it does... then put an AC inverter in to power the charger.  We did that over a year ago with miniDV camera to minimize the time needed to service the camera in the pits.  only needed to change and NOT the battery.  installed an autoparts cigarette lighter to plug the AC inverter into, the DC power cube to that and on to the camera.  Lots of zip ties and duct tape and it worked very well.  I also think, but can't prove, that doing it this way keeps interference down too.  We've sinced used a solidstate unit that was a 12 volt direct plug in and the audio had a horrible noise in it...  we will go back to the above situation.

Thanks for the tip!  I was stuck on finding a 12V to 8.4V DC/DC converter for my camera but didn't want to spend the cash on what I found.  Now I'll try to source a cheap low wattage inverter...  Post a link if you have a suggestion!

saabsgonewild wrote:

btw, the miniDv was EXCELLENT video and audio quality... now If there was a way to get 2 hours, or more, on it that would be my soluiton again.

But you CAN!  I was just looking into this and there are 80 minute SP/ 120 min LP tapes available:
http://www.supermediastore.com/minidv-80.html

The "problem" I have with my current camera is that it's not very wide angle, and I don't think a wide angle lens will fit on the end as it's not round...

Re: Cheap in-car cameras

Thanks for the replies - we do have a miniDV camera but the tapes are too short. I wasn't aware however that 80 min tapes were around, that might solve our problem nicely.

By the way, if no one has found RAM mounts yet, they're pretty useful. 

http://www.ram-mount.com/

Josh Poage
Poage Ma Thoin Racing - 1981 Fiat Brava #09 - 2009 Yee-haw It's Texas
Prison Break Racing - 1986 325e #27 - 2010 Gator-o-Rama
Poage Ma Thoin Racing - 1981 Fiat Brava #09 - 2011 Heaps in the Heart of Texas

Re: Cheap in-car cameras

Is anyone going to be streaming live video or webcasting coverage of the Reno race?

"Real ZomBees prefer Bacon"
IOE(x2) MGB/SAAB 96, Judge's Choice, Class C Win, & 2011 Hooniverse Car of the Year!
MRolla, Stick Figure/Animal House, Free Range MR2, SAAB Sonett, "The Death Flip"
2008 Exoskeleton Jag Fiasco, Concours d Lemons - Rue Britannia, worse British car.

Re: Cheap in-car cameras

Just saw the Samsung F33 at costco, $229 and has 8GB built in memory good for 4 hours, plus a slot for SDHC (or was that MSNBC?) memory of up to 16GB.  Counter person said it goes on coupon book price of $200 on Monday.  Other model (not there) is the F34 with 16GB internal, other stats the same,  for $299 everywhere.

The AC adapter will run the camera straight up (some will only charge and not run the camera) so the AC/DC inverter thing will work.

Now have to decide if paying $100 more and not 1) having to buy the extra memory and 2) not having to train someone how to get the camera to point to the extra memory (you do have to select manually)  is worth it...


very nice lens and all that, MP4 recording.

Re: Cheap in-car cameras

Here's what we did:

Camera: Aiptek Go-HD 720P for $130 from Amazon
--> w/ a 4gb memory card you can record about 4 hours at DVD quality

Power: We used an inverter to power a plug-in power supply.

Editing: Sony Vegas Studios home edition ($70).

Mount:
Very simple, basically: 2 U bolts + 1 counter sunk bolt (for camera mount) + wood base + misc washers, nuts, etc. Use your imagination.

The end result: Awesome video... check it out:
http://www.vimeo.com/1477201  <-- You can see the camera in the rear view mirror

http://www.vimeo.com/1435453

Happy racing!

Greg
Quattro Libre '84 Audi (Lemons South '08)
The Slammer '87 Milano (Lemons South '09)
The Slammer '87 Milano (Southern Discomfort '10)

Re: Cheap in-car cameras

Our setup:

Camera: Sony DCR-SR85 - love the camera, but will not record unless the viewfinder is open... didnt know that when i bought it.  But it has a 60gig internal HD, so we get about 1400 minutes of video at full res internal.  I just empty it at the end of the day.

Power:  Same as above, were using a cheap inverter wired to the kill switch

Mount:  IO Port Racing camera mount.. one of our teammates uses it for HPDEs

Editing:  I think i'll try Final Cut Pro... a good friend of mine produces motorcycle adventure films, so his laptop has it installed smile

Re: Cheap in-car cameras

In true Lemons fashion, I've used a $20 hacked CVS "disposable" digicamcorder for a bunch of risky mount jobs such as bumper cams, FSAE, helmet cams for dirtbike/mt biking. I think you can still buy them, I dunno if they're still hackable to be able to pull the video off yourself. They're from the same company that makes the Flip cam @ $60, but definitely older/crappier tech. Still, at $20 a couple years ago, I'm comfortable putting it a bunch of places I wouldn't try otherwise.

http://cache.gizmodo.com/gadgets/images/CVSCam233.JPG.jpg
http://camerahacks.10.forumer.com/index.php

I took these videos with it:

http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?do … &hl=en

For the guy that wanted a cheap inverter, you should be able to use the smallest one you can find for a little wall-wart power supply for a camera. Sign up for Harbor Freight's email list and you should get a coupon for one in the next month or two. I'm surprised nobody has entered a "Team HF" themed car yet. I'm calling dibs on that one in advance.

I've had this one for a few years and it works great:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/photos//93000-93099/93095-t.gif
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d … mber=93095

This is their cheapest one at only $13:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/photos//66800-66899/66818-t.gif
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d … mber=66818

Just another crappy BMW and moto-powered MR2: http://www.facebook.com/BlackIronRacing
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