I'd like to get a good camera to mount inside while im racing. Any suggestions? I need a good bang for the buck camera, not all s2k owners are rich you know Tx Shock

 

[QUOTE=S|2ocK,Jan 30 2007, 09:47 PM] I'd like to get a good camera to mount inside while im racing.

 

I'm looking into the ChaseCam PDR right now both for myself and for potential future stocking. A local friend just got one and it seems pretty slick. No moving parts, direct to digital CF storage. http://chasecam.com/recorders/pdr.htm

Also, I'm working with ChaseCam about trying to integrate the serial out on the DL1 into the serial in on the PDR for some on-screen overlay. In theory they have the functionality in their hardware, now we just need to see if we can make it work. The ChaseCam guys are extremely busy due to the success of the PDR right now so it might take some time. I'll be talking to them again next week about it after they get back from the SuperBowl Celeb Kart race that they are supporting.

 

www.modifry.com

 

I just picked up an ATC-2000 from Oregon Scientific. 30fps, 640x480, straight to SD, AA batteries, easily mountable (I built a roll bar mount for $7 from Home Depot), horrible sound (but the engine revs dominate, so that's good). It's an all in one solution IMO, especially if you are just looking to capture content. I am having some trouble with the recordings, but I think it is due to a faulty SD card rather than the camera.

$120 shipped.

 

Interesting device.



Do you have any sample videos? I am also looking for a light weight, all in one solution.

 

I just bought that, but I've only tested it out on the street so far. Video quality is OK. Things that move too fast sort of break into lines. The neatness of the package is nice, though. The recorder plugs into the 12V outlet, the camera plugs into the recorder, and that's it. They also have a turnkey system available for adding a second camera and recording PictureInPicture.

One problem is that only about a quarter of the image is being usefully used right now. I have the camera mounted on the roll bar diagonal, but most of the field of view is inside the car. It really wants to be mounted on the dash or the front bumper.

I was hoping to use it with TrackVision (a program to integrate video and datalogger data) but the format Chase Cam records to (MPEG2) is not supported by TrackVision. They say it will be supported in their next release.

It also won't play on Windows Media Player, but it will play on my Linux box using a package called mplayer.

Also, Trackvision is supposed to work on Win98, but actually it doesn't. However, it does seem to work on XP.

 

Conversion of video including MPEG is easy enough. Check out http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html if you're looking for something free.

If you want to edit video, then Adobe Premiere Light is a good simple option and also supports video conversion.

I like the bullet cams. I haven't been impressed by the video quality of the ChaseCam PDR.

 

I'll post one tonight.

 

Mike G.

You need a faster CF card, get 120x or greater, set recording quality to normal, experiment with higher settings,...u should get terrific video...
try lower-res recording settings in menu until no drop outs with your current card.

this video was dubbed from microMV to S-VHS to chasecam PDR100 mpeg2 then compressed to mpeg1, then youtubed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHPBAHmdJyk