Trackday Video Kit

[Pedro]

Not sure where to post this...I am wondering what is the best/affordable video equipment for recording trackdays..? Something easy, & discreet, to mount on the car, ability to move the camera position around for different angles, views, etc...would be ideal. I would also prefer solid state, (SD memory), or similar for the recording device.

Any advice much appreciated.

Cheers,
Pedro

[~ ~ Cal ~ ~]

In my opinion, avoid solid state as traditional DV handycams see far more shock resistant and offer waaaaay better resolution

I use :-

* Sony Handcam TRV 22E which you could pick up on Ebay for circa £50 -£75
* and a camera mount from B-Hague ( circa £80 with a variety of mountings available - the ideal is a suction mount though if you want to move it round the car ) http://www.b-hague.co.uk/camera_suction ... mounts.htm

Here are some results best viewed in the the High Def. mode from Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyiMA9cnZ1w

Big_D runs a similiar set up but hooks his DV camcorder up to a bullet cam I believe

I think next months evo Magazine will run an article on this sort of thing

Cheers
Cal

[~ ~ Cal ~ ~]

for info http://www.sony.co.uk/product/sdh-minidv/dcr-trv22e

[Pedro]

Thanks Cal,

Certainly takes good quality video, and I really appreciate your input. Only problem I can see, is the size, I am really looking for something very small & light, since I will be mounting in an Elise, and hopefully externally on the body of the car as well, I'll checkout EVO as you suggest and do a bit more researching before buying.

Cheers,
Pedro

[Shug]

A year ago and I'd have been able to sell you an Archos/bullet cam combo with the ability to store up to 20GB in DivX on flash memory - but Archos have dabbled with solid state and now dumped it to concentrate on massive hard drives and lots of bells & whistles on the players.

Some solid state stuff out there designed around extreme sports, but I don't have any links.

http://www.vimeo.com/3405293 - taken with the Archos recently.

[philthy]

Im trying to source a Archos Cam for 704 series, any lying around the stock room shug?!

[Shug]

Nope - long gone for the Gen 4 mate... Gen 5 is now sold out as well IIRC. Last time I checked, they hadn't got round to releasing a Gen 6 one.

Fleabay I'm afraid mate - or call Archos direct and see if they can track you down any stock-holders, but I'd be very surprised.

[philthy]

thought as much, the last one sold on ebay for more than they were new.

[~ ~ Cal ~ ~]

Thanks Cal,

and hopefully externally on the body of the car as well, I'll checkout EVO as you suggest and do a bit more researching before buying.

Cheers,
Pedro

External mounting easy ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiqTt_1P ... annel_page

I just forgot to plug in the external micrphone which I ran into the cabin

I can never really dig the bullet cams in terms of perspective and clarity but horses for courses !

[mckeann]

Im trying to source a Archos Cam for 704 series, any lying around the stock room shug?!

bullet cam thingymabob??

[philthy]

bullet cam thingymabob??

yeap, like this

[Mike Scib]

I used a Archos player and bullet cam from amp3.....worked excellently

http://www.scottishelises.com/phpbb/vie ... =9&t=19466

[mckeann]

Had a look as i have an archos AV500 lying around, and thought i had the bullet cam to go with it, but on searching for it, i remembered that the reason i dont use it any more is i gave the bullet cam back to AndyG

Sorry to get your hopes up.

On the plus side, i found some old videos of me from Spa in 2006 that were pretty cool to watch.

[Sanjøy]

I use a relatively cheap DV camera so that I will not sob like a baby if it ends up smacking on the tarmac.
I use a Samsung VP-D361 connects to my puter using firewire, 10gb per hour.

Footage samples here http://vimeo.com/album/34837l

Been meaning to buy a mount from here but found a sweet way of mounting on the 340s rear light cluster.

Prob going to buy another cheap camera so I have one facing both directions so I can play Director.

[alicrozier]

Prob going to buy another cheap camera so I have one facing both directions so I can play Director.

First the cars appear in the rear facing camera, then the front...

(or can still show direction of travel whether it was forwards or backwards you entered the gravel)