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I am starting a discussion on In car Video systems. I would like to hear what you have, and what you like or dislike about your system.
I think Ranger posted that he had kinda made his own system with multiple cameras, any details you want to share?
I would like to run multiple cameras, with one camera out side the car (Roof cam? or back bumper to prove I am in last place). Any rules on mounting cameras outside the car? Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?
I tried using my sony camera which uses a small DVD and it would cut off every time due to the rigidity. This past weekend I used a friends MiniDV which uses a small film and it worked fine. I don’t know details of the cameras which are used specifically for racing (i.e. hood/side mounts for outside the vehicle). Good luck…I will be watching this thread for same answers you are.
Justin
I have 3 cameras, front, rear and driver. A video processor turns it into dual picture-in-picture so there’s no post processing necessary. I still find lots of ways to screw video up, but that’s my fault.
One of my objectives was for the system to be infantry simple. I couldn’t be hitting a bunch of buttons and hoping that I got it all right as I headed for the grid. Once I throw a power switch on the dash in the morning, I have to hit one button on the video processor and that’s it. When I power the system back up the next day, I hit that one button again.
These little lipstick cameras come with little bases. If you bend the base a little bit you can use some hose clamps to fasten them to your cage. I used some loctite in the camera base pivot mechanism to help toughen it up against shock and vibration.
Video cameras. You want 520 (or better) lines of resolution and a 1/3" CCD for your forward camera. The driver and rear cameras can be 420 line and 1/4’ CCD. Don’t screw with any zoom features or anything like that. Simple cameras will be more durable.
Good camera for front view. >520 line and 1/3" CCD. $120
http://cgi.ebay.com/Weatherproof-CCD-540-Bullet-CCTV-Surveillance-Camera_W0QQitemZ190246291509QQihZ009QQcategoryZ48629QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Wide angle driver and rear cam. 420 line. $50
http://cgi.ebay.com/Colour-Bullet-Camera-Wide-Angle-CCD-Helmet-Cam-Bike-T15_W0QQitemZ110281939808QQihZ001QQcategoryZ48629QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
$40 video processor. This may be the same one that I have. It will take 3 camera inputs and give you dual picture in picture.
http://cgi.ebay.com/4-Channel-Digital-Video-Audio-AV-Color-Quad-Processor-a_W0QQitemZ160276459671QQihZ006QQcategoryZ75397QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
My only expensive item was a ChaseCam PVR. I decided on it because Traqmate can tell it to start & stop. A non Traqmate user would have all sorts of possibilities for recording the video. Only one video line comes out of the video processor. There’s 100’s of solid state devices on Ebay that will record that for you. Just be sure to get one that will output a common video format like .wma or mp4. Don’t bother with HiDef, those files end up too big. Leave that to SpeedTV.
That’s 3 cameras and a video processor for less than what you’d pay for 1 Chasecam camera.
I use a budget high def system with the Aiptek A-HD ($130), wide angle lens ($30), and an IOPort mount. The cam is solid state and takes standard SD cards. It’s got a normal USB cable, so it will charge and transfer video to a laptop with the same cable. There’s an Aiptek A-HD+ or something that’s a little bit higher res for around $200. The Aiptek cam has a few warts: you need to pad the battery to stop it from vibrating and shutting the camera off at random times, and the mic can get a little noisy. I don’t really have the wind noise problem, so I haven’t done the remedy of putting foam or paper over the mic, but lots of people do it.
A sample video is at http://vimeo.com/1437963 (beware, HD video resolution is addicting)
I usually hit the record button on the grid around the 5 minute warning, then throw my shoulder belts on. It’s a little inconvenient, but I manage.
I’ll probably end up adding a dedicated mirror to capture the cars behind me on video, now that there are some 
Thanks Ranger, This is the kind of information I was looking for.
I was also looking at this http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=002&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=120298226779&rd=1
It is a 4 into 1 processor and a Harddrive DVR. I am not sure how Harddrives would hold up in a race car, but I know you can get solid start hard drives ($$$)
I am fighting with the idea of Separate solid state recorders then edit in post production, or using a PIP.
Peakracer.com wrote:
[quote]Thanks Ranger, This is the kind of information I was looking for.
I was also looking at this http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=002&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=120298226779&rd=1
It is a 4 into 1 processor and a Harddrive DVR. I am not sure how Harddrives would hold up in a race car, but I know you can get solid start hard drives ($$$)
I am fighting with the idea of Separate solid state recorders then edit in post production, or using a PIP.[/quote]
There’s a couple issues here.
It’s hard to buy a video processor for PIP sight-unseen. That creates an element of risk so you don’t want to spend too much money and find that you don’t like it.
a) Does it do PIP at all? I didn’t spot that in the description.
b) Can you adequately manage PIP so you end up with about what you wanted? Image(s) could be too small/big or in a bad place.
c) Is it tricky to put into your desired PIP mode? What if it takes a couple minutes of fooling with in order to get it into the PIP mode that you like? Since you aren’t going to want to connect a monitor to it race morning, this is a problem.
d) After you turn it off or it loses power for some reason, how does it behave? What do you have to do to get it back in your desired PIP mode?
All that becomes more difficult when the recorder and processor are combined.
So there was an element of risk when I bought my video processor but it was only a $40 risk. Get the processor that I got and eliminate the unknowns. Give it power and hit one button for dual PIP.
HDD’s have their charms, but they are not as rugged as solid state. Lots of folks have gone from HDD based vidcams to solid state because of this.
Post Production is a great big pain in the ass. It finally grew so tiresome that I, a notorious cheapskate, broke down and spent $500 for the ChaseCam PVR.
I would not use a hard drive or DVD based system. I probably won’t even go back to a tape even though they work reasonably well. I’m sticking with solid state memory.
I’m using a Panasonic HDC-HS9 (with .5x wide angle lens), which has solid state or hard drive recording abilities. I record to SS and if I need more room I can copy it to the HD.
I bought & tried to use a HDD based video cam only to find it could not handle the vibration & bumps on track. It would simply shut it off every time within 30 seconds or so. Traded in for mini DV cam & it’s fine. This is just a regular video cam & not the small lipstick cams & I got no video processing, PIP, etc. which I admit would be much nicer.
Tom
I use a an old SONY Digital 8mm camera I think it is a TRV-140. It was around $500 new. Here is one on ebay for a buy it now of $185.
It is probably around 7 years old now but still works great. Digital 8mm should be the same quality as Mini DV. Once I figured out that I need to use firewire to bring the video down instead of usb and also capture it at a fairly high bit rate (I use 1.5 mps) and it creates files around the 300 meg mark using your basic windows movie maker in xp. Load to vimeo and you are good to go. By the way we have a spec e30 group to add your in car video too.
http://www.vimeo.com/groups/spece30
I also use a secondary mirror to capture the rear view action out the back of the car. This is just one of those clip on mirrors that goes over your regular car mirror and is ziptied to the roll bar.
The stability control is very good on this camera and being tape you never have to worry about vibration or it skipping. I haven’t had a problem with it yet. I did try a wide angle lens with it but didn’t like it as it showed too much of the interior and not enough of the action out front. I like it the way it is frankly. So for very cheap you can be producing decent in car. Drawbacks are that its not HD but I’m going to wait till they drop significantly in price and you have to play the video to capture it on your computer unlike a flashcard or sd drive. Its also not super small if that is a concern.
I bought a Flip Video camera at Staples (about $120.00 for the 1-hour model) and attach it to the OG racing mount. Mine doesn’t even have the threaded hole in the bottom (the newer models do, I think) so I got creative with the mounting.
The sound isn’t very good (see Vimeo) but the camera does much better than I though it would. And it was cheap and simple, which fits my video skills perfectly.
Carter
I use an ELMO SUV-Cam. All in one unit with remote Bullet Camera on 5’ cable, records direct to SD Cards up to 32GB, VGA 640x480 High Res, 25fps. Mono Mic built in & has Mono Mic in; comes with rechargable battery pack, AC/DC Converter, USB Cable, A/V Cable.
http://www.elmo.co.jp/suv-cam/en/index.html
Available from most camera retailers, off eBay etc.
Footage is decent, better than Hero Go Pro quality, audio decent, no moving parts, and best of all, very light weigt!