On-board Photography

[Tim Falce]

I've just borrowed one of these of a friend with a view to buying it from him if It's any good and found out that It'll take stills as well as video. It is quite a wide angle lens however but I'll post some video up as soon as I try it out.

[dtype38]

Can you have a go taking some stills as well please?

PS. I see it only has 2.5 hrs battery life, so if you're not plugging it into the car - don't forget to switch it off between track sessions.

[Tim Falce]

Originally Posted by dtype38

PS. I see it only has 2.5 hrs battery life, so if you're not plugging it into the car - don't forget to switch it off between track sessions.

2.5 hours is a long time for this sort of camera, you'd never get that from a camcorder (well I never have) and my cheap £2 mini DV only lasts 50 or 60 minutes. There is also a ciggy lighter plug plus a spare battery so that's not a major concern.

[JohnD]

dtype,
It's not been mentioned, but many cameras, inc. the "Hero" lauded above, offer a 'time lapse', still picture facility. They will take a picture every X seconds or minutes.
Every one will be a lottery if you are driving, but who cares? It's digital! And maybe better than taking your hands off the wheel to press the shutter button.
Try this shopping Google search for "time lapse camera".
http://www.google.co.uk/#q=time+laps...w=1280&bih=752
John

[GORDON STREETER]

I still haven't found out how good a still photo can be taken from one of these http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0LyU...eature=related but the video quality is pretty good for the price, I've seen them on sale for £60 so they may well be worth a try and see what is on offer next year.
The thing is all this stuff is getting better and cheaper day by day and the quality at the cheaper end is as good as some of the top of the range ones not so long ago.

[dtype38]

On the subject of 'how good a still from a video'. I was just considering the info flow needed. If we said video is roughly 30 frames/sec and a decent still photo jpeg is 3Mbyte then the camera would need to be doing 90 Mbyte/sec or 720 Mbit/sec. I think the fastest flash cards are of the order of 90Mbit/sec, so that would mean they're still way off a decent still for each frame - and that's in jpeg format rather than bitmap. Is onboard memory faster? Is my maths ok?

[autoidiodyssey]

Your over thinking it. Just strap a DSLR to the rollbar like this guy and call it done.


DSLR > GoPro by autoidiodyssey, on Flickr

It seems like vibration will be the real issue with any sort of still camera. I don't think lens stabilization is meant to deal with that kind of shake. Though on a smooth track at lower speed something like this might work.

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by autoidiodyssey

Your over thinking it. Just strap a DSLR to the rollbar like this guy and call it done.


It seems like vibration will be the real issue with any sort of still camera. I don't think lens stabilization is meant to deal with that kind of shake. Though on a smooth track at lower speed something like this might work.

I don't think that that would pass scrutineering in the UK, if it broke off and hit another driver in the face (Massa)someone would be for the high jump !

[GORDON STREETER]

Just looking at the pictures from Andrew Davenall's car from the weekend (Brands Super Prix), I don't know what camera he has but IMHO they are very good

[dtype38]

Do you have a link to some examples?

[Tim Falce]

Originally Posted by dtype38

Do you have a link to some examples?

http://tentenths.com/forum/showpost....2&postcount=61

[dtype38]

Nice