In Car Camera

The Oily Bits S2 Specific Topics
1

I want to buy and fit a small camera so I can record in car footage from trackdays. A mate has loaned me his very neat Oregan Scientific camera he uses for in car footage from his race car but after fitting the camera mount to my harness bar I found the bar is so close to the bulkhead that the camera won’t fit. Shame as I’ve seen some of his footage and the quality is really excellent. The camera itself is so small I can’t see how any other sort of camera will fit there either. This unit is self contained and uses an internal flash card so no wires to run anywhere and ideally that’s the type I’m looking for.

Anyone here fitted a camera? BTW the harness bar in mine is the Lotus factory fit item.

Thanks

2

i just bolt on a cheap camcorder off ebay to the bar

much better quality than most and a good view

3

Good footage. As I don’t know the first thing about camcorders are there any that don’t work well when being thrown around a track? I popped into Jessops this lunchtime and the guy there suggested I stick to ones with a tape as the others might not record properly.

4

Definately avoid DVD camcorders. When I was driving around Europe last year, my missus filmed some in car action with ours. It didn’t work at all during full-bore acceleration.

5

yes mini DV is the way to go imo and cheap

6

I have the harnessbar that is part of the Exige Cup rollcage.

Fitting a cam is easy. All you need are a couple of bits of metal for a couplke of quid and a miniballhead camera mount. Depending on how you mount the ballhead, you can get almost any videocam in � and I would agree, DV is vibration proof compared to a DVD version.

Here is my current simple setup:

An axle clamp of appropriate size from a DIY store:
[image]http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid225/pb46e54cbb31f2730e3bb8980cfabcc8c/e9b3d3a7.jpg[/image]

Used with a straight section of metal bolted toigether around the harnessbar and a L-angle bracket to mount a Manfrotto Miniballhead. Side view:
[image]http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid225/p953921e8a1e785f492c3095114eaa3ff/e9b3d388.jpg[/image]

Front view:
[image]http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid225/p733b781ffb2722fdd0af107dd87b6839/e9b3d37d.jpg[/image]

I’m currently using my 4th Sony miniDVcam. This one is only 880,000 pixels, but easily adequate:
[image]http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid225/p51e0e9bbec5241bca1179d45167e2268/e9b3d369.jpg[/image]

Any clips are fine on a Mac/PC/TV � and on Google or YouTube they are hugely compressed anyway.

FWIW, here’s a clip from that cam*:

>clicky<

Here you can directly compare an old (2000) Sony minDV with 880,00 (rear-facing) with a Sony PC-101 (megapixel chip) (the frontfacing cam):
clicky<

I’ve even used a very large, 3-chip Sony miniDV � also from about 2001/02. But, again, the compression for the website is the biggest factor:
>clicky<

One thing I would watch for when choosing a cam is that it has a record button on the fold-out LCD � if you want to conserve batteries by switching it on and off when required, it is far easier with this facility when you’re strapped in with 4-points.

*P.S. Caymans are not that fast!

7

One thing I would watch for when choosing a cam is that it has a > record button on the fold-out LCD > � if you want to conserve batteries by switching it on and off when required, it is far easier with this facility when you’re strapped in with 4-points.

Have you tried the lanc remote buttons?
[image]http://www.actioncameras.co.uk/LancRemote14.gif[/image]

feed one down the harness strap (better still if you use a harness pad) and its right to hand to switch on/off exactly when you want without having to turn or twist around.

8

Have you tried the lanc remote buttons?[/image]

Very neat idea, but the new supercompact mini DVs tend not to have the full range of connections � that PC-53 above doesn’t, for example.