Rear-facing bullet cam for trackdays

I bought my cams from here:

http://www.drivedata.com/shop/product.asp?numRecordPosition=3&P_ID=5&strPageHistory=cat&strKeywords=&SearchFor=&PT_ID=6

Both my cams are the 2.9mm ultra wide angle/520 line ones.

Guy Thatcher who runs the Drivedata site is very helpful and its well worth ringing him for advice if you are unsure what to get.

Using the ultra wide angle from the rear of the cabin means that you can see the entire interior, from the footwells to most of the roof and yes this does have a fisheye effect. You could see too much of the inside and not enough of the outside. Also my camcorder was struggling to get the light balance(?) correct, the shot often ended up being too dark.
A normal angle lens will see a higher proportion of the winscreen in the shot, hence reduce the light problem (I think).

I don’t have any screen grabs at the moment but could get some tonight if you are interested

Both my cams are the 2.9mm ultra wide angle/520 line ones.

My cam is a Sony hi res 560 line fitted with a 4.3mm (78 degress) lens. I have 3.6mm & 2.9mm lenses also. If the 2.9mm is 120 degrees, then I guess (if the angle is proportional to the mm size!) that the 3.6mm is @ 99 degrees. That should give a good choice of views hopefully.

Thanks for the additional link, I’ll check that site out also.

I don’t have any screen grabs at the moment but could get some tonight if you are interested

Yes, please � interested to see what the view is like. Please also say if you’ve cropped it

Tried to grab some stills last night, to be honest they were shite, not worth posting.

My footage looks fine when viewed directly on a screen, but as soon as I transfer it to a PC it looks crap. The quality used to be fine from my old Panasonic camcorder, but I changed to a Sony one that had Av in and a LANC input when I installed the bullet cams and now the quality(on a PC) is crap.

You can find a poor quality clip I took here:

http://www.tigerownersclub.co.uk/tigerfiles/Threeracers/brands9july/mickgrant.wmv

You can find a poor quality clip I took here:

It’s good enogh to see what was going on � that’s the general idea (for me). Though there is a surprising of amount vignetting with that lens � but don’t suppose it matters that much � not looking for an Oscar film award

That was with the ultra-wide lens, yes? Where did you have it mounted?

How about type of mounting and connectors. Are the connection plugs small enough to feed through small holes such as the engine cover mesh (probably not, I suspect)? What do they have � cinch plugs? Mounting via suction pads, velcro � experiences, recommendations anyone?

Any tips welcome

Yes the Brands clip was taken with the ultra wide angle lens. It was mounted, using cable ties, on top of rear view mirror. Not happy about the amount of reflection from the screen and I would like to be able to see more of the cabin, hence it’s going to be moved.

My rear camera is held in by 2 jubilee clips, one each side of the clam, the outside clip is concealed by the number plate plinth.

Drivedata do sell a number of different of mounts, but I haven’t used any so can’t comment, they were too dear for my taste.

Because I made my own switch box, all the connectors and wiring are bespoke and I soldered the necessary connectors after the wiring was already on the car.

The connectors that came with the bullet cams are quite small and could be passed through the majority of places.

The connectors that came with the bullet cams are quite small and could be passed through the majority of places.

Cool! How about the route for the cable from the rear cam � did you feed it through the side window or what?

Thinking about ways to make a solution where the cable is perhaps permanently in place (fed through bulkhead somehow?) and the cam, etc. connected when required…

Thinking about ways to make a solution where the cable is perhaps permanently in place (fed through bulkhead somehow?) and the cam, etc. connected when required…

Pesky is your man - I think like Livingstone first discovered the source of the Nile, he was the first to chart a route through the rear bulkhead…he may have photos

Pesky is your man

Excuse my ignorance as a newbie, but a members search did not turn up “Pesky”.

It should have, Pesky is definitely a member…

Daft buggers, it’s Mr Pesky (since Mr Admin’s Amstrad server packed up a couple of years ago & lost 2K of my posts!).

Anyway, sorry can’t help with the wires through the bulkhead, plus I’m sure the S2 will be different (bound to be made from cast iron not aluminium)

Daft buggers, it’s Mr Pesky

[stands to attention and salutes]…sorry

Just stumbled across this thread.

I’m wanting to fit an in dash monitor to hook up my RF Concepts bullet cam, rear facing of course! Which in dash unit is anyone using?

I don’t need the latest bells and whistles jobbie, just something reliable with a decent screen. Any ideas?

Cheers

I have a Panasonic AVIC-1X, gives you everything you could ever need, it’s small and light and doesn’t have big ‘hidden boxes’ that you’d never loose in an Exige… they were �2K a year or so ago, no down to about �800?

(bound to be made from cast iron not aluminium)

GTF
JayCee

It should have, Pesky is definitely a member…

But not an example you would want to parade around Canal Street unless you wanted a laugh
In fact the REAR facing bullet cam would be just the JOBBY!!!