New helmet cam

Andy Whittle · Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 8:38 pm Post subject: New helmet cam

Google search Samsung SC-X105L

I just bought it but have not played with it yet. Its the size of a flip phone and the helmet cam is included.

see http://www.samsung.com/Products/Camcorder/DigitalMemory/SC_X105LXAA.asp?page=Specifications

Andy

Chris Sigua · Moderator Joined: 18 Jul 2001 Posts: 821

What's the price on that?
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Andy Whittle · Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 8:59 pm Post subject:

$510 + tax

William Sandoval · Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 7:52 am Post subject:

If you already have a video camera and want to use it to take helmet cam videos, you can use one of these:

http://www.viosport.com/

Note the Tony Hawk helmet cam for only $100! It seems to be self contained (not quite... you need a pc to download the video onto). From my impression, it is more of a 'toy camera'. That is, it will not yield tv quality videos but it should give video of good enough quality to post on the internet or whatnot.

I'm considering getting one of the helmet cams that hooks up to the video camera. I only wish I could get the functionality (and price) of that set-up without having to lug around my video camera.

Andrew. james · Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 8:26 am Post subject:

The problem I have with using a helmet cam is the rough ride messes up cameras that take tapes. Making them not record right and even break sometimes. You really do need a recorder like the samsung to get decent video. I have a sony that records to either mini dv or memory stick. When I set it to minidv every bump messes up the image. When I set it to memory stick the video is not as good quality but bumps don't effect it at all.

William Sandoval · Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 9:35 am Post subject:

So would a hard drive camera be called for or will that skip too?
What do people usually use for these applications?
Maybe I'll try mounting my camera to the kart once to see haw bad the bumps affect the image before getting a helmet cam then.
A guy I know has the Tony Hawk helmet cam and he says that it works pretty well on the kart. It is very affordable but I would rather get something that would produce better video quality.

Bob Monday · Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 91

The Tony Hawk camera only records at 15 frames per second. That is going to be very poor quality video. At only 60mph, that means that you're moving about 6' between each frame. Even when you double that to the TV standard of 30 frames per second, you're moving about 3' between frames.

It also has a very short recording time before it auto-stops, and there's nothing you can do about that. There's no way to increase its memory.

Check out a solid-state recording system at:

http://www.jimmccolloughracing.com/actioncam/main.htm

Bob

John Denman · Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 9:55 pm Post subject:

The Samsung is a pretty good unit overall. We made a powerbuy on 12 of them a few months ago and got them at a pretty good price. I may do it again once we have enough interest.

Good Points
No moving parts!
Very easy to switch on/off.
Lightweight.
Low cost 3 year warrantee from Best Buy or Circuit City.

Bad Points
External Cam sucks. Low resolution, poor image.
MPEG Compression. MPEG is great for DVD's but terrible for editing.

We set one up using a better Bullet Cam mounted on the chassis in a camera holder we fabricated much better then helmet mounting and built a mount for the camcorder that fits on the seat.
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Bob Monday · Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 91

It's a temptation to view digital video on a computer monitor because it's so easy and quick. That option almost always looks bad because of the (high) resolution of the monitor. A TV is a fairly low resolution device. A second issue is how large the native image is before it's blown up to monitor or TV screen size. The more you have to blow it up, the worse the image is going to be. With most of us having our computer monitors set to 1024 x 768, there just isn't enough of an image there to avoid fuzzy playback. You might try setting the monitor resolution down before playback, though that can affect the location of desktop icons when you set it back.

Next to watching the video on the recording device itself, I find that converting the image to DVD (MPEG2) during or after editing gives the best results. Now to replace Windows Movie Maker with some bettter MPEG4 editing software!

Bob

John Denman · Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2005 10:53 am Post subject:

Editing the video in a pure mode like from the AVI source files is the best way to go. Its like taking stratight from a 16 channel digital recording session rather then editing from a cassette recording made from a portable Mono cassette recorder.

MPEG is stripped down on frame data compared to most of the better compression editors on the market. We use Final Cut Pro if when have to edit MPEG but some people might find that package (along with the MAC) a bit pricey.

MPEG2 is for DVD's, and MPEG4 is an even lower resolution designed for internet files. We encode our premium internet videos at twice the resolution of MPEG4. There are lots of decent consumer level budget priced MPEG4 editors available ranging from shareware to Roxio and others.

Despite the quality issues of MPEG, a camcorder system with no moving parts is still the best option for on-board video.

On board video is very helpful for autocrossing. With a limited number of runs, it's the best way to replay what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong. In that case it won't matter so much over editing as it will with fast easy playback in as high a resolution mode as possible.

Also you will get a much better view if the camera is mounted about the height of the drivers head, but fixed to the chassis rather then a helmet cam. That in turn will put added vibration to the camera. Cameras are pretty robust with the exception of the filtering capacitor which needs to be hot-melt glued down to the PCB to withstand several hours of use.

We're also experimenting with a new 802.11 wireless camera system...this could be a real breakthrough for those with a little network saavy.
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John Denman
Producer for RTMP
http://www.kartweb.com

Andy Whittle · Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 4:59 am Post subject:

Google CVS camcorder

http://www.i-hacked.com/content/view/182/94/

Andy Whittle · Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 7:43 pm Post subject:

This is a movie I shot at 60MPH with the $30 CVS camera downloaded with my computer on a Palm III modded dock.

http://www.ncs-stl.com/movie/Movie_0005.avi

AW

Caleb White · Joined: 24 Apr 2005 Posts: 1857

andy all i got was a 12 secong paul harvy something
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Andy Whittle · Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 8:21 pm Post subject:

You need the latest DIVX stuff Do a google search.

http://www.download.com/DivX-Player-with-DivX-Codec-/3000-2139_4-10062728.html

AW

Steve Elzinga · Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 10:48 am Post subject: