Has anyone tried recording their track footage using a hard-drive based camcorder? A friend is looking to use a Sony SR-DCR62 mounted to the rollbar, but I don't know how vibrations / forces will affect the recording ability. Has anyone broken a harddrive camcorder doing this?
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Hard Drive Based Camcorder
- Thread starter nsx13
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Hard drive cams don't work on the track. They stop recording with vibrations in order to protect the surface of the drive.
I just bought a cheap ($200) Aptek Action HD that writes to an 8GB SD card. It will do 1080p at 30fps or 720p at 60fps. On my test drives the 720p seems to do a pretty damn good job. I am walking out the door to go to Putnam Park for the Mid Ohio PCA HPDE and will post some High Def video when I get back.
The only thing that sucks about this cam is there is no external mic input which means you only get wind noise with the windows down. I might look into a cheap audio recorder to put under the rear hatch or some place that the wind doesn't effect and then sync that audio up to the video.
We'll see.... first have to test the cam at the track this weekend.
I just bought a cheap ($200) Aptek Action HD that writes to an 8GB SD card. It will do 1080p at 30fps or 720p at 60fps. On my test drives the 720p seems to do a pretty damn good job. I am walking out the door to go to Putnam Park for the Mid Ohio PCA HPDE and will post some High Def video when I get back.
The only thing that sucks about this cam is there is no external mic input which means you only get wind noise with the windows down. I might look into a cheap audio recorder to put under the rear hatch or some place that the wind doesn't effect and then sync that audio up to the video.
We'll see.... first have to test the cam at the track this weekend.
On a ~$200 camera why not just take the mic off and wire (2 wires I think unless stereo) a jack in? You could get a jack at Radio Shack?
I have the same problem with my hard drive camera, luckly it can also write to an SD card though so it still works in-car
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I've been using a GoPro Motorsports Camera on my go-kart. The homemade mount I originally built and tested wasn't very solid. The camera started to vibrate up towards the sky during a session. Go to their site at www.goprocamera.com. Then contact me to purchase. I have special pricing for Prime members. I have given away two of these at our last two CalCoastal drives.
Hi
I have a GOPro camera too. I was planning to mount it on the right side next to the foglight (I guess you guys don't have the OEM foglights).
The guy I got them from used it a lot on his motorcycle on track where the quality was pretty good. I saw some of the video he recorded. He said he had to use a tool to tighten the screw so the thingy did not move when used.
It takes "only" a 2gb card. But it will last for about 50 minutes of recording. I will be using chargeable AAA.
I should have known that there was a distributor here on Prime. But now I have it. I will be using it a lot next weekend when there may be 5 NSX'es on the northern most track and probably the best racetrack in northern Europe.
Regards
Regards
I have a GOPro camera too. I was planning to mount it on the right side next to the foglight (I guess you guys don't have the OEM foglights).
The guy I got them from used it a lot on his motorcycle on track where the quality was pretty good. I saw some of the video he recorded. He said he had to use a tool to tighten the screw so the thingy did not move when used.
It takes "only" a 2gb card. But it will last for about 50 minutes of recording. I will be using chargeable AAA.
I should have known that there was a distributor here on Prime. But now I have it. I will be using it a lot next weekend when there may be 5 NSX'es on the northern most track and probably the best racetrack in northern Europe.
Regards
Regards
I have a GoPro camera and HATE it. Thing is a piece of crap! It works 1 out of 10 times.
- Eats batteries like crazy (even the expensive LithIon Energizers)
- Sound, might as well not have sound
- Shuts off by itself sometimes after a min or two
- Picture quality is OK
You can get an Aiptek Action HD for $200 or Jazz HD for $100 that records in 720p HD on a 4 or 8GB SD for less and the picture quality is much, much better not to mention the battery last longer than a few minutes.
- Eats batteries like crazy (even the expensive LithIon Energizers)
- Sound, might as well not have sound
- Shuts off by itself sometimes after a min or two
- Picture quality is OK
You can get an Aiptek Action HD for $200 or Jazz HD for $100 that records in 720p HD on a 4 or 8GB SD for less and the picture quality is much, much better not to mention the battery last longer than a few minutes.
I haven't checked into this much. I rode up a chairlift at Whistler with the marketing guy for this company. Looked like a pretty neat thing.
http://twenty20camera.com/
Sulley
http://twenty20camera.com/
Sulley
I have had long had issues with hard drives and can't see myself ever owning a hard drive camcorder. Heck, I even had a microdrive fail on me (costing me a gigs worth of photos from last year's ALMS event at Laguna Seca).
I personally would look into owning a camcorder that records to a solid-state media for the track. Vibrations even affect tape transport mechanisms.
I personally would look into owning a camcorder that records to a solid-state media for the track. Vibrations even affect tape transport mechanisms.
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