shortfielder wrote:

the Kodak Playsport Zx3 is what I'm using. It takes a little work, but gives a good picture.

Matt
Does that mean not very user friendly, and I should look for something simpler?
I'm not very hi tech, but I am pretty lo tech
Gary

Gary, by no means hi-tech. You just need to make a sturdy mount and most likely get a remote. The mount in the most important, so it takes a little work to make it solid. Nothing a 6 pack of local brew can't solve though.

If anyone is interested a camera setup, I can get the GoPro HD and Countour HD cameras in my little online store: www.skymountaingear.com. Send me a PM for discounted price.

qmdv wrote:This looks pretty good. Probably for use in the plane only so you end up with the prop in the vids.

http://www.goprocamera.com/products

Anybody out there use one of these. Looks pretty good for under 300 bucks.

Tim

Our Motocross and Road Racing teams use the GoPro camera's all the time. The road race bikes get up over 150mph with lot's of vibration and the video's come out great. And the units stay on the bikes. I've always worried about the unit falling of my plane. That's why I never used my GoPro on my plane yet. The only thing I don't like about the GoPro I have, is it don't have a remote start/stop button for videoing.

Has anyone had any issues with the FAA on the use of camera mounts on the exterior of the airplane? I could see them wanting to have a field approval or STC for mounting cameras.

Matt,

How much does the Vx3 weigh? The specs I can find only list the weight without a battery ... not too useful.

Dave

Not to sure on the weight; not heavy but not a feather either. I'd compare it to a smartphones weight (droid/iphone). I haven't found it to be a problem with RAM mounts (I was concerned it would be too heavy).

Ok, thanks. I asked about the weight because my son wants a camera he can mount on his RC airplanes, but I think all the HD cameras discussed here are too heavy. It would be good if we could get just one camera to do all the jobs, but that's not going to work. He may have to save up for an RC-specific model.

There was a small video camera posted on here awhile back, probly wasn't HD, but seemed to take a decent video. Looked like it was probly a cheap,$20, Chinese POS, but there was a sample video of it in action and it was used on an RC plane, so I guess it was light enough. No idea how long,it could last. I know someone here said he bought one. Maybe he will see this and give some updated feedback. Atleast you wouldn't have much to lose in the crash.
Gary

DaveF wrote:Ok, thanks. I asked about the weight because my son wants a camera he can mount on his RC airplanes, but I think all the HD cameras discussed here are too heavy. It would be good if we could get just one camera to do all the jobs, but that's not going to work. He may have to save up for an RC-specific model.

The Go Pro Hd works nicely for this. http://vimeo.com/11097909

What about a Barbie?

http://vimeo.com/13992345

Nice, I'll be roll'n with Barbie next flight.

I got a Kodak Play Sport from Santa and it certainly is lacking in the anatomically correct feature department that, no doubt will sell millions of the must have Barbies. The most glaring deficiency of my Kodak might be the lack of the inner thigh battery flaunted so boldly in the above mentioned video.

Warning: Children, be careful changing the inner thigh mounted battery with that screwdriver, because uh, ... You could take an eye out.

Made a mount for the Kodak but got a storm to shut everything down here so no videos till much later.

Here are a couple of cheap chinese models that are very light and give ok video. Not too good with the prop in the way though.

TR800 Turnigy 30FPS Ultra-Mini DigiCam INCLUDING 2 1 Reserved
TR52DV Turnigy highrate 30FPS Ultra-small Digital C 1 Reserved

Here us the link:

http://www.unitedhobbies.com/UNITEDHOBB ... _index.asp

I think they were about $20 each. No instructions but I found out how to use it on the web. These are very basic cameras.

Rich

Hafast wrote:What about a Barbie?

http://vimeo.com/13992345

Erin and I died laughing at that. Hot shoe(s)!

More ND filter demonstrations, although it seems this guy wasn't suffering from the hozrz blind effect so much as an undesired prop-stop effect.

Zane, Your post got me to thinking (scary). I have never messed with filters etc. so I started googling them for the HD gopro. I stumbled on this site and gave the guy a call. http://www.eyeofmine.com/gopro/hd/prof/index.html

He has alot of cool mounts that we could use but of more importance, the ND filter and gave me the idea for an external monitor that I can mount in the cockpit to make sure the subject plane etc. is in the shot. The down side to making this phone call is that I just lightened my wallet a bit buying a couple mounts and the monitor.

He did caution (or schooled) me on the proper use of the polarizing filter. He said to make sure you hold the filter up to your eye and look at the sky etc, and rotate the filter to make sure you get the effect you want ie. if it is a real sunny blue sky day, you can roll the fllter around and it will make the sky purple due to the polarization. He said once you get the filter positioned how you want the effect, then carefully drop it in the housing and then put the camera in place and your go to go with the shooting.

I hope to get some good weather when I get home next month and should be able to get some good comparison video with and without the filter.

I always forget to take it with me (how useful is that?) but I made an effort to shoot some video with my Oregon Scientific ATC9K this last friday.

This is shot at 720p @60fps with exposure value (EV) set to -1.3. The final edited video is compressed down to 720p @ 30fps.

I'm pretty happy with the results. I do get these cameras for free as Erin works for the company, but I will admit that at times I think GoPro has better image quality, at least on snow. In the airplane, I think they are neck-and-neck. It's an exposure issue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBnZqfwi-bs

Watch it in 720p mode on Youtube.

Here is a stitched time lapse from a 60 second interval sequence from a recent PA-12 flight.



They do absolutely amazing for such little cameras, it never ceases to amaze me. I normally use my GoPro for skiing, but it's size and the ease of mounting (the handlebar / roll-cage mounts work in numerous applications) make it quite nice for the plane. The one downfall of the GoPro is the current lack of remote (or cord) control that would allow you to control cameras mounted outside the plane from within

Bellow is a short clip from a Canon HV30 in the same plane for you to compare the video quality, despite the different techniques.