My Brother sent me this email today of his newest camera purchase. $18 Bucks!!!! I decided to share this as it may have applications to our planes too. At that price, who couldn't get into the Backcountry video game?? The glider video may not be thrilling but check out the sound and resolutuion......not too bad. FWIW.

http://www.unitedhobbies.com/UNITEDHOBB ... duct=10973

"Hello Glider people, last Saturday I brought out a miniature video camera I bought from Hobby King in Hong Kong for $18.59 plus shipping. It's smaller than my thumb. This was my first test, so I taped the adjustable mount it comes with to the top of my wing on my Eraser Extreme, and sent it up the winch. Not even sure if it would work, I did 3 flights and tried to show off our field as much as possible. What I found when I got home and plugged it into my computer was amazing. This thing really works. Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipQ-oyC-Pqk

Not related to you post, but this related video to the one posted had me laughing hard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTDuGaTRiJU

SixTwoLeemer wrote:My Brother sent me this email today of his newest camera purchase. $18 Bucks!!!! I decided to share this as it may have applications to our planes too. At that price, who couldn't get into the Backcountry video game?? The glider video may not be thrilling but check out the sound and resolutuion......not too bad. FWIW.

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Yup, the video wasn't that exciting, but that thud of a landing in the "tall grass" makes my landings look pretty good by comparison!

Boy, for $18 it sure works good! I'd like to put it on a real plane. I just might get one.
And, the Teddy Bear video is great. The control wheel movements and the bear looking around are good. Loved the spin!

Well, I bit. In a word; "great". The company, HobbyKing is in china, and their service sucks. It took two months to get the dang thing, but, for $18 it was worth the risk.

I've only had it for a day, so I can't speak to reliability or longevity. But it does a decent job for a fixed focus, square format video recorder. I tried it in my plane this morning, and the results are only so-so, but that is due to the vibration in the mount I used. If the subject is steady, it works pretty well. Even though it is 720 x 480 format, the aspect ratio of the image is nearly square. Anyway, for high risk environment, or just about any rough and ready use, it isn't bad. The prop looks like a scimitar.

I clipped it to my glasses and took a video driving home from the airport. I suck as a video platform. Too many quick glances at the girls walking down the street. Next time I fly, I'll fly down the river and have it clipped to my headset.

The thing is really small. Literally thumb size. I won't repeat the specs from the website above, but it seems to perform as advertised.

I need to research how to mount it to the airframe without getting so much vibration. This is a real problem, even though my plane seems, to my butt, to vibrate less than a Cessna 152.

tom

Tom, you'll have to report back on what you find the best way to mount is. I haven't purchased mine yet but I hope to see some camera mounts/ideas around Oshkosh next week.

My fellow Taylorcraft club member DJ Vegh in the PHX Arizona area is at the forefront of these airplane mounted camera games. DJ has created fully controllable camera mounts, vibration damping, remote cockpit controls, etc. His stuff is very very high quality. I believe you can see his videos and camera systems at http://www.azchoppercam.com/ . DJ's products are a long way above (and better) than the $18 Chinese stuff. But he delivers exceptional quality video and camera control setups.

Bill

EZFlap wrote:My fellow Taylorcraft club member DJ Vegh in the PHX Arizona area is at the forefront of these airplane mounted camera games. DJ has created fully controllable camera mounts, vibration damping, remote cockpit controls, etc. His stuff is very very high quality. I believe you can see his videos and camera systems at http://www.azchoppercam.com/ . DJ's products are a long way above (and better) than the $18 Chinese stuff. But he delivers exceptional quality video and camera control setups.

Bill

Got a hold of your friend in Arizona to price one of those hi tech cams for the 182. They are a slightly higher than the one at the beginning of this post. It is going to take a while to save for this hi tech cam so buying the EZFlap will have to go on hold for a while.

Tim

When this thread first came out I was going to buy one. They were out of the $18 ones so I went all out and bought one of these:

http://www.unitedhobbies.com/UNITEDHOBB ... Micro_SD__

I think the only difference is that this one takes still pictures too. It didn't come with a users manual so I had to find a forum and some guys had put the operating instructions on there. They are tiny and I think I have already lost mine. Guess it is time to clean my office.