My fiancee (that's such a weird word) works for a company here in Portland, who makes, among other products, action/helmet cams. Frankly, their previous entries into the market weren't so hot, but I've been playing with the new HD version that actually is pretty cool. I'll post a review of it when it officially gets released in the US.

Put some hours on the 170 this last weekend while testing the production sample camera. The wide angle lens is great for capturing the feel of being in the cockpit. It also makes landing speeds look really fast for some reason.

This is 720p @ 60 fps. My little Panasonic Lumix LX3 shoots 720p @ 24fps, and there is no prob distortion, so I think anything over 30 fps causes this effect. The only solution that I know of it to run a neutral density filter to force the camera to use a slower shutter speed. Higher frame rates are nice though, because on a machine with a good graphics card, the video is extremely fluid and smooth.

I know I'm gonna get in trouble with flightlogic for glossing over some mediocre flying with music...

Full HD: http://vimeo.com/13694732

Nice video!

The image stabilization/shock absorption on that camera must be really advanced. Made your landings look really smooth...

Was thinking of getting one of these http://shop.helmetcameracentral.com/HC-DRIFT-HD170.html I like the screen for editing. Does the Oregon Scientific have a screem. Also the Drift has a wireless remote good to mount the camera on the strut and turn on and off from inside plane.

Tim

Z..can you post a little more info on this camera? I like the resolution but don't like the through the prop effect...can the FPS be changed as as option for this camera. I'm really in the market for a new HD camera to replace my old Fuji, but the Fuji shoots great through-the-prop videos but it's resolution is not the greatest.
HC

Guys, I will post a thorough review soon with more footage samples.

That Drift HD does look like an interesting option...

http://www.driftinnovation.com/en/hd170-action-camera

The drift has a rotatble lense so up is up no matter how you mount it. Good for on the strut.

Tim

qmdv wrote:The drift has a rotatble lense so up is up no matter how you mount it. Good for on the strut.

Tim

The OSI has a rotatable mount in 2 axes. I think I need to do a helmet cam shootout.

The Drift is going to have the same prop distortion though, as it shoots at 30 fps. It does however, have a manual exposure mode, which could fix everything. VERY interesting!

qmdv wrote:Was thinking of getting one of these http://shop.helmetcameracentral.com/HC-DRIFT-HD170.html I like the screen for editing. Does the Oregon Scientific have a screem. Also the Drift has a wireless remote good to mount the camera on the strut and turn on and off from inside plane.

Tim

Tim - that sounds like a pretty nifty HD videocam. I've been looking unsuccessfully up to now for a high quality, HD cam that's small in profile (low drag) for mounting external to the cabin, has a remote control (again, for external mounting), is waterproof (rain happens), and has manual exposure controls to deal with the prop artifact (as opposed to going with a ND filter). This one looks like it does all of the above.

Has anyone here actually purchased and used one of these units? Before springing for the $330 to buy one, I'd want to know if it's got a decent image stabilizer, which is really important for a cam mounted on an airframe subject to prop and engine vibrations.

Zane - it would be a great idea to do a side-by-side of competing "helmet cams"!

Duane

The waterproof feature is actually very cool, much more so than just for rain. I had this thing (the Oregon Scientific ATC9K) underwater, swimming along with it, filming trout in my dad's swimming hole, to a depth of 4 ft. It's good to 65 ft or 20m according to the specs.

I have all this feedback for them about the prop distortion issue, and a line to the product development team, but Erin wonders how much of the market we comprise. Not much.

Nice video/hardware Z.

More videos like this and you won't be able to sell the ol' bird.

From the spec section of the Drift HD 170 Water Resistance: 0.5m . That is static preasure. This may be its drawback. Out on the strut in the rain doing 130 MPH may be more than 0.5 meters worth or in my language about 20 inches of water preasure.

The low profile aspect for outside plane mountiong is a pluss.

They are supposed to be abvailable in early August but last week they were supposed to be available July 28th.

Tim

qmdv wrote: preasure, preasure, mountiong, pluss, abvailable

WTF????

58Skylane wrote:

qmdv wrote: preasure, preasure, mountiong, pluss, abvailable

WTF????

Might be handy to brush up on my spelling. Not that important for this forum but in some situations it is critical.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2OJX7bx3ro

Tim

qmdv wrote:Might be handy to brush up on my spelling. Not that important for this forum but in some situations it is critical.

Tim

Groan...

qmdv wrote:

58Skylane wrote:

qmdv wrote: preasure, preasure, mountiong, pluss, abvailable

WTF????

Might be handy to brush up on my spelling. Not that important for this forum but in some situations it is critical.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2OJX7bx3ro

Tim

Flipping hilarious!!!

My fiancee (that's such a weird word) works for a company here in Portland, who makes, among other products, action/helmet cams. Frankly, their previous entries into the market weren't so hot, but I've been playing with the new HD version that actually is pretty cool. I'll post a review of it when it officially gets released in the US.

This happen to be the camera? http://www2.oregonscientific.com/ATC9K/mainpage.html

That's it ^^. I think I might check out one of those Drift HD170's too to try out the manual exposure. If it's just an exposure compensation value like -2, -1, +1, +2 etc, then the ATC9K has that. What I'm looking for is the ability to lock in a shutterspeed. I think the apertures on these things prob have too little range to worry much about.

I think the apertures on these things prob have too little range to worry much about.

Since depth of focus is a function of f stop (aperture), you are most probably right.

During your testing if you can find a frame per second rate that negates the scimitar prop effect let us know. I am guessing it will have to be slower to allow the prop disk to be a blur rather than faster.

We may have to live with the prop blades in order to have an unblurred image. If the group has the toys to do the experiment it would be good info. I don't know where you would find the frame rate on the various image files.

TD

1SeventyZ wrote:That's it ^^. I think I might check out one of those Drift HD170's too to try out the manual exposure. If it's just an exposure compensation value like -2, -1, +1, +2 etc, then the ATC9K has that. What I'm looking for is the ability to lock in a shutterspeed. I think the apertures on these things prob have too little range to worry much about.

Holly crap!! You did done lost me now!!

Found this today:

HD helmet cam shootout
http://www.vimeo.com/13791764

Drift HD170 test from inside heli:
http://www.vimeo.com/12377497

The blades in the final scene of the heli test look fairly undistorted, but then heli blades run at much lower rpm than a 76" or 84" prop. You can see in my video that at low rpm, it doesn't look too bad.