Your exhaust note sounds a lot like Madonna.


On a serious note would be great to have exhaust note, or engine revs...


click pic for better view :D
His, Chile RED over, Madness intake, Magnaflow exhaust, Helix 15% Pulley & RDR Swaybar
Hers, Electric Blue / Union Jack on top and BONE Stock

 

Hi PCNorton and TwOMINI's,

Thanks for your feedback. I've pretty much found the problem, and it's with the way the littleMINI.us domain is configured. Should be fixed in a few days, so for now I will put all pictures under the c3club.org domain.

As for Madonna and exhaust, hahahaah, yeah I agree. I'm thinking about putting one of my external mics in the boot, actually, inside my spare tire to see if I can get some decent sound without all the wind noise. Stay tuned for the next vids.

 

Ok, this first one demonstration of how small and flexible the camera actually is.

http://mcs.maximus-consulting.com/mount/wheelzoom.wmv (1.3MB WM9)

Next is a short video of some turns and corners. More to follow, I promise!

HQ: http://mcs.maximus-consulting.com/mount/windscreen.wmv (6MB WM9)

LQ: http://mcs.maximus-consulting.com/mo...dscreen512.wmv (3.5MB WM9)

-Jim

 

Nice job! So is this the Viosport camera??? Quality is good, nice and wide too. Cool!

Richard

 

Yes it is the Viosport. I'm VERY impressed with it. Pictures of it today. My brother borrowed my digital camera for the weekend but will have it back to me by noon.

-Jim

 

Nice! I'm gonna have to do some comparisons with my "cheapies". You picked a nice time---when it wasn't too bright, too dark, and had some nice color in the sky to reflect off your bonnet! (Beautiful!!) Can't wait to see more!

 

Actually, that was at about 8:40 at night. I've been impressed with the camera and how it works in low-light conditions. If you notice you can see the yellow glow of the driving lights near the end. I'm going to try a night shot too just to see how it turns out.

-J

 

This should be an interesting movie to watch! I mounted my "cheapie" camera on the windshield in a similar position to Jim. Jim's footage is still sharper, but this isn't that bad either!

Hope this link works! Let me know!. Will be back tonight.

http://www.littlemini.us/files/vacucam_wind_512.wmv

Windows Media 9 (8MB) at 512kb/s

Richard

 

Yep! Works fine! The problem I think we have is that the Windows Media conversion takes a lot of picture quality. Unless you're willing to make a HUGE file.

Your video seemed to have a blue-green tint, was that deliberate or just the camera? Or was this shot on Neptune?

This is fun! Everyone get a camera!

-J

 

Link works excellent!The movie is good. Definately need a setup for the next dragons run.

Paul

 

Thanks Jim and Paul! It was certainly a DNS issue before, glad its resolved.

Re: Green Cast (Neptune)
The auto white balance isn't perfect. I've tried calibrating it with a white piece of paper and itt works for awhile but seems to go a bit crazy under different lighting conditions. In bright sunlight its about perfect, but in shade or darkness it gets a little funky. Definitely can use some color processing to return to normal. I I processed most of my previously posted pics, not this one, maybe that's why it looks a bit different.

Re: Dragon
The camera setup I'm using here costs about $70 (camera, suction mount, ball mount, and various hardware). Not a bad price. I'm waiting for a new switcher to arrive in the mail. I'm going to have 4 cameras. One on the wheel, one out the drivers window, one in the backseat looking forward, and one looking out back. I expect that such a system with 4 cameras, and hardware will cost less than $250.

 

Cool. But i think I would buy 4 recorders and do my switching during editing. I definately will be keeping my eye on this. I figure some hi 8 analog recorders should be cheaply had with everyone going digital. I can bounce analog down now.


Paul

 

Heh heh, sure 4 recorders is always nice! Not always economical, but the trouble would be increased set up time, additional batteries to charge, 4 times as many tapes to contend with, having to hit Record + Start on 4 cameras, and stopping all of them whenever you stop. Stoplights are a huge waste of tape esp when 60 minutes is all you got. LOL.
I wouldn't bother with Hi8, but go Digital 8 since its fairly cheap, and having to dub analog to DV for the sake of editing (doing it 4 times) isn't very efficient, IMO. =) I know you can use a DV converter to capture the footage in dv format, but you won't have timecode, which is important if you are switching between multiple angles.

I've been shooting for about 17 years, and my experience has been to minimize the footage during acquisition, as long as you get "the shot", so you aren't buried in the edit suite. =)

Just my 2 cents.

 

Great Thread guys!


I'm a video guy also and i've tried this discussion in many other places and it usually dies quick, just not many people into video.

Mjolnir,

Thanks for the link to the suction cup puller, i ordered two and i'm just waiting for them to come in. I've shot alot of incar before in my SVT Focus using a modified hearest mount which can be viewed here http://www.riedelvideo.com/regner/. About a year ago i purchased a few of those Ebay special wireless and wired spycams. The wireless ones are a bit of a pain to work with, they can look great when working but when you can't get a signal their a PAIN. I have yet to really mount the wired one to see what it looks like, it also has a mic.

OctaneGuy,

Great video's! The exterior stuff is extremely solid! I hope the suction mount i got from Mil's post will be that solid with a Mini DV camera perched on it. What is that suction cup mount you use intended for? You said you got it at autozone?

Also had an idea, instead of hanging it from the rear sunroof why not attach it to the hatch window looking forward, you'll be able to put it at the right height and you don't have to mess with extension rods that shake. Just an idea.

That Viosport camera quality looks VERY nice but its a bit pricey. Maybe in the future

 

I just think driving and switching is not a good idea. Are you focused on driving or are you focused on getting the best shot? I am definately going to defer to your experience filming but will have to take into account I will be focused when driving.

Edited to add: Not talking about being focused on the driving style/ city driving you were showing. But the "more spirited" driving and track days.

Paul

 

Yeah these threads pop up every so often. Usually not a lot on contributors but lots of reads. Considering 64 replies but 1,102 views! I think a lot of people want to do video, but it requires a certain amount of technical expertise and desire to tinker, and many people just aren't up for that.

I agree about the wireless. My first MINI driving footage was using 2 wireless spy cams and switching consisted of rotating the frequency dial and HOPING I'd get it right. Lots of editing required.
http://www.littlemini.us/files/dvd/.../malibu2004.wmv

Later I discovered that you could use 2 cameras on similar frequencies, and switch between them simply by applying or removing power--thus taking the whole rotate the frequency dial out of the equation. But still it worked great on the track, and sometimes not at all in the canyons.

Now I'm using wired spy cams and they work very well, and the ones with audio means I don't need a separate mic anymore, but focus isn't perfect, and neither is white balance. Fortunately the latter can be easily fixed in post with a little color correction.

The suction mount I've got are for lifting sheet metal. They have a 90 pound working capacity and weigh 1 pound. My local Autozone (PepBoys) usually stocks 4 at a time, and I just go and buy them up. Cost around $3 a piece. Mounting a DV camera directly to the suction mounts will work, but the problem is more about mass.

Mounting a large camera means that when you go over bumps or even just hard corners, the camera will move, ever so slightly. Don't get me wrong, the footage will look great, but not as good as using a small low mass unit like Jims or mine. I've got footage from a fellow who used a Stickypod and a DV camera on the Dragon, and it looks good, but as I said, not as good as ours. Plus your mic is outside in the wind recording wind noise. =)

re: Window looking forward
Good idea. Hmmm, I was thinking about this same thing yesterday---will have to check the angle of view. I will let you know today. I figured the best position was actually much lower--just about 6 inches above the passenger storage compartments in the back seat, or about 2-1/2 feet down from the sunroof. I'm also going to try hanging a mount over the back seat. I'll see!

Richard

 

I agree. I think it depends on the type of driving, and what you are trying to get out of it. If you're driving to be driving spirtedly and want to capture it--then just drive and forget about the framing and switching--that's what I do. In fact in the video of the Malibu Canyons, once I got to Tuna Canyon, I just prayed that by the time I got down, I had recorded something, if anything. :smile:

But there were sections of straightaways where I radioed the group and told them to stop for a group shot--then I took off ahead, knowing the back camera was recording them.

FWIW, we had a guy in his highly modded MCS flying around Willowsprings at 110 + mph with our camera platform---he said switching slowed him down a bit, but he's a pretty sharp guy--having raced motorcycles for some 30 years, so I imagine his reflexes are pretty good.

Warning--this is Shakycam footage. I don't have any footage from the cameras but you can clearly see the 2 wireless spycam mounts we used.
http://www.littlemini.us/files/willowsprings1.wmv

 

Just want to say thanks to everyone for all your input on this thread, seeing all the video's and reading the ideas I'm looking forward to making some of my own video's. I got the suction cup from Autozone, a Sony DCR-HC65 mini Dv, the bullet camera from www.chasecam.com now I'm looking forward to making a video run on the Dragon and in Sept. for the 35th anniversary of Talladega Speedway all ticket holders for the Oct. race get to make one lap around the track (33 degree of banking) so I will definitely have to shoot that, and then try to figure out how to post.

Stephen

 

Great! Looking forward to seeing some videos!

For anyone else that's interested in doing the same, but isn't so sure about making a big upfront investment, contact me via PM or email or hang tight. I'm gonna be a NAM vendor shortly (I'm working with Mark F. right now), and will have complete single & multi-camera kits available soon.

Just wanted to repeat, I'm not soliciting for customers--rather, informing anyone that's on the fence that there will be a ready to use and affordable solution very soon.

 

heres my video.

http://radiohead1.home.comcast.net/sidecam.WMV

I managed to get going about 50 mph.
The quality online isn't the greatest, cause it would have been huge. it looks way better uncompressed.

 

Just got my camera the other day... working on the mounting solution. Works pretty good. Night Vision is good also. Will let you know when I complete it.

 

I just completed my commitment this past weekend for the Target Smart Car tour. Here's a video clip using my new VacuCams. I only set up 2 cameras due to time constraints. Despite the plastic body panels, the mounts held up just fine! I think the picture quality turned out quite nice--seeing that I began shooting about 4PM until about 9PM.

Of course the footage has been sped up to make it a bit more watchable and please pardon the sucky music. I didn't have anything better. I know, I know, I need better music. It's on order!

http://www.littlemini.us/files/smartcars_fast2.wmv

 

bump

 

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Hey Guys!

I have the Viosport one also. I've found that you can use a bike pump mount(I mountain bike too when not motoring )that just happens to fit the camera body nicely and some velcro to attach it to the strap on the sun visor.

I originally got the camera because I can mount it to my bike helmet but with this things you can use them wherever. I loved the wheel inspection video. I did the same thing with mine. I was always curious to see what was under there.

Now I just need to get passenger seat cargo net. I've launched my camera a few times!

What fun! Cool videos guys...maybe one day I can get some of mine up.



-Cyn

 

Mjolnir,

Where did you find the SBH-100 for $9.95? I googled it and only found it for $25

Thanx!