After having seen footage from a friend and her lipstick camera, I decided I wanted to try something similar, but more dramatic. With this being a test, and proof of concept, I didn't want to spend any money. So I utilized all existing materials to pull this off, and I'm quite pleased by the results. It could use some finetuning, and of course a nice scenic run through the mountains or the track!

Here are the details:

The camera I chose was a small black and white infrared video camera used for home security. I purchased this from DAK over 15 years ago! This has a tether that carries AV and power to a BW CRT. The CRT has composite Video/audio outputs which are then connected to my Sony TRV-950 miniDV camcorder in VCR mode. The CRT is powered by an AC/DC voltage inverter in my cigarette lighter, and the camera is running off it's own battery.

The camera is mounted to the body using a device I bought from my local Autozone used for picking up large objects. You press it against the flat surface and a vacuum is created. I gaffer taped the camera to this. Gaffer tape is a removable cloth tape that looks like Duct tape but is easily removable without leaving residue behind. Film/Video productions use it all the time.

The rest should be self explanatory.




Movie Links are available below. See thread.

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Octane Guy

 

Nice neighhorhood.

That would be so cool for autocross (if you could manage not to hit the camera with a cone)

 

Hi DiD!

Yeah it looks EVEN better in black and white! Autocross footage would be cool! I think I made a big boo boo by posting my URL. My poor DSL which is also hosting my websites has screeched to a hault!

I did a Netstat on my server and saw a whole mess of server connections. =) Guess people are watching!

 

Pretty cool. I want to buy one of those mounts for camcorders so I can make some cool videos of canyon runs or autox. I was inspired when I saw a cool video that fellow nam member JivanIvan made with one

 

Cool footage! I think the picture might be easier to view in color! Or maybe it's my computer?? :smile:

 

Movie link removed!
I was just about to click on it and it was gone!
Windows Media 9 format? No- convert to quicktime please.

 

Sorry. I actually have both WM9 and QT versions, but my server has just gone south after I posted that link. There were about 8 simultaneous downloads and now none of my websites are functioning! I'm working on restarting it (I'm doing this remotely)

I'll post the new link when I'm able.

Thanks!

>>
>>Movie link removed!
>>I was just about to click on it and it was gone!
>>Windows Media 9 format? No- convert to quicktime please.
>>

 

Ok the Videos are being reposted again in both WM9 and QT formats. I want to thank Parklife for being so kind to offer to host these videos. Let's hope his bandwidth does better than my own!

Go watch!! (These clips don't have Audio and are about 6MB each)

Chicken Run Windows Media 9
Chicken Run Quicktime 5

Drive Around the Block WM9 (First Experiment)
Drive Around the Block QT5 (First Experiment)

_________________
Octane Guy

 

I also just received my wireless color spy cams and did some experiments today. I will soon have some color examples. So far the black and white cam seems the best solution for night driving as it's very crisp, and not much color is seen anyhow.

 

Very interesting perspective. It would be interesting to see if you could mount it on the bonnet and do a run with that. In car cam would be interesting too.

 

Thanks I just put together a color version utilizing two cams--one same wheel perspective and the second out my rear window. Ultimately, I want to have one on driver and in my air dam grill (close to the ground).

I'll see if Parklife can post this one too.

 

Ok here are some additional details of my wireless experiments. The camera on the box is my rear camera mounted on my storage shelf lid. The camera with the orange handle is the front mounted behind the wheel perspective.




_________________
Octane Guy

 

>>I'll see if Parklife can post this one too. :smile:

 

Wooohoooo!!! Thanks buddy!
I emailed you the link through my Yahoo account.

>>>>I'll see if Parklife can post this one too. :smile:
>>

 

If anyone is interested I saw this company Chasecam.com at the LA auto show. They have some pretty good products that aren't expensive. I'm gonna pick up a suction mount from them sometime

 

Hey that's pretty neat. Thanks for those links, and surprisingly they aren't that expensive.

Richard

>>If anyone is interested I saw this company Chasecam.com at the LA auto show. They have some pretty good products that aren't expensive. I'm gonna pick up a suction mount from them sometime
>>

>>Or I can direct you to all weather duct tape if you prefer

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Octane Guy

 

Here we go:

Motoring the west side of Los Angeles (in color) by OctaneGuy (8.5MB .WMV)

Right click, Save As, you know the drill.

 

Should it not be a rule that at least one person on each MINI run have a setup like this? Very nice job and I look forward to seeing your next feature film :smile:

 

Thanks MINIMiller!! I agree!

Parklife--you're awesome!! Thanks for hosting these clips!

>>Should it not be a rule that at least one person on each MINI run have a setup like this? Very nice job and I look forward to seeing your next feature film :smile:

 

BTW, Mac users on OSX, you can download a free Windows Media Player to view these clips.

Go to http://www.windowsmedia.com and click on Free Media player on right side of screen.

>>Here we go:
>>
>>Motoring the west side of Los Angeles (in color) by OctaneGuy (8.5MB .WMV)
>>
>>Right click, Save As, you know the drill.

 

Really cool. Amy chance to get some of the footage to use in a dvd I'm working on making for my local MINI dealer? I'd be more than happy to credit your work on it and send you a final copy.

 

Sure!!! I'd be happy to. I'll PM you.

 

Hey Xanthus and Parklife,

I've got a new video clip that I think is the best of the bunch. It's from a run I did on Saturday with some guys from MINI2.com.

I sent an email to Parklife, hope he can host them. It's small at 2.5MB, but pretty sweet as far as I'm concerned.

I'm going to be releasing this as a DVD that includes instruction on how to make the same rig I used.

OctaneGuy

 

I got a new host. While Parklife has been very kind, I just felt I might as well spend a few bucks to get a host!

**Updated 2/26/04**
**Moved to a new host**


Here's my latest video clip

WM9 Version of Canyon Run 2.5MB
QT Version of Canyon Run 2.5MB



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Octane Guy

 

Aloha,

Great set up and video clips

Now I know the meaning of a "California STOP"