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Message started by Kelly on 11/03/7 at 15:42:30

Title: In-Car Video Equipment
Post by Kelly on 11/03/7 at 15:42:30

To Ryan, Alexei and anyone else that can help!
Please can you guys tell me what kind of equipment you are using to video the rallycross runs in-car? and what you are using to mount them in the vehicle? is it as simple as a small mounted digital camcorder or something else? Info would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Title: Re: In-Car Video Equipment
Post by RyanHuber on 11/03/7 at 16:14:00

I'm not sure what Alexei is using to record his videos, I think it might be a digital camera that takes video too. I know he uses a tripod held up with bungee cords, seems to work alright for rallycross but does move around a fair bit.

The setup I have is a bullet camera from http://www.chasecam.com , their 520 line version with audio.

This camera feeds into my miniDV camera which I just use as a VCR, basically. Chasecam also sells a nice digital solidstate recorder that uses memory cards, which if I didn't already have the video camera I'd be using.

For mounting, I use their triple suction cup mount, which works great for rallycross stuff (as long as you make sure the surface you're attaching it to is perfectly clean, it has come loose when I've been careless and not cleaned the dust off). I don't think I'd trust it outside the car for stage use like I've done for rallycross, but it works well inside. They also sell lots of different mounts for rollcages, etc.

As you can see in the following videos, the suction cup mount is very stable, even in a stage car on a rough road. This is mounted to the windshield.

http://media.putfile.com/Mark-Williams-Test-Day---Run1

http://media.putfile.com/Mark-Williams-Test-Day---Run-3

http://media.putfile.com/Defi-mulgrave

Hope that's helped. Of course, lots of people use normal small videocameras as well, on rollcage mounts or the like, with varying degrees of success.

Title: Re: In-Car Video Equipment
Post by AlexeiS on 11/03/7 at 16:15:59

Ryan can tell you his, but I'm using as ghetto a setup as you could possibly imagine.

- Generic camera tripod from Canadian Tire - $20 or so
- 3 clampdown straps, usually used for strapping down ATVs, like $7. I put one from the driver's side seat rail to one leg of the tripod, one more for the passenger seat rail, and the final one goes around the back leg, using some of the child safety seat hooks.
- My Canon camera with 2 GB SD cards, there was a sale on at Best Buy recenly, 2 x 2 GB SD cards for $50 ;)

The worst part about this setup is the slack in the tripod's removable camera mount. The noise and vibration is a pain. I may try "stuffing" the mount cavity with foam or kleenex or something to take some of the slack out in the future. Or maybe I'll try a small C-clamp.

If you're lucky and you have a passenger seat with a removable headrest, a lot of people like to take a piece of metal, drill two holes in it to put the headrest bars through and fab up a mount for the camera on the end of it.

Title: Re: In-Car Video Equipment
Post by RyanHuber on 11/03/7 at 16:27:07

Yeah, that's what I used to have, a bar that u-bolted to the headrest bars and then had a tripod mount on the end of it, which my miniDV camera would then sit on the end of. It worked well enough, but for sure wouldn't work for stage use or seats without removable headrests.

http://media.putfile.com/Sherborne-Lake-Road-Pre-rally-check

The rattle is in my camera itself, nothing I did got rid of it, which is part of the reason I bit the bullet and went to the bullet camera ;)

Title: Re: In-Car Video Equipment
Post by Tom_H on 11/04/7 at 07:55:13

Ryan, do you have any control over the white levels? It would be nice to be able to turn them down and give the road more detail on a sunny day like the Sherborne lake video.

Title: Re: In-Car Video Equipment
Post by RyanHuber on 11/04/7 at 11:26:45

Title: Re: In-Car Video Equipment
Post by Ferdinand on 11/09/7 at 14:26:48

TomH wrote on 11/04/7 at 07:55:13:

do you have any control over the white levels? It would be nice to be able to turn them down and give the road more detail on a sunny day like the Sherborne lake video.

The white balance is controlled by the recording camera. Some cameras have different settings to control how the exposure is measured, whether it balances an average for the entire frame or samples only from a small area within the centre of the image, etc.

I think the reason the Sherborne Lake video is so over-exposed is that the view includes too much of the dark interior of the car. The camera is trying to average the entire image, and it's "seeing" too much of the dark interior. The camera is adjusting the exposure to show the interior properly thereby leaving the view outside the windshield over-exposed.

If you could zoom-in just a touch, or move the camera forward more, so that the camera sees less of the car's interior and more of the exterior view out the windshield, then the camera would automatically correct the exposure to show the exterior properly, while leaving the interior in darker shadow.

It might be merely the passenger sun visor being down that caused the difference in this particular clip, compared to all the others. That extra "black space" might have been just enough to cause the camera to brighten the interior view, leaving the exterior exposed too bright.