Video Toys....

[Ironflight]

A few weeks back, some guys at our fire station brought in this little waterproof, ruggedized, solid-state video camera that they had gotten from Oregon Scientific. It records up to an hour of video on a 2 Gig SD memory card, in 640x480 resolution - just fine for web videos! I got to thinking that it might be kind of cool to play with in the airplane - good for external mounting and lighter than a regular camcorder if I wanted to strap it to a helmet or headset.

For $125, it was hard to pass up, and I got one in the mail last Friday. I immediately went out to the airport, strapped it to my head and went to fly a a few rolls and loops. The resulting video was cool, but pointed out a real problem with aliasing of the prop - black lines that will drive you nuts if you watch it very long. The first video I shot is on YouTube here, but watch out - the prop lines get annoying pretty quick - hey, I warned you!

Today, I decided to mount the thing outdoors, down low on the landing gear, to try and get the prop mostly out of the picture. The results are better, but the camera shut itself down both times I flew it, apparently right at landing. I'm guessing the impact shook the battery contacts and it powered down. My next try will be to build a little mount to screw it into the wing tie down fitting - that should work fine for a fixed-camera, forward-looking view. It really isn't going to work at all for views with the prop (from the cockpit), but might be effective looking backward out of the cockpit.

Today's video is here, and was a nice excuse to get an IFR block for a few minutes and fly close to the clouds. I was up about 9,000' at the time....

I mounted the camera on the gear leg with it's Velcro strap, overlaid with vinyl tape (which leaves very little residue), overlaid with duct tape on top of that, and finally, a loop of safety wire around the camera and gear leg - hey, I'd hate to lose the thing in less than a week!





The quality is far from what Doug is doing with a REAL camera....but I doubt he wants to strap his camera outside the airplane.....

Paul

[airguy]

What about a hard-mount in the top of the VS?

[Ironflight]

Originally Posted by airguy

What about a hard-mount in the top of the VS?

I actually built my plane with that in mind - made the vertical stab tip removable, and I have a string through a conduit to pull the cables....but that sounds like a lot of work (this particular camera wouldn't fit in the tip - would have to be external) - and you'd have to get a ladder out to turn the camera on before each flight!

[dan]

How about duct taping it to the outside of your wheel pant? Might get more prop arc out of the frame.

[Ironflight]

Originally Posted by dan

How about duct taping it to the outside of your wheel pant? Might get more prop arc out of the frame.

I don't think I want to put that much duct tape on Grady's beautiful paint....oh, of course, that's not a problem for you, is it Sharpie!

I've actually got a wing tie down hard-point mount all sketched out in my mind - should cost me about 50 cents for the right bolt, and some scrap from the bin....

Paul

[frankh]

Just a thought but how about pointing it backwards from inside the airplane like the Blue Angels to show the effects of 9G on their unsuspecting pX'ers.....Personally I would absolutely HATE a ride in an F18...No,NO, no perish the thought...

But anyway Tony Blair from OZ did the same thing and his Vids look pretty good.

Frank 7a

[johnp]

so, iron, was this a special one-time deal, or can any of us regular schmucks get one these cameras? where?

thanks,

john

[scard]

Originally Posted by johnp

so, iron, was this a special one-time deal, or can any of us regular schmucks get one these cameras? where?

thanks,

john

Any "schumck": http://www2.oregonscientific.com/sho...cid=77&pid=709

[N130WN]

Very cool.

Reference here for VS mounting example:

http://bowenaero.com/mt3/2004/10/tail_cam.html

[Mike S]

Or you could try here

http://www.academicsuperstore.com/ma...omocode=se02Y7

And save $20.00

Does this thing do audio??

Mike