I'd like a video camera that can have A/V input from the intercom system so on the video you can hear the driver/co-driver chatter and chatter back to the pits as well as typical other sounds (horns, rocks, other vehicles, etc.) without too much interference fromo wind or overpowering engine noise
What I've learned is, you have 2 paths to choose between.
1 - a cool camera with a lot of functionality, some iputs, maybe a good screen, HD video, etc... or
2 - one that is specifically designed to be dropped, beat, submerged, slammed, dusty, etc.
In order to meet the requirements of #2, you have to elimiate all the neat stuff from #1.
The 1st and 2nd 4x4cross races, I used a Flip Video camera. First time, it was the $30XJ.. .to make sure it was solidly mounted, we literally cut a matching rectangular hole in the dash and sank it in there, and ran a bolt up from underneath.
Here's a link:
The 2nd time I mounted it via 2 bars hanging down over my shoulder in my 4Runner. That video came out completely unusable b/c the vibrations were too bad, it shook all over the place.
The Flip is a neat cheap camera, the problem is I'd bet if it got a good hard knock from osmething (liek a helmet) it'd be toast.
The key clearly is the mounting and being sure there is no way it can shake. My Tachyon is mounted via a 3/8" flat bar hanging down w/ a sort of shelf on it - it cannot vibrate at all.
I need to edit/trim down my vid from las tweekend - but at one point my copilot's head hit it; it cocked sideways so the next 10 mins is staring at my head, lol. Then teh bolt unthreaded and from then on, it's all video of under the seat.
re: Will's battery problem, I read carefully about that - the cams with screens etc do not have long battery life, at most a couple hours. That's why I chose this one, 2800mAh batteries, it's good for like 6-8+, more than a 16G card will hold.
The Tachyon also streams to the card constantly, and ends the file every time it hits 1G - so you can't lose the video from battery death, or at the most the last 10 mins or whatever. The only downside to this is that there is a short (few secs) break between thr files, but that also means teh raw video is a manageable size. Ever tried to load/ play a 4 gig AVI?
