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On-board Video Equipment?



 
 
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Old January 29th 09, 12:02 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
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Default On-board Video Equipment?

On Jan 28, 11:13*pm, "noel.wade" wrote:
On Jan 28, 10:30*pm, Jim White wrote:

Now the bad news - editing. I installed AVS4YOU to edit down the footage.
Have you ever tried to edit 3hrs down to a few minutes? It requires huge
computing power, huge disks, and huge patience. It is unbelievably boring
and the end result won't even be appreciated by your friends, let alone
your family.


IMO better value in other pursuits.


Jim


Jim -

Yes, I _have_ editted down that much video into just a few
minutes! ;-)

See: *http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swBB_ggqYFA

Thanks for the tips, though!

--Noel
(Who must be a masochist)


I've used the color bullet cameras that plug into the video-in jack on
my DV camcorder. Get the highest definition you can find - IIRC they
max out at around 420 lines. I mounted mine on the nose looking back
at the cockpit using a camera mount on an aluminum pole about 12" long
that was mounted to a sheet of aluminum which I taped down like crazy.
The photos were pretty good considering my inability to pan, zoom or
assess the lighting (into the sun sucked - duh). For your purposes I
would not, repeat not, go for an external mount. It's a mess to run
the wires out through the vent window, along the canopy to the hinge
point, then along the fuselage and maybe the wing to wherever you want
the camera. It requires constant fiddling and will cause a fair amount
of drag, especially when the tape starts peeling. There are wireless
security cameras that you might be able to adapt, but they can't even
resolve a perp at the local 7-11, much less the beauty of soaring
flight. I also wouldn't recommend mounting the whole camera externally
for reasons that are easy enough to guess. With an inside mount you
will be hard pressed to find a place that can both see past your head
and doesn't get in your way so even here you may be better off with
the bullet cam. Keep in mind that these cameras need power (typically
12 volts) and often have unusual video connectors, so know what you're
looking for and give yourself plenty of time to get everything working
well in advance.

Now to the warnings. No matter how well you prepare, no matter how
uber-alpha-geek you are and no matter how much you think this will be
fire and forget I would not really encourage you to try this at your
first contest, and particularly not unless you have made several
flights with it beforehand. Contest flying takes all kinds of
concentration, before, during and even after the flight. Getting from
the pilots meeting to the grid can be chaotic as even the old hands
sometimes forget stuff and have to scurry about to get it straightened
out. You will feel like a schmoe if you remember to turn on the
camcorder but forget drinking water. Or if you get distracted trying
to re-aim the camera because yesterday's shots all turned out to be of
your right ear and you forget to mark the TFR on your chart. You're a
smart guy and can't imagine anything like that will take you off your
game, but many of the things that go wrong in sailplane racing, or
soaring in general, sneak up on you by inches, when you don't expect
it, or are distracted. So -- if you do this you need to set the
expectation that you will not touch the thing from before the pilots
meeting until after you are put away for the day - even have your crew
(if you have one) take responsibility for turning the damn thing on
and retrieving the video at day's end.

I'll echo Kemp's point on HDD camcorders - they might work above
10,000' but combine low air density with turbulence and you might be
at the edge of the recording head's flight envelope.

9B
 




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