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Post by Dillzio on Oct 16, 2009 14:42:28 GMT 1
Hi all, Have been looking for a lightweight video camera for the cub, on ebay if you search for "spy video camera" or "keychain video camera" you can come up with lots of ultra light and small video cameras. Some of them even have resolutions as high as 720x480 for video, which is REALLY good :-) Here's a link for the one I've just bought, it was only $15 US. I'll post a review and some videos after I get it. cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120480095391&ssPageName=ADME:X:AAQ:US:1123 |
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Post by killioughtta on Oct 16, 2009 14:50:56 GMT 1
That looks too good to be true! I'd love it if you wrote a review when you get to use it, dyll. It kinda looks like the FCO a little.
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Post by ginginho on Oct 16, 2009 16:42:07 GMT 1
IF it is what they say it is on the advert then that is very cheap. Yes, review please!
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Post by Dillzio on Oct 17, 2009 3:24:34 GMT 1
It wasn't too easy to get it for that price, especially since bloody ebay got rid of the bid assistant!  I put in a search for that particular item, looked up the completed listings, and saw that the best price I could really hope for was $15US. I had to put in bids on about 40 different listings for this item before one of them won. There was of course a risk that I would end up winning more than one of them, but I was confident I could have resold it for a profit. I've just got a 8gb memory card for it too. $19US - MORE THAN THE CAMERA!! |
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Post by ginginho on Oct 18, 2009 9:51:02 GMT 1
Could'nt resist waiting for your review, so I've just won one too from a different vendor. Unless it is really cr@p, it should be a steal for less than a tenner shipped!  |
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Post by Dillzio on Oct 18, 2009 11:09:44 GMT 1
Cool, which one did you get? Can you post the link?
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Post by ginginho on Oct 18, 2009 11:47:17 GMT 1
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Post by Dillzio on Oct 28, 2009 4:24:50 GMT 1
Got the camera today... MAN IS IT TINY!!!!!! Unfortunately they sent me an american ac adapter to charge it with, but I think I may be able to charge it direct from the USB port too. It also comes with lots of mounting brackets that will come in very handy affixing the camera to the plane. I'll post a review once i've tried it out. Also, anyone that wants a CHEAP 8GB MICRO SD memory cards, this is the one I got: cgi.ebay.com.au/8GB-LEADING-BRAND-MICRO-SD-SDHC-8-GB-FOR-NOKIA-US_W0QQitemZ310177860805QQihZ021QQcategoryZ20336QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp4340.m444QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DCRX%26its%3DC%252BS%26itu%3DSI%252BUA%252BLM%252BLA%26otn%3D5%26ps%3D63I was just expecting something with a fairly standard sort of transfer rate for a cheap memory stick, around 2 or 3 megabytes/sec. This memory stick is REALLY fast. I copied a file to it at 8 MB/s, and I won't even say what I measured the read speed at because it was so high I don't think I believe it (I think perhaps the file was already cashed from copying it to the memory card so copying it back may have been artificially faster). If you need a 8gb memory card, SD or micro SD, buy this one. The speeds I recorded were through the SD card adapter that came with it. |
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Post by Dillzio on Oct 28, 2009 8:57:35 GMT 1
Here's a test video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LujJe9h6WD8Amazingly, the quality was actually 720x480, 30 frames per second, and the camera is about the same size as my thumb. With the mounting brackets it comes with it's sure to be a big success on my cub! ;D I converted the video into DivX so I wouldn't be to big, so the video quality is actually slightly better that what's shown in the video. The camera also hooks up to your PC as a webcam with at least 640x480 resolution (that's all my software would allow). You can still take normal pictures from the computer (but not the camera). This is a still image picture I took with my camera hooked up to the PC:  All in all this seems a FANTASTIC buy for a plane camera. I can't wait to mount it to the plane and take some videos! |
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Post by Dillzio on Oct 28, 2009 11:12:52 GMT 1
OMG. The sound activated spycam is wicked!
You set it to standby mode, and then the camera will activate itself when it hears a noise above 60db, and record for at least 2 minutes. You could essentially place it in an empty room, then it would start recording when someone entered. The possibilities could be endless! ;D
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Post by ginginho on Oct 29, 2009 10:06:11 GMT 1
I've been checking the post everyday recently, no sign yet of mine  The video you posted shows a fair bit of wash on the indoor parts, perhaps that just due to low light as the outside footage looks pretty good. Does yours have the buttons on the side rather than sliders? I suspect there are two models, the slider version being more common and that being 640x480 and 20(or 25) fps. I've read on a few reviews that although a capture has been made at 20-25 fps, when the results are viewed frame by frame in an editor, each frame is copied to the next (i.e. each image is recorded twice) or one in every 3 or 4 is, meaning that the true frame rate is only 10-15fps. How did you confirm the frame rate, do you have an editor? I've got a couple of 4Gb microSD's that I'll try when I have mine. Write speed to the memory is one of the reasons why quality of a recording can vary (giving juddery recording), I guess that your card is writing quick enough that the camera buffer isn't overflowing. To use as a fly cam will require some stable flying as rapid camera movement results in "wavy" recording (such as when you stepped outside and pan down to your dog, 30s or so into it). It's not only this camera that does that, a mate has just tried a FlyCamOne and this showed similar when he was carving around in the air. When I get mine, I'll post some footage, I reckon this will be perfect mounted in the cockpit of my TSII and should give pretty nice results. |
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Post by Dillzio on Oct 29, 2009 15:38:25 GMT 1
Does yours have the buttons on the side rather than sliders? I suspect there are two models, the slider version being more common and that being 640x480 and 20(or 25) fps. How did you confirm the frame rate, do you have an editor? To use as a fly cam will require some stable flying as rapid camera movement results in "wavy" recording Mine only has two buttons on it, very basic functions. I just checked it frame by frame, and each frame is different, it really is 30fps. There are three different models of this type of camera, the manuals for all three were sent to me on the CD that came with my camera. The two other ones are the keychain and the other one is the "gum" style one with the switch you can flip to take pictures. None of the others have the sound activated recording mode. I know what you mean by the "wavy" recording. I'll be posting a classic example shortly. The camera mount was only fixed with velcro so I think it might have been bouncing around a bit much for a smooth video recording. I had the camera sticking down just in front of the landing gear. When it touched down a bit harder than ideally, the landing gear flexed so much that the camera hit the ground. Camera is fine, but it broke one of the mounting brackets that came with it. I'll need to find a better way to mount it. I was thinking about building the camera into the battery box door, or cutting a piece of foam out of the nose for the camera to slot into. The only problem is the view angle, the less I have the camera protruding downwards, the more I'll have to angle it down to avoid filming through the spinning prop. That's fine for "ground surveillance", but I was really hoping I could get the horizon into my shots. I think I had the angle perfect on the video I'll be posting shortly, but I can't have the camera sticking down that low so I'll have to twig things a bit. I'll have a read around about camera mounting options, but at the moment I'm thinking that mounting the camera to the battery box door will be a good way to go. Hopefully getting some distance between the prop and the camera should prevent me from having to aim the camera down too much. |
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Post by Dillzio on Oct 29, 2009 16:47:53 GMT 1
Here's the link to my video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CEBxX81MfUI actually think the quality problems may have been caused by an unbalanced prop at high RPM. I'm using a prop saver too, and I've noticed that with the prop saver it vibrates at high rpm a lot more than if the prop is fixed with a nut. |
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Post by ginginho on Oct 29, 2009 19:26:37 GMT 1
Oooh, Waaa-hey-veee.
It may be that, try gliding around for a bit on your next trial.
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Post by badlands on Oct 29, 2009 22:38:24 GMT 1
Definitely worth a buy, im playing the waiting game now like Nick.
:-)
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