2010 FE Runoffs Video

[tootall]

I posted a short video of the start of the race on contour.com. http://www.contour.com/stories/2010-...-fe-race-start
Shot with a Contour 1080P. Takes a pretty good computer to play because of the HD video requirements, otherwise it will look herky jerky. Not bad for a relatively cheap camera.
Jay

[Dale Carter]

Good video Jay. How is you camera mounted? To the fibreglas or through to the roll hoop. No vibration like we get.

[tootall]

I used an XtremeVu cam clamp mount with their adapter plate bolted to the fiberglass. Its so solid you can see the mirror shake violently going over the exit bumps at 5.
http://www.xvusa.com/products.html

[Keith Carter]

Nice video Jay. HD looks great!!

[TimW]

Wow, that looks great. I use the same camera and get the 'horizon wave' from my mount which seems to have a mode at certain RPMs. I've got lord mounts between the car & camera and now think installing solidly may be the better way. How many weekends have you used it solidly mounted like you have? I have damaged analog lipstick cams when solidly mounted but wonder if the contour can hold up to it better than those.

Thanks for sharing.

Tim

[mousecatcher]

I have damaged analog lipstick cams when solidly mounted

Same here, and heavy heavy vibration. I've tried taking out the vibration "in post" but it's SUPER slow. Apparently iMovie '09 (aka iMovie 8) has an anti-vibration filter built in but I haven't tried it. It's also got to be super slow.

[tootall]

I just started using this camera at the last Blackhawk before the runoffs. Couldn't get it to run more than 2-3 min. with the vibration knocking loose the battery using the mount that came from Contour. Switched to the Xtreme Vu mount and still had problems at the Runoffs. Got a replacement camera from Contour overnight and ran the race. So we'll see how long it lasts next year. The Xtreme Vu site shows them using this camera on off road race trucks, so I'm hoping it will prove to go for a while.

[jcorsico]

Wow, that looks great. I use the same camera and get the 'horizon wave' from my mount which seems to have a mode at certain RPMs. I've got lord mounts between the car & camera and now think installing solidly may be the better way. How many weekends have you used it solidly mounted like you have? I have damaged analog lipstick cams when solidly mounted but wonder if the contour can hold up to it better than those.

Thanks for sharing.

Tim

The "horizon wave" you are experiancing is probably a "rolling shutter" problem with the Contour - kind of makes the picture look like wobbly jello? Since the Contour uses a CMOS imaging sensor (like most modern cameras), instead of a CCD imaging sensor, it's subject to those jello like shots. These will be vibration dependent and different frequencies will make the jello look better or worse.

Unfortunetly, the only way to fix the issue is to either mount the camera differently (to reduce the vibration, or at least move the vibration into a different frequency range that doesn't bother the camera as much) or switch cameras.

The cameras that are used in F1/Indy/Nascar are all CCD, which avoid the rolling shutter problem. But to get an HD CCD bullet cam is huge bucks - over $10K for the camera alone, never mind the recorder and some type of control device.

[mousecatcher]

The Xtreme Vu site shows them using this camera on off road race trucks, so I'm hoping it will prove to go for a while.

But that type of vibration is low frequency compared to the high frequency chassis vibrations from the FE engine. solution: soft motor mounts.

[iamuwere]

I really like my Contour, but it shook itself apart in no time. It is off to service now.

Chasecam rocks.