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#1
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Helmet Camera
I recently started experimenting with a camera mounted on my helmet to
capture video while skiing. I wasn't sure how this would workout so I didn't want to spend much on the 'experiment'. Here is what I've found so far. Your comments and experiences would be appreciated. I found helmet camera kits on the internet for $300 and up. I bought a color video 'lipstick camera' (size and shape of a lipstick tube) that was sold for use as a security camera (Fry's ~$60). The camera put out a NTSC video signal and one channel of audio. It was powered by a 9 volt DC plug in type power pack. I bought a rechargable battery pack for a remote control car to provide mobile power ($20 with charger). A little cutting and soldering and I had a mobile camera that would work while skiing. The output of the 'lipstick' camera was plugged into the input of a standard Sony TRV38 camcorder. (The scary part was hooking it up the first time and watching for smoke!) I tried several temporary methods (duct tape, zip ties, string, etc.) the camera to my helmet. None worked well enough to even try it on the snow. I made a little wood mount that has the contour of the top of my helmet on the bottom side and a open top 'U' shape on the top. I clamped the lipstick camera into the mount with a piece of nylon webbing I had. The mount is attached to the helmet with industrial strength velcro. This gave me a solid mount that I thought would hold up to skiing and getting hit by the safety bar on the lift when someone puts the foot rest down with out warning. The first day gave me a video tape of the snow in front of my skis. I had to move the camera back a LOT more that I thought it should be. The second day I started to get video of the person in front of me, but mostly of their skis. I moved the camera even farther back for the third day. I also found that I needed about 20 feet between them and me. The third day I finally started to get some usable video. The key was to move the camera back so that it was parallel with my line of sight. That is MUCH, MUCH farther back than I expected. I thought the subject would be in front of me (and therefore lower on the slope), the camera would need to point below my line of sight. Clearly that was bad logic. I found the quality of the video to be decent in the shade on a sunny day, but horrible in the sun. The video is constantly coloring the subject red/purple on the white snow background. When the scene is primarily white, the whole scene gets a red tinge to it. I think the camera is getting more light than it can handle. The camcorder has an automatic iris that the lipstick camera does not. This may be a fatal flaw. I REALLY have to concentrate on keeping my head steady. Make head movement slowly and steadily. DO NOT look around to see who is coming up behind/beside you. DO NOT shake your head yes or no to answer someone's question. This is a learned skill that will take me some time to develop. That loss of situational awareness (don't look around) may be something I can't give up and just have to edit out me stealing a quick look around. The 9V battery was only good for about 2-3 hours of camera use. I was keeping the battery pack in an inside pocket so my body heat kept the batteries warm. That also meant I had to unzip my jacket and dig it out to unplug the battery when I didn't need it on (like on the lift). Once the battery started getting low, the picture got kind of dark around the edges with a circle of the 'proper' brightness in the middle of the scene. The circle got smaller and smaller as the batteries got lower and lower. I had to use the touch screen to program the camcorder to record the external video source each time I turned it on so I tended to keep it running. When I got off the lift I pulled off my goggles and glove and pulled out the camcorder and turned it on. WHen I got on the lift I turned everything off again. This was a total waste of tape and bettery power when I was trying to tape someone who stops to rest every 10 to 20 turns. I have found a remote control cable that should allow me to keep the camcorder in my backpack and turn it on and off remotely. Has anyone else tried this? Any comments or hints you care to offer? |
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#2
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KentB wrote:
I recently started experimenting with a camera mounted on my helmet to capture video while skiing. I wasn't sure how this would workout so I didn't want to spend much on the 'experiment'. Here is what I've found so far. Your comments and experiences would be appreciated. I found helmet camera kits on the internet for $300 and up. I bought a color video 'lipstick camera' (size and shape of a lipstick tube) that was sold for use as a security camera (Fry's ~$60). The camera put out a NTSC video signal and one channel of audio. It was powered by a 9 volt DC plug in type power pack. I bought a rechargable battery pack for a remote control car to provide mobile power ($20 with charger). A little cutting and soldering and I had a mobile camera that would work while skiing. The output of the 'lipstick' camera was plugged into the input of a standard Sony TRV38 camcorder. (The scary part was hooking it up the first time and watching for smoke!) I tried several temporary methods (duct tape, zip ties, string, etc.) the camera to my helmet. None worked well enough to even try it on the snow. I made a little wood mount that has the contour of the top of my helmet on the bottom side and a open top 'U' shape on the top. I clamped the lipstick camera into the mount with a piece of nylon webbing I had. The mount is attached to the helmet with industrial strength velcro. This gave me a solid mount that I thought would hold up to skiing and getting hit by the safety bar on the lift when someone puts the foot rest down with out warning. The first day gave me a video tape of the snow in front of my skis. I had to move the camera back a LOT more that I thought it should be. The second day I started to get video of the person in front of me, but mostly of their skis. I moved the camera even farther back for the third day. I also found that I needed about 20 feet between them and me. The third day I finally started to get some usable video. The key was to move the camera back so that it was parallel with my line of sight. That is MUCH, MUCH farther back than I expected. I thought the subject would be in front of me (and therefore lower on the slope), the camera would need to point below my line of sight. Clearly that was bad logic. I found the quality of the video to be decent in the shade on a sunny day, but horrible in the sun. The video is constantly coloring the subject red/purple on the white snow background. When the scene is primarily white, the whole scene gets a red tinge to it. I think the camera is getting more light than it can handle. The camcorder has an automatic iris that the lipstick camera does not. This may be a fatal flaw. I REALLY have to concentrate on keeping my head steady. Make head movement slowly and steadily. DO NOT look around to see who is coming up behind/beside you. DO NOT shake your head yes or no to answer someone's question. This is a learned skill that will take me some time to develop. That loss of situational awareness (don't look around) may be something I can't give up and just have to edit out me stealing a quick look around. The 9V battery was only good for about 2-3 hours of camera use. I was keeping the battery pack in an inside pocket so my body heat kept the batteries warm. That also meant I had to unzip my jacket and dig it out to unplug the battery when I didn't need it on (like on the lift). Once the battery started getting low, the picture got kind of dark around the edges with a circle of the 'proper' brightness in the middle of the scene. The circle got smaller and smaller as the batteries got lower and lower. I had to use the touch screen to program the camcorder to record the external video source each time I turned it on so I tended to keep it running. When I got off the lift I pulled off my goggles and glove and pulled out the camcorder and turned it on. WHen I got on the lift I turned everything off again. This was a total waste of tape and bettery power when I was trying to tape someone who stops to rest every 10 to 20 turns. I have found a remote control cable that should allow me to keep the camcorder in my backpack and turn it on and off remotely. Has anyone else tried this? Any comments or hints you care to offer? Kent, This sound really neat. Haven't tried it but you are becoming a model for some good trial and error. Can you post some results somewhere where we can see them? This is something I've thought about but never got around tuit. A friend of mind did video me once. Good turns, then I got back, then too far forward, over the handlebars, AC separation of shoulder, ride down the mountain in a sled. All on video. VtSkier |
#3
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Vt,
Email me and I will send you a link to some video I posted last year. If you try to email, I'm sure you can figure out the key. "VtSkier" wrote in message ... KentB wrote: I recently started experimenting with a camera mounted on my helmet to capture video while skiing. I wasn't sure how this would workout so I didn't want to spend much on the 'experiment'. Here is what I've found so far. Your comments and experiences would be appreciated. I found helmet camera kits on the internet for $300 and up. I bought a color video 'lipstick camera' (size and shape of a lipstick tube) that was sold for use as a security camera (Fry's ~$60). The camera put out a NTSC video signal and one channel of audio. It was powered by a 9 volt DC plug in type power pack. I bought a rechargable battery pack for a remote control car to provide mobile power ($20 with charger). A little cutting and soldering and I had a mobile camera that would work while skiing. The output of the 'lipstick' camera was plugged into the input of a standard Sony TRV38 camcorder. (The scary part was hooking it up the first time and watching for smoke!) I tried several temporary methods (duct tape, zip ties, string, etc.) the camera to my helmet. None worked well enough to even try it on the snow. I made a little wood mount that has the contour of the top of my helmet on the bottom side and a open top 'U' shape on the top. I clamped the lipstick camera into the mount with a piece of nylon webbing I had. The mount is attached to the helmet with industrial strength velcro. This gave me a solid mount that I thought would hold up to skiing and getting hit by the safety bar on the lift when someone puts the foot rest down with out warning. The first day gave me a video tape of the snow in front of my skis. I had to move the camera back a LOT more that I thought it should be. The second day I started to get video of the person in front of me, but mostly of their skis. I moved the camera even farther back for the third day. I also found that I needed about 20 feet between them and me. The third day I finally started to get some usable video. The key was to move the camera back so that it was parallel with my line of sight. That is MUCH, MUCH farther back than I expected. I thought the subject would be in front of me (and therefore lower on the slope), the camera would need to point below my line of sight. Clearly that was bad logic. I found the quality of the video to be decent in the shade on a sunny day, but horrible in the sun. The video is constantly coloring the subject red/purple on the white snow background. When the scene is primarily white, the whole scene gets a red tinge to it. I think the camera is getting more light than it can handle. The camcorder has an automatic iris that the lipstick camera does not. This may be a fatal flaw. I REALLY have to concentrate on keeping my head steady. Make head movement slowly and steadily. DO NOT look around to see who is coming up behind/beside you. DO NOT shake your head yes or no to answer someone's question. This is a learned skill that will take me some time to develop. That loss of situational awareness (don't look around) may be something I can't give up and just have to edit out me stealing a quick look around. The 9V battery was only good for about 2-3 hours of camera use. I was keeping the battery pack in an inside pocket so my body heat kept the batteries warm. That also meant I had to unzip my jacket and dig it out to unplug the battery when I didn't need it on (like on the lift). Once the battery started getting low, the picture got kind of dark around the edges with a circle of the 'proper' brightness in the middle of the scene. The circle got smaller and smaller as the batteries got lower and lower. I had to use the touch screen to program the camcorder to record the external video source each time I turned it on so I tended to keep it running. When I got off the lift I pulled off my goggles and glove and pulled out the camcorder and turned it on. WHen I got on the lift I turned everything off again. This was a total waste of tape and bettery power when I was trying to tape someone who stops to rest every 10 to 20 turns. I have found a remote control cable that should allow me to keep the camcorder in my backpack and turn it on and off remotely. Has anyone else tried this? Any comments or hints you care to offer? Kent, This sound really neat. Haven't tried it but you are becoming a model for some good trial and error. Can you post some results somewhere where we can see them? This is something I've thought about but never got around tuit. A friend of mind did video me once. Good turns, then I got back, then too far forward, over the handlebars, AC separation of shoulder, ride down the mountain in a sled. All on video. VtSkier |
#4
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In article ,
"KentB" writes: I found the quality of the video to be decent in the shade on a sunny day, but horrible in the sun. The video is constantly coloring the subject red/purple on the white snow background. When the scene is primarily white, the whole scene gets a red tinge to it. I think the camera is getting more light than it can handle. The camcorder has an automatic iris that the lipstick camera does not. This may be a fatal flaw. You might want to experiment with filters: I was looking at this lense: http://www.viosport.com/store/customer/ourgear.php?page=ac3_overview and they do mention "5-levels of Neutral Density (Sun) filters will eliminate that purple snow due to filming in extremely bright conditions." (sold separately) Seems like everything you'd want on this unit is sold separately... bruno. |
#5
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Seems like everything you'd want on this unit is sold separately...
Bruno, You hit on exactly why I approched this as an experiment instead of jumping into buying the VioSport.com or HelmetCamera.com package. I counldn't answer the most basic questions - What do I need? What may I want to add? How much is it going to cost for those? And then the big question - After I spend that much money, is it worth it and I will I continue to use it? I'm much closer to answering those questions now. I've ordered the remote control cable so I can leave the camcorder in my backpack or inside my jacket and still turn it on/off when I want it. During bright sun or open runs I will stick to shooting hand held video. The helmet camera will never match the auto exposure and framing capabilities of the hand held video. I have finally given it to my wife - I'll use the helmet cam for tree runs or big drops. Both of those are really limited by trying to keep the camcorder in one hand and ski 'normally'. |
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