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What do you folks think about different cameras for getting video of your laps? I guess I am thinking of getting a "Go Pro Hero" with the standard lens. You can get either a wide angle 170 degree or a more normal 57 degree lens. The wide angle is pretty much a fish eye lens. They are relatively locost at around $175.

Here's a pair of videos of a friend's son doing the Mt. Ascutney hillclimb in NH. The first is some type of bullet camera with a DVR somewhere in the car. The second is a Go Pro. It's interesting that the quality is sort of low on the lipstick cam, but it makes the car look faster. It is actually a faster run at a later event, but I think it looks faster then that. The better quality video is probably better for learning and critique.

I used to love driving this hill, now there's a second generation doing it. I learned a real respect for scenery here. BTW, the posted speed limit on this road is 15 MPH, the sign is on the right just before the start line.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXzPi1rljug

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2o6Vhnpp9s

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Marcus Barrow - Car9 an open design community supported sports car for home builders!
SketchUp collection for LocostUSA: "Dream it, Build it, Drive it!"
Car9 Roadster information - models, drawings, resources etc.

Ascutney is in Vermont actually Do you ever make it to NEHA events?

My lemons team used a Go Pro Hero with good results. It's a pretty low-end system, but it's easy to use and cheap. That means it'll be on the car to catch gems like this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcfqH4W2 ... r_embedded

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William Conway
Building the Spartan 7 - Build Blog
LocostUSA Build Log
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time...

I have a gopro hero motorsports (wide angle) and its great. waterproof, wide angle, durable, comes with a lot of mounts. downsides are the menu/lcd can be hard to understand and it can suck down AAA batteries (best to get a set of rechargables on amazon).

Locost drifting videos with it:

http://vimeo.com/5174611
http://vimeo.com/4588668

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Georgia Tech
Ride and Handling Engineer for a major car company
Locost finished - book frame, IRS, '84 celica GTS donor, '99 tacoma 2rz motor with a turbo, megasquirt DIYPNP. Getting rebuilt with new IRS, F20C
"the all-consuming time-sucking car, which I really enjoy working on" -KB

I also use the Go Pro motorsport wide angle.

the fish bowl effect is less on the track then if you shooting people or fixed object at least this is what I've notice.

for our latest video look at my build log.

Cheers,

Fred

Ouch! Sorry about that. I think it's run by the NH car club though. Yes, I used to love that place. Though I felt a little like Frodo going to Mordor while towing up to the event. Maybe I can work a corner next year, not sure I'm up to running the FF there anymore ( not that I don't want to ).

I used to run that event in the 80's. I tried a little too hard once and somehow landed up going straight when the road went right. I think it was near turn 27 ( or 24? ), but not really sure. I'm going to go thru it more slowly and try to find the spot. It's my favorite event, probably because it's such a challenge. Also some of my heroes as a teenager used to go there... I think it's been run for some 50 years now...

It's hard to see on these videos, but the road surface is pretty rough and less then 2 full lanes many places. The pavement has a sort of washboard ripple, caused be freezing. You are close to your traction limits even going in a straight line on some of those straights, it requires maximum vigilance pretty much the whole way. Little details like the tree in the middle of the 1st long straight also add charm.

There's an awesome picture of a Formula car several feet up in the air because he cut in a little to close crossing that bridge and hit a bump. He kept going. I also love the rigs people put together from scratch or old oval track cars - locost has always been factor for many entrants.

A friend put a Super 8 movie camera on my car once and I'm hoping to finally get a copy on tape of that footage in a couple of weeks. Maybe I can get that digitised...

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Marcus Barrow - Car9 an open design community supported sports car for home builders!
SketchUp collection for LocostUSA: "Dream it, Build it, Drive it!"
Car9 Roadster information - models, drawings, resources etc.

I used a lipstick camera mounted to my roof rack, feeding into a Sony HanyCam for videos of "The Other Woman". It was quite stable but of course you had to deal with the wires.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG16m2e4O6I

There is a company called Oregon Scientific that sells a neat stand alone camera/DVR/Monitor.

Tom

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Sometimes, I'm as confused as a baby in a topless bar.

My short term memory is absolutely horrible and so is my short term memory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG16m2e4O6I

I've got to tell you, I think that is one of the coolest Locost videos of all time. I bet I've watched it 50 times, and that is NO exaggeration! (Just ask my wife...)

-dave

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...nowadays people are so intellectually lazy and lethargic that they can't build ANYTHING with their hands. They'll spend hours watching whiny people marooned on an island, but won't spend a second adding anything to the world. -weconway
Visit my [Locost 7 build log]

The bulletcam seems to work alright. And its really stealth. I like mine well enough.