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Re: New Competition Class

Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 1:07 pm
by Tim Chen
Spaceman Spiff wrote: The "inside joke" is that there's a guy out there claiming to be a kid who is constantly promoting his own website and when I looked at it I realized that he's loaded the site up with photos and diagrams that he's downloaded from the websites of other water rocket builders and doesn't give any credit for them. I can't tell you exactly where each picture was "borrowed" from, but I know for a fact that I've seen some of them years ago on other websites and some of them are definitely of Air Command's rockets.
LOL! I remember that guy. He was recommending and praising a web-store to everyone and someone found out that it was his own store he was schilling for.

Re: New Competition Class

Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 2:18 pm
by ninja_iga
hey guys :D

yea we were reading about this joker (who spammed the Yahoo email list) who was attempting to sell regular 2lit empty soda bottles, caps, etc.
lol!!

anyways, i can vouch for WTF's site, i have surfed that site before. it's a HongKong based operation that sells all things made in China.
pretty cheap and comes with free shipping world-wide (i dont know how they can do it!) and it's a legit site cos i was flying 4channel helis (Lama V4) and the forummers were buying (and getting) the batteries from this site.


HowHigh altimeter:
yea i got one too :) works and it's SUPER small, about a postage stamp

Re: New Competition Class

Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 3:49 pm
by Spaceman Spiff
WTF;

I apologize for confusing you with that other guy. I hope you understand my confusion.

I also want to thank you for the camera review. I'm not sure that I'm all that excited about it now because it's beginning to sound like a ripoff. I'm a little skeptical now that you have given your impressions. This sounds like the company that was selling dirt cheap thumbdrives on ebay a while back, and it was discovered they had been built with memory chips that were rejected from the chip manufacturer. Somehow someone got a bunch and made USB sticks from them and they were full of bad bits and flakey sectors.

Tell me, does the image sensor have any dead pixels or anything? That would be a good way to tell if the camera was made with reject components.

Re: New Competition Class

Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 6:45 pm
by WRA2
rockets-in-brighton wrote:Ah now, many of us read the same blogs and forums, that's what makes a community. There's a fair amount of cross-posting and that's fine (but it's a good idea to mention the source.)

In this case everyone is getting excited about the price for this camera. I'll repeat here what I warned elsewhere: they are delivered from mainland China, when the next boat is full; shipment can take months.
Not everyone has the time to scour the internet for blog posts so it is a good thing it got posted here where everyone can see.

Re: New Competition Class

Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 7:46 pm
by Team Seneca
rockets-in-brighton wrote: So would you say this is a Chinese clone rather than the same as the original as described by Air Command?
Just to set the record straight, I bought one of the "original" cameras and told you guys about it long before anyone else bought one.

I also have one of the Chinese "clones". It's a little bit funny to me to call it that because the original camera seems to have originated in China as well.
Chinese Clone
Chinese Clone
PCT_0118.JPG (214.15 KiB) Viewed 62 times
Unfortunately, I crashed my "clone" back in the fall and can't do anything with it. It did give me a chance to look inside and do a little research. Here is what I know from testing both cameras side by side and looking inside them.

+ The "clone" boasts a 720x480 resolution. This is B.S. The image sensor inside is 640x480 (same as the original). They just scale the frame in the movie file while saving.

+ The clone is slightly larger due to the plastic case. It's about 5mm larger in length and width.

+ The clone records at 30fps but it has a ton of duplicate frames in the movie. They repeat frames to pad the framerate up higher.

+ The clone has a permanent timestamp on the video that you can't shut off.

+ The picture quality of the original is much better. Colors are more vivid and it's much better in low light.

+ The clone has pushbuttons on the side to control the power and mode, while the original has slide switches. The buttons are a problem because you can press them accidentally and change the mode of the camera and not know it.

+ The clone has a blinking LED to tell you it's running that is impossible to see in the daylight.

+ The original is metal and has survived several crashes. The clone didn't.
oops!
oops!
PCT_0126.JPG (220.17 KiB) Viewed 62 times
I'd say buy the clone at your own risk. Find one of the metal ones if you can!

Re: New Competition Class

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 5:49 am
by rockets-in-brighton
Team Seneca wrote: Just to set the record straight, I bought one of the "original" cameras and told you guys about it long before anyone else bought one.
Sure, back in May last year. It would have been helpful to the community if you had posted this comparison in the meantime, as people are buying the cheap knockoffs in the hope that they match the original AEE products http://www.aee.com/en/pro.asp?cid=27.

Re: New Competition Class

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 8:58 pm
by Team Seneca
rockets-in-brighton wrote:
Team Seneca wrote: Just to set the record straight, I bought one of the "original" cameras and told you guys about it long before anyone else bought one.
Sure, back in May last year. It would have been helpful to the community if you had posted this comparison in the meantime, as people are buying the cheap knockoffs in the hope that they match the original AEE products http://www.aee.com/en/pro.asp?cid=27.
I mentioned the original camera here and you don't even remember. That's not my fault, is it? I have a life and do wrockets in my limited free time so why should I rush to do another write-up that nobody remembers? I saw the subject come up and I thought I would share what I knew before people spent money and regretted it. I thought I was being helpful.

Re: New Competition Class

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 5:02 am
by RaZias
Avoid flames here folks, no one should be blammed for sharing or not in the mean time a information,
this is a hobby not a job-seeker forum here timed decisions are crucial or a stock-market.

I understand the position of both. :(

The best anyone can do is before buying a camera or other electronic device, it should ask before here in the forum.

It´s needed to know that everyone here as a life and WR are very time consuming.
Sometimes it´s easier to me to learn french than to make a reinforced WR.

Re: New Competition Class

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 1:48 pm
by ninja_iga
take a chill pill guys!

:mrgreen:

it's just a hobby after all, not a living, chill guys

Re: New Competition Class

Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 5:02 pm
by WRA2
Team Seneca wrote:
+ The clone has a permanent timestamp on the video that you can't shut off.
The timestamp might be useful for everyone that is competing for world records (just not very useful if you are into making panoramas). No one would be able to dispute that it took longer then 2 hours to fly two flights with the timestamp prominently displayed in the video. That and the cost make it a good choice for anyone competing for any water rocket world records. :WRA2:

Re: New Competition Class

Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 10:55 pm
by U.S. Water Rockets1
Thanks for bringing that neat little camera to our attention. It's going to be tough to find another camera that is as small and light as that one. Our current record rocket camera is a couple of years old now and it's much bigger and a lot more power hungry. We would save weight on the camera plus the batteries! If we were to swap one of these little cameras into X-12, we could probably raise the record another 100-200 feet. This little camera would be a great help! Thanks! 8)