cameras

[poriet]

I want to put a video cam in one of my rockets. I looked into this, in a vague sort of way, a few years back, but didnt do anything
A few years is like a light-year in electronics and I assume there are better devices available now.
I dont want to go to the expense of a wireless set-up: a simple cam would do. I've seen some on Ebay, but I'm not entirely happy with what I see.

You can get these video devices cheaply, but they are about the size of a cigarette packet, which is quite big.
And, as they arent designed for looking backwards from a rocket, their geometry is awkward. My own feeling, FWIW, is that one could
maybe use a 'pen-cam'. There are also some key-fob devices which look very small. They all have the problem that, to get them to 'look'
backwards, they will stick out one side. I dont know how detrimental this would be to the flight-path.

So, I am curious as to what methods other wrocketeers use.

Regards
Bruce

[Spartan117]

I want to put a video cam in one of my rockets. I looked into this, in a vague sort of way, a few years back, but didnt do anything
A few years is like a light-year in electronics and I assume there are better devices available now.
I dont want to go to the expense of a wireless set-up: a simple cam would do. I've seen some on Ebay, but I'm not entirely happy with what I see.

You can get these video devices cheaply, but they are about the size of a cigarette packet, which is quite big.
And, as they arent designed for looking backwards from a rocket, their geometry is awkward. My own feeling, FWIW, is that one could
maybe use a 'pen-cam'. There are also some key-fob devices which look very small. They all have the problem that, to get them to 'look'
backwards, they will stick out one side. I dont know how detrimental this would be to the flight-path.

So, I am curious as to what methods other wrocketeers use.

Regards
Bruce

I have a camera of type MD80, which is about the size of a pack of Bubble Yum Bubble Gum. It takes better video than cameras 2 or 3 times as big. The lens is located on the front of the body near the top, so if you want to look back to the ground all you do is protrude about 1/3 of the camera out of a hole in the side of your rocket and point the lens back at the fins.

[poriet]

Hi,
I'll try to send some pics of the parachute mech.
Thanks for the info about the camera: I'll look into it.
The 'pen-cams' are about 20-30 quid a pop so I cant really experiment with one. But I do wonder
if it were possible to dismantle the thing and move the lens around, so that it pointed upwards instead of sideways.
Of course, it would then be useless as a pocket camera, the thing it is designed for, but one could then tape the
pen lengthways along the fuselage. It would have almost zero drag.

Bruce

[U.S. Water Rockets1]

I want to put a video cam in one of my rockets. I looked into this, in a vague sort of way, a few years back, but didnt do anything
A few years is like a light-year in electronics and I assume there are better devices available now.
I dont want to go to the expense of a wireless set-up: a simple cam would do. I've seen some on Ebay, but I'm not entirely happy with what I see.

You can get these video devices cheaply, but they are about the size of a cigarette packet, which is quite big.
And, as they arent designed for looking backwards from a rocket, their geometry is awkward. My own feeling, FWIW, is that one could
maybe use a 'pen-cam'. There are also some key-fob devices which look very small. They all have the problem that, to get them to 'look'
backwards, they will stick out one side. I dont know how detrimental this would be to the flight-path.

So, I am curious as to what methods other wrocketeers use.

Regards

Bruce

We have a topic earlier in this forum that reviews the ideal water rocket camera.

http://www.wra2.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1528

The camera is the shape and size of a car key fob (it is disguised as one). The camera shoots great video and because the lens is located on the end of the body, you can just tape the camera to the side of the rocket and it will look down at the fins and it will be very streamlined and aerodynamic. The camera also come in an older model (Type #3) which is a lower resolution, but it only costs about $13US.

[PTrockets]

Don't buy a MD80 . They are waste of money. I bought one and it just stopped working and I'm not the only.

[U.S. Water Rockets1]

Don't buy a MD80 . They are waste of money. I bought one and it just stopped working and I'm not the only.

A "real" MD80 (the metal ones) are really very well made and do not fail. Any of the plastic Chinese clones of the MD80 will be just as reliable as any of the other cheap Chinese cameras. You can buy 6 plastic MD80s for the price of a real metal one, so if half of them fail, you still have 3x as many cameras for the same price.

When the camera is that inexpensive, you are not as scared of crashing it, so that is another bonus for the plastic clone.

[Yossarian]

When buying the Car Key cams, watch out to get the right version. They ship in all kind of
flavours, hardly distinguishable from the outside. I purchased the #12 HD-Version, which is kind of flawed. It claims to have 30 fps, but 1/3 of the frames are dropped (i.e. repetitions of previous frame). Especially with water rocketry this is kind of annoying, because the interesting stuff happens in a few seconds. There is a comprehensive website about these cameras worth studying before buying:


http://www.chucklohr.com/808/index.shtml


The recommendable version are #11 and #16 , as far as i understand.

Yossarian

[Brian]

The recommendable version are #11 and #16 , as far as i understand.

Those are the recommended versions.
What number sd card were you using? There is a little number in a circle which represents the speed which data can be transfered onto the card. A low number means it is slow and will drop frames, a high number (highest I think is 10) should fix your problem.