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Old 02-28-2010, 09:57 PM
luke strawwalker's Avatar
luke strawwalker luke strawwalker is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Needville and Shiner, TX
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark II
How does this compare to those little "pack of gum" cameras that were being sold on eBay a few months ago for something like a quarter?

MarkII


Looks interesting... all you need is a pocketful of money, as my old man says...

You mentioned the gum cams/fob cams... there's a TERRIFIC thread here: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1115052 that will tell you or link you to just about anything you'd ever want to know about these things... the RCGroups forum also has a WHOLE FORUM section dedicated to airborne photography, with information and links to just about every possible camera/setup you can possibly think of.

Interestingly enough, the FCO (flycam one) and the FCO II didn't get rave reviews over there. Some said that the keyfob cams and some of the gum cams gave better pictures/footage than the FCO and it's successor did, for a MUCH lower price. (A quarter is probably overstating the case a bit, but you could easily find them for $20-25 bucks with free shipping.) The Chuck Lohr website also has a lot of great information on the fob cams, sort of a 'buyer's guide' and tips page... http://www.chucklohr.com/808/ That's where I'd start if I wanted to really research these things. There's a parallax forum as well about them.

This setup looks awfully expensive, and it's nothing really new that I can see. Art Upton's Boostervision.com setups have sold 2.4 Ghz cams for years; my brother and I went in partners on one, with the long-range patch antenna and have had good luck with it. So far we've mostly used it on his RC monster trucks. I want to adapt it to a two-stage Estes Maniac when I actually get the time to do it, and set up the GSE (camcorder and patch antenna setup). Art's also selling an onboard video recorder now that's about the size of an 18 mm rocket motor with a swivelling head, that records the video itself in flight, making it a standalone "fire and forget" type of system. The downlink systems transmitting the video to the ground require more work and worry with the setup for recording the video and powering the equipment, and are prone to signal drops and interference under certain conditions, which some people REALLY don't like. The keyfob/gumpack cams are basically cheaper versions of Art's onboard recorder, minus the swivelling head.

Now, I'll be the first to admit, that having a downlink to wearable "virtual reality glasses" would be really neat, but I could see it more for model aircraft pilots than for rocketry use. The cost is also going to be significantly higher for such a system.

For my part, I'd want to see it in action and see what others think of it, come 'side by side comparisons' before I plunked down the money for such an expensive system! Remember that if you have a cato, hang in a tree or power line, or drift off into the Atchafalaya swamp never to be seen again, I'd rather have a $20 cam gone with the wind rather than a $200 one....

Later! OL JR
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