im not quite sure what to look for in an aerial camera.... would this be suitable..?

http://hobbywireless.com/cart/index....roducts_id=143

frenchdoor -

I've had experience with the FlyCam and while it's not a bad little toy, you can run into issues. Here's been my experience:

1. Plug 'n Pray Features
Be careful as it may not "play nice" with your computer when pulling the video off the chip. The encoding on the chip (by the camera) is goofy and some computers won't even recognize the video or the chip. And FlyCam has horrible tech service. Your better off calling up a tech buddy.

2. Bad Video
The max video (SD card) chip you can use is 2 Gig. And while they tell you that you can get "...50 minutes..." of video, it's small and the quality is not that hot. What they're showing you in the video is the "good" video. if you even get mild sunlight into the lense - your screwed - as it will white the entire screen. And that's gonna cause issues beacause last time I flew it was sunny out.

3. Poor Pictures
1.3 Megapixels for resolution? You kidding me?! the standard for cell phones is almost up to 3! yeah, the images may be HUGE but the quality is poor.

NOW, that being said, it is small, light, but unfortunately cheap. And for my part I've searched far and wide to find any camera that produces video worth hanging on to - and so far I've found nothing. It's more of a novelty item in my eyes.

Again, my opinion only.

That would work fine.

And it is good that you start with an inexpensive setup.

I was gung ho about using aerial cameras and after taking a few videos, found that I lost interest.

I'm glad I didn't go with a full FPV setup!

BTW: the vibration of a glow or gas engine will produce poor results in your video.

The best results are had with a glider or very slow flying, and very light electric plane, where you can chop the throttle completely.

With the throttle off there is no vibration, and the video comes out fairly clean.

If you don't have an electric, I wouldn't bother.

what aerial cam would you suggest then for a glow engine?

Too much vibration on glow and gas engines for small cameras.

You would have to install some sort of isolation mount even for a standard DV Mini CAM.

I've tried merely shock mounting DV cameras, and the results were not good, because of the vibration.

Some of the FPV transmitters have very small camera heads, which can be more easily shock isolated... but this gets more pricy.

[link=http://www.nitroplanes.com/wosmlora24gh.html]Click me![/link]

You'll find that you'll need more items than included in that kit, power source, etc.

I am looking for something similar to play with on my electrified Modeltech Magic. I am considering this guy:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...ndingMethod=rr

Weighs around 3 ounces (maybe 4 with batteries) and has 32MB internal memory and SD card expansion. Like opjose I will likely get bored after a few videos, so I don't want to invest too much.

I've been down this road... The biggest problem is mounting the camera.

I used a small tripod head to get a rock solid mount, but this caused the camera to vibrate a LOT, because the camera itself acts as a lever arm.

You need something that will enclose the whole camera in a vibration deadening material.

The heli guys doing video use some very elaborate and expensive setups to obtain their results.

oh okay.. thats a different type..another good idea!

i was thinking more of one with a servo that Ican control on the transmitter..

Here's a super cheap setup I used a couple of years ago. This was about a $10 camera and I just glued a servo right to the case. The pictures were pretty bad.

Since you cannot see what the camera sees, the remote control is useless.

The best way of doing videos is to make multiple but similiar flights with the camera mounted at a different angle during each flight.

Then in post editing, you splice the various views together to make it seem like you are only showing ONE flight with different angles... much like TV, videos and movies are done.

I shot this video with the $49.00 mini spy cam from Nitroplanes.com It says on the instructions that come with it that it can handle an 8 gig sd card but all I have in it is a 2 gig. Vibration can be a issue. I did alot of checking into this cam before I purchased it and found that alot of places where wanting over $140.00 for it so I figured it must be worth the money that Nitroplanes was asking. In this video it is mounted to a Nitroplanes .40 Ultimate. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayOOyFRqOU0The link for the cam is here http://www.nitroplanes.com/mifpvcocaupt.htmlthey are currently sold out, at the price they are wanting I can see why they are sold out. I was looking at the flycamone2 also but after reading on here about all of the problems people where having I stayed away from it.

All -

If ur willing to risk it (as I have done with great results!) with glows and have the camera, something like the Cannon Powershot with a 4Gig chip in it performs wonderfully. I have a Hangar 9 Piper Cub that I mount the camera in just under the wing and inside the canopy. I have a hole cut out that the lense pokes through when turned on and the 'view' is off the right side of the plane. You see the Cubs supports and the wing tip, but it looks 'real' and get's great fly by shots of the flight line and people. I even had a buddy fly right next to me and it came out great (unfotunately I erased it that night by accident...). And since the camera has stability control, a little added foam rubber gives you zero vibration.

I have also mounted the camera right on top of the wing at the CG with a slightly downward angle to get a pilots view. You'll have to trim out your elevator (as it's one hell of a huge wind break) but once all is trimmed it flies smooth and you get great 640x480 40+ min video that's CRISP!

Again, that's if you want to risk it with a $220+ camera. LOL! (I'm nuts, i know.... but i really enjoy this hobby)

EDIT:Oh yeah, I also mounted this thing with rubber bands, in a plastic bag with a hole for the lense, in a Hobbyzone Super Cub! Yes, thats right.... a foam super cub! You'll need at least a 6MPH wind to give you more lift(as it's heavy) but, again, the video was awesome. I'll post if people want to see it.

sure... i would like to take a look at it!

Not bad, the contrast seems better than my FlyCamone2. It's definitely cheaper too.

I would like to see a movie NOT shot through the prop to eliminate the windowblind effect.

hey guys , i myself had the flycamone2 and it was a wasteof money . sometimes it worked sometimes it didnt. when it did work ,it would turn off after about a minute or so . since then i bought a flip ultra . never let me down yet . it weights 160g with 2 AA batteries and takes 1 hour of video. as said in postsabove your only problem is vibration. if you can mount it properly vid will come out ok. that camera you have pickedshould be ideal ,go for it!

You may want to go out to Ebay and invest in something like this.

http://cgi.ebay.com/JAZZ-HDV188-HD-DIGITAL-CAMERA_W0QQitemZ250441366756QQcmdZViewItemQQptZDig ital_Cameras?hash=item3a4f77fce4&_trksid=p3286 .c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12|66%3A2|39%3A1|72%3A1 205|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

I bought one about a month ago that was pretty much brand new and shipped to my door for around $45. It shoots in 720p to an SD card and includes a Li-ion battery. The 188 is the heavier of the two between that and the 178, and the 178 can have it's screen flipped around box stock. The 188 can be modded to shoot while the lens is closed, if you need instruction, I can provide that.

There are some really good threads on RCG, more so than here on RCU about AP.
Good Luck,
Curtis
P.S. Yo Andrew, when are we going to get that Cub wet?

So you are saying that we should purchase something that does not power up as the one in the link you provided. Just kidding, got the idea. 

lol, oops!
Yeah, make sure you read the descriptions.
Thanks for pointing that out.
C

frenchdoor -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrRvD3XsjLY

Here's the video of the Hobbyzone Super Cub in flight. Nothing too fancy as this was in the infancy stages of my learning to fly rc. Also, it was in the dead of winter in Minnesota so there's not much to look at for color. LOL! I'll post a recent one of my Piper Cub this spring with the camera mounted on top of the wing. Problem on the Cub video is that I didn't have any foam rubber with me that day so the vibration got kinda bad but normally the video comes out pretty nicely w/little to no 'shake'. I'll get that one up tomorrow.

I have a flycameone2 and it takes excellent video for mecheck it out!>www.youtube.com/watchand www.youtube.com/watch

it did turn out really well..

Update...

Uploaded the Piper Cub video to Youtube but, the compression of the video from my system then to YT is pretty bad. [] So I'll have to update the video to get a bit more clarity to let you "really" see how it turns out. But at least you can see in this video what the camera is seeing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M_tGE6L47E<br type="_moz"/>

yeah still looks good.. i had watched that i think as soon as you had put it up... :P it had 0 views so i was number 1

Hey everyone so my girlfriend found this little DXG 3.0 MegaPixel Camera http://shopnickys.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=1109822

It was small and light so I figured... Lets strap it to the Avistar and get it in the air!
I strapped it to my Slo-V first just to see how the video looked while in the air and it looked AMAZING on the slo-v, or any other electric I'm sure, the slo-v would only get about 20 feet in the air hahah but the video was great, so this morning about 9 o clock I went out to this huge field I fly in when I don't get out to the flying field... the grass was still wet and absolutely no wind...

I just used a couple extra rubber bands on the wing to strap the camera down and put some cotton pads under the camera to hopefully reduce some of the vibration... did OKAY with the vibration, I may be buying a big Senior Telemaster this week and I think I'm gonna try to make up a video rig, to really reduce the vibrations, the video came out awesome for me but I hate those moments of that squiggly video, I really rang out the Avistar for the camera though! Rough landing due to the grass being uncut and the extra camera weight, which is why I had to take off in the gravel road

Let me know what yall think
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tet6mgrFYeg (comment on there if you want)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tet6mgrFYeg[/youtube]

I think I see a lot of vibration problems!