Camera in the cockpit?

[Grumman guy]

seeing all these videos on here lately really makes me want to put one on the glare shield of my Airtanker. I am kicking myself for not doing this sooner.

Anyone have any expirience with this. I surely do not. Company said to go buy a Camera and do it, but have a thousand dollar limit.

What camera, where to put it, how to mount it, all that good stuff.

Thanx-

 

[bubbers44]

I got a Sony handycam two years ago when they were just coming our with the mini DVD models so did a google search and consumer report check and now they have models like the Sony handycam DCR-HC 96 mini DV digital camcorder for the same as I paid for my tape digital one which I love for the same price, just under 500.00. It weighs just over a pound and you could just use velcro to hold it on your glare shield.

We use to do that in our 757 going in to Tegucigalpa.Honduras with great results just setting it there. You can transfer it to another DVD like I did and for a 30 cent blank DVD. Most all models have image stabilization but make sure you get that. You can't go wrong with Sony camcorders.

 

[bubbers44]

By the way best results are in wide angle and setting focus to manual and infinity and of course the highest quality setting.

 

[hoop]

Bubbers,

I have a DV camcorder, and am interested in editing it (background music, fade in/out, etc) and burning it to DVD....... I realize I'm going to have to have a video capture card installed in my computer, but did you do any editing with software? I'm currently looking at Pinnacle multimedia editor, and Sony Vegas.......... any suggestions?


Sorry for the hijack.....!

 

[PilotSkydiver]

Hoop,
If you have a DV camcorder you shouldn't need a Video Capture Card... Just Firewire should do the trick and if you're cheap like me Windows movie maker is already on your computer.. Good Luck

 

[VNugget]

Please do this! I, for one, would love to watch those videos.

 

[Hovernut]

I wish I had a portable/mini WesCam mount! You don't need a capture card if you're shooting DV, just a firewire/1394 port. You can get an expantion card for cheap at newegg.com if you don't have one installed.

I edit professionally on Avid....great platform. They have a beginner free version, http://avid.com/freedv/ that'll do you pretty good for the price you pay

I personally recommend you stay away from the miniDVD recorders, as they shoot MJPEG...compressed. Best to shoot on DV tape to get the most data on tape and you can compress it later when encoding to DVD/YouTube, or whatever.

There are some real nice small form factor HD cameras in the pipeline for release. One of the best sites for research on new products is camcorderinfo.com

Cheers!

 

[bubbers44]

hoop, I tried pinnacle and it seemed to work fine. I did some editing but it is a lot of work. I am having trouble using firewire and dv output to put on internet. I wanted to put the TGU arrival video on the internet but have failed. I lose patience after a few hours and put it on the back burner hoping some easier way comes along. I just get lazy and feed it into my Sony burner with no editing. My good friend did my final TGU landing on my retirement flight from the tower and he did a wonderful job of editing but it was a lot of work. Wish I could help more.