Super small video camera

[newOldUser]

Has anyone used one of the new super small (gum package size) video

cameras to record a motorcycle ride? Do they hold up to vibration? Is the video and audio any good?

I was looking at this one on the web:

http://www.ledshoppe.com/Product/com/CA4059.htm

It's small enough to mount just about anywhere on the bike, including the

helmet. The price is low enough that if it gets trashed it wouldn't ruin my day.

I found a website with a video from an RC airplane that might be using the

same camera.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1160852

Every once in a while, during a ride, I wish I had something at my fingertips to take a picture or video.

[Earache]

I used an el cheapo, $20 pinhole board camera and ran it into a video camera several years ago. Colors sucked, but vibration wasn't really an issue.

http://www.youtube.com/user/EaracheII#p/u/7/SANDI7fmlTE

It didn't handle light level changes very well either. This camera was duct taped to a turn signal and it was still pretty steady even thoughthe trun signal had to be flopping around.

I didn't edit the vid or add any of the music (which sucks) so don't yell at me for shit quality. I'd bet that the camera you linked to would be much better.

If this thing is only $20, I'd say give it a go and let us know how it works.

Edited January 11, 2010 by Earache

[hue jass]

The resolution looks good enough, but, unless I missed it, they didn't say what the frame rate was. that would be key to getting great video.

[V4junkie]

It said 30 fps

[hue jass]

That works. Should be great. You could mount that on your helmet and not look like a cyborg.

[Earache]

That works. Should be great. You could mount that on your helmet and not look like a cyborg.

True. Be cool to mount several of them at various points on the bike and then run them through a video switch so you can move the viewing angle around.

[newOldUser]

Nice run. Just had to add the "Cruisers Suck" text didn't you

I never want to own a bike where there's a chance that the knee of my pants will wear out before the seat of my pants.

The video quality was better than I expected from the way you described your setup.

I've ordered other stuff from that led shoppe place before and had pretty good luck so I might just give it a go.

[Earache]

Nice run. Just had to add the "Cruisers Suck" text didn't you

I never want to own a bike where there's a chance that the knee of my pants will wear out before the seat of my pants.

The video quality was better than I expected from the way you described your setup..

I didn't add the text, edit or add the music, my friend did that.

I never used the baord camera again and haven't a clue what I ever did with it. Probably just pitched it in the weeds because we thought the quality sucked. But we didn't expect much either.

[hue jass]

True. Be cool to mount several of them at various points on the bike and then run them through a video switch so you can move the viewing angle around.

Definitely cool. Swingarm cam!

[Gump]

Looks like a deal to me! I'll buy one.

Don;t forget you can mount an old cell phone to take vids.

I bought a wireless/ nightvision/ color camera for $18 bucks 3 years ago. It still works and as not been turned off for 3 years.

Edited January 12, 2010 by Gump

[ShankroidBeast]

Thanks for the heads up. I just bought one. Getting a waterproof camera today that takes HD video as well. Going to start making vidoes of all my rides. It would be nice to mount this some place cool to get some interesting shots. Good find!!!!

[newOldUser]

That works. Should be great. You could mount that on your helmet and not look like a cyborg.

It will be a nice addition to the laser pointers and 12 inch cell phone antenna I have duct taped to the top of my helmet.

I just ordered one myself. Remember they don't come with any memory so you'll have to spend another $10 or so to pick up a tiny memory card. The site that sells the camera has some but I think other places like micro center have them at a better price.

[psyco1]

Anyone get theirs yet? Mine came in last night, I can get it to record vids and pics, get them to the comp as a USB mass storage device, but it isn't recognized as a cam. I get an error "cannot create video capture filter" when the capture program that came with it loads.

[newOldUser]

Got mine yesterday in the mail. Didn't get a chance to play with it yet. I let it charge overnight. Different things I've read on the web says it's best to do a 5 hour charge and full discharge the first 3-5 times that you use it to "condition" the rechargable battery.

I was a little upset because the manual that comes with it says that it's 640x480 at 15fps. The manual that is included on the disk says it's 30fps at a greater resolution. So I'll be interested to see what it does.

I don't plan on using it as a camera for my pc but I do remember there was something in the manual on the disk about using that way.

[Gump]

Keep posting results please? I was about to order this but now i'm a little hesitant.

[Disclaimer]

Keep us posted on your review/experience with this thing.

[psyco1]

This user manual is made of Engrish.

Work humidity: Please use it under agreeable human atmosphere humidity, Please not to make product wet or expose in rain for which without waterproop function.

Cleaning requirements: Please not use the product under too large dust density atmosphere so as not to affect video effects for tainted lens and other parts.

Test vid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5ttol2sdec

It looks like it lost a bit of resolution in the upload

Edited January 28, 2010 by psyco1

[psyco1]

Alright, figured out how to get it recognized as a cam, the instructions say to press "?". Tried that, no dice. Then mashed all the damn keys in frustration, not surprisingly that didn't work either.

Looked at the keyboard and saw that > is next to ? and thought maybe they meant to use that for the play button on the cam itself and hit the wrong key, whodathunkit worked.

[newOldUser]

The camera is the higher res camera, not the lower res that the printed manual states. The manual on the disk seems to be the correct one.

Here's some quick info about a snapshot I took:

file size: 300,216

dimensions: 1280 X 1024

image size: 3.8 MB

file type: image/jpeg

Exif info:

camera: SunplusMM Spca1528 (V233-00-01)

aperture: f/3.2

exposure bias: -2.0

ISO sensitivity: 100

focal lengh: 7.45 mm

resolution: 72 X 72 (dot/inch)

Some information about an AVI video

Video:

dimensions: 720 X 480

codec: motion jpeg

framerate: 31 frames per second

Audio:

codec: uncompressed 16-bit PCM audio

channels: mono

sample rate: 22050 Hz

A 56 second video had a file size of 44MB. A 35 second video shows as 45 MB so I'll have to wait till I can take a longer video for more information on minutes/megabyte.

I'm not at a location where I can post pictures or videos right now. Will try to do it in future. So far I am very impressed with the camera. Still shots can be blurred because device is small and you need to press a large button on the back of it. Better if you put camera on stable surface for still shots. Video looks good. Sound is good at arms length not sure beyond that. IT IS NOT A LOW LIGHT CAMERA. You need to have at least a normal amount of light in a room for a good picture.

This thing is small. About the size of a grown mans thumb. It comes with the camera, a CD with manual and drivers, a USB cable, a small paper manual (that seems to be out of date) and a wall power adapter. You charge it from your PC or you can plug it into the wall. It comes in a brown bag wrapped in bubble-wrap. No pretty box.

Edited January 28, 2010 by newOldUser

[InyaAzz]

MOAR VIDEO!! I'd like to see how this things performs while moving at 80 MPH.

[InyaAzz]

Battery time of 'Approx 2 hours'?

Can someone try to put this to the test? I'm interested to see how accurate their approximation is.

[fusion]

That's pretty decent for $15

[newOldUser]

Here's a small sample video that I took on my way to lunch. I stuck my hand out the car window for about 10 seconds.

I've uploaded the video to some free file sites. It's about 17 MB in size. These free sites should hold it for 30 days or so. Figured you could download it and see the video on your machine much better than youTube.

Try this link: http://www.4shared.com/file/210138978/31ba2ce8/SUNP0011.html

or this link: http://www.supashare.net/4tx1svf55e4j

it's the same video at either link, just used two different hosting sites, not sure which is best.

Yes I know the time stamp on the video isn't correct. They have some voodoo way of setting the time on the device that I haven't gotten around to fooling with yet. I'm not sure if the time stamp can be turned off or not.

I was able to record anywhere from 17 to 20 minutes of video on one 2 GB memory card. I erased the card and reused it several times and I was able to get about 65 minutes of video total on the first charge. I also took about 10 still shots on that charge too.

An 8 GB card would be great for this thing. I figure on average it records video at 100 MB per minute, so 10 minutes of video is about 1 GB of space on your memory card. If a charge lasts for 65 minutes then that would be about 7 GB of space needed.

There is no way to delete or see anything from the memory card via the camera. If the memory card fills up the camera stops recording. You need to attach it to a computer and move/delete the media files or put in a different memory card.

So far I'm still happy with it....

Edited January 29, 2010 by newOldUser

[psyco1]

Lol, you have to copy a file from the CD with a DD/MM/YYYY format to the memory card and adjust it manually, but hey, it's $15.

[InyaAzz]

Here's a small sample video that I took on my way to lunch. I stuck my hand out the car window for about 10 seconds.

I've uploaded the video to some free file sites. It's about 17 MB in size. These free sites should hold it for 30 days or so. Figured you could download it and see the video on your machine much better than youTube.

Try this link: http://www.4shared.com/file/210138978/31ba2ce8/SUNP0011.html

or this link: http://www.supashare.net/4tx1svf55e4j

it's the same video at either link, just used two different hosting sites, not sure which is best.

Yes I know the time stamp on the video isn't correct. They have some voodoo way of setting the time on the device that I haven't gotten around to fooling with yet. I'm not sure if the time stamp can be turned off or not.

I was able to record anywhere from 17 to 20 minutes of video on one 2 GB memory card. I erased the card and reused it several times and I was able to get about 65 minutes of video total on the first charge. I also took about 10 still shots on that charge too.

An 8 GB card would be great for this thing. I figure on average it records video at 100 KB per minute, so 10 minutes of video is about 1 GB of space on your memory card. If a charge lasts for 65 minutes then that would be about 7 GB of space needed.

There is no way to delete or see anything from the memory card via the camera. If the memory card fills up the camera stops recording. You need to attach it to a computer and move/delete the media files or put in a different memory card.

So far I'm still happy with it....

Thanks kind sir.