Goodbye helmetcam, hello something else cam

All three of our regular readers may recall the most excellent helmetcam; an exotic blend of bicycle helmet and camera with which I planned to make the definitive windsurfing movie.

Didn’t work. The camera is not sufficiently wide angle to capture anything but sea; which makes for a rather unexciting video experience. So when searching for a solution for a mount to insert the camera into Dean’s racing car, it seemed obvious to move from helmetcam….

…to something else cam; being a camera, a mount, and a very small part of a bicycle helmet (and in this photo, a load of red tape):

As a result of this modification, I now have about three quarters of a bicycle helmet with no obvious function. No reasonable offer refused.

To Bira early, where I spent the best part of an hour attempting to tape something else cam to the roll cage which was exactly the right design to make this a challenging task. Still, after much trial and error it seemed like we were getting the view we needed and out on the grid I fired up the camera and hoped it would still be recording when Dean had finished his race. And it was, although the temperature inside the car was so high that I was unable to hold the camera in my hand once I took it out of the support.

Back home it was good news and bad news. The good news was that the video looked good; in focus and properly exposed. The bad news was that you only saw other cars when going round a right hand corner. The camera angle was all wrong, something that had not been obvious in the paddock.

(This is a capture from the video, the actual video is much higher quality).

So, proof of concept, but more work required. Maybe I can consider an entirely different approach using blue plastic pipe.

I suppose the obvious question is “why bother at all?” Buggered if I know.

Comments 🔗

2010-05-09 | Qon says

interesting project but it had Murphy’s Law written all over it! at least you placed 5th in the club race… wait that’s probably not something to brag on. sweet video though ;-P

2010-05-09 | Spike says

Thanks… I wasn’t going to mention that.

2010-05-10 | Billy says

especially the bit about there being only 4 other competitors I guess …

2010-05-11 | Spike says

Bitch