Best FPV Cam?

[RC-Mallory]

I have been doing some miniquad freestyle stuff for a while now, but just recently, my Foxeer HS1177 FPV cam just gave out. I have a Lumenier CMOS cam to replace it for now, but from what I have seen, most CMOS cameras just can't get the dynamic range that I need to avoid branches when diving under a tree with the sun glaring through the lens (although I haven't had the time to test it). What would people recommend for a replacement that can handle direct sunlight, sunlight lit snow, and somewhat dark evenings with only a bit of setting changes? Its also gotta be tough as nails, I don't tend to be very gentle with my quads... I'm also working off a tight budget, so cheaper the better, but I'm willing to spend enough to get good quality.

Also, what settings do you fly? I have been searching for the ideal settings for mid day flying, but struggle to find the perfect balance of color, brightness, and contrast.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions,
-Chase

 

[PsyBorg]

So far as I have learned the HS1177 is the standard the majority of people fly with. I use one and love it. I will admit it was a royal pain to set up and took many days tweaking and changing settings. I will say there is no one magical setting for all situations.

I found it best to watch Steele's video on the settings he used on that same camera and adjust from there what you need. I also found that contrast is what causes the most problems and wide dynamic range is what gives the best enhancements. For my eyes I found that turning WDR off and adjusting things was best for me so far. I will say when you are adjusting settings that you start by defaulting the goggle contrast and brightness to center values before even starting. That way you leave room for adjustment out in the field without having to pull out wires n such every hour you fly as the light changes. That is usually done by holding the button down fully in the center for a few seconds. you will notice when it works as usually your settings are way lower then default and it will get very bright to start.

If you want to try the settings I have let me know I will fire up the goggles and write them down for you.

 

[RC-Mallory]

For some reason, the HS1177 that I got did not have most of the settings that other HS1177s had, so what I am wondering is what brand you use. The HS1177 is just the sensor that is used in the camera as far as I know, so the circuit board that runs it and applies settings etc is dependent on the brand. Mine didn't last nearly as long as the camera probably should have and it either simply didn't have many of the settings that I see other people are talking about, or the settings are labelled differently, making it really hard to figure out.

 

[LitterBug]

Have you done a gopro lens swap? If you haven't you should give that a try too. I have been playing with a bunch of different CMOS and CCD cameras lately. No real experience with proximity flying except when it happens by accident. What you may want to try is maxing out the sharpness to enhance the edges. It will tend to make the whole image grainy, but makes small objects more visible. I tend to go the opposite direction for the type of flying I do and making the DVR of the FPV look clean, but now that I have and HD cam mounted, I may go back to making the FPV better for proximity. Right now, my best CCD is the Strix Ochi 650 with a 2.5mm GoPro lens.

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[WHERESMYNAMEGO]

i would love to see what people say on this subject . i feel like I’m always struggling with this question and i have the same , lets say preference for frugality.
I have a HS1177, a PZ0420M and a hand full of crappy cameras that i keep buying because their $10 or less. Beware those , not worth it. I also just got one of those Eachine TX02, its a micro all in one with 200Mw VTx and a surprisingly good CMOS camera. I’m seriously impressed with this thing and its $25 on banggood, but its not what your looking for. Of the HS1177 and the PZ0420M i think i prefer the PZ ($25 on amazon). I keep fiddling with the settings on the HS and still the PZ just looks better in my goggles. I know everyone flys the HS and its a good camera so i suspect i might be doing something wrong but still.
For the future I’m looking at the OLW PLUS or the Eagle from runcam. I fly fixed wing but I’m doing proximity and flying in the evening so i need a good WDR and low light, but i want a pretty picture too. These new CMOS cameras seem to be a huge improvement over the old ones that really only worked in perfect sunny conditions . Those two Runcams look to be solid low light cameras with good range and a nice 700TVL color saturated image. Even that little micro CMOS camera on the TX02 preformed surprisingly well.
So thats all i know , i would love to hear others experience . I feel like everyone flys the same couple cameras but theres a million others out there

 

[RC-Mallory]

I have not heard of the GoPro lens swap, will have to check that out... My biggest problem right now with most cameras that I have seen is that they don't seem to be able to handle looking directly into the sun. Most of the time that I fly, its on a nice sunny day and I am trying to power loop a tree, which means I end up pulling out from under the tree and right into the full on exposure of a Colorado sun... goodbye any hope of usable image...

Is the PZ a CMOS or CCD? That is much more affordable than most name brand HS1177s and if it looks good, might be worth a try.

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[LitterBug]

Sounds like the contrast is too high and the detail on the bright side are getting crushed and blooming. Pretty typical for them to come that way. My Runcam Swifts were so bad on the top side, they would invert the image on the bright side.

Quick cheat sheet for adjusting cameras and monitors.

For adjusting the detail in the bright/white end, adjust Contrast. If you have no detail in bright areas of the screen, lower contrast.

For adjusting the detail in the Dark/Black end, adjust the Brightness. For more detail in the dark areas of the scene, raise brightness.

To make the edges more crisp, raise sharpness, to make the edge transitions smoother, drop sharpness.

The GoPro lenses I have been using are "Vicdozia 2.5mm Replacement" from Amazon. It's the one on the right in this picture:


Better lens material, Great Field of View, and it removes a bunch of the fisheye. One of these days I want to do an article on different lenses with comparisons of the wide variety that have come on my cameras.

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[RC-Mallory]

That looks like a serious lens, love it! Thanks for the information. Also, just for the sake of curiosity, I am currently building an indoor 100mm racer for a new racing group starting up here in Fort Collins CO, do you know of any micro cams that are equally good or is there just not enough market for them? I have a cheap one that came with the kit that I bought and it works great for the most part, but I was just wondering what kind of room there was for improving.

 

[WHERESMYNAMEGO]

PZ0420M is a CCD camera, works great in crazy conditions. It's a board cam but I've put min in the dirt more than once and it still works great. Also $25 on prime! They can have it at my house by the time I get home from work tomorrow. That's it I just talked myself in to grabbing one before Christmas takes all my money.

 

[LitterBug]

That looks like a serious lens, love it! Thanks for the information. Also, just for the sake of curiosity, I am currently building an indoor 100mm racer for a new racing group starting up here in Fort Collins CO, do you know of any micro cams that are equally good or is there just not enough market for them? I have a cheap one that came with the kit that I bought and it works great for the most part, but I was just wondering what kind of room there was for improving.

RC-Mallory, Would help knowing which micro cam you have for comparison and maybe the frame it is going in... Maybe a picture of it too?

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[RC-Mallory]

RC-Mallory, Would help knowing which micro cam you have for comparison and maybe the frame it is going in... Maybe a picture of it too?

Wish I knew, it comes off the Smart PNP 100mm quad. I will be putting it on a new brushless build of equal size. Here is a pic of the drone from the website.

Also a link:
http://www.gearbest.com/multi-rotor-parts/pp_467445.html?currency=USD&lkid=10133836&gclid=Cj0KEQiA1b7CBRDjmIPL4u-Zy6gBEiQAsJhTMEGVzFW-lszKM8p8q_EJQTetrckm0Ne26Vo6kiR6yi0aAtDy8P8HAQ

 

[PsyBorg]

I have also had the PZ just before I built the alien but I killed it in too short a time to have enough knowledge to give an opinion of one vs the other. It was definitely way above any cmos camera. They are OK for monitors but for goggles CCD is a must IMO. to answer the OP I use the Foxeer hs1177 right of the Rotor Riot web site. I also use the gopro 2.1mm lens right from Amazon with this set up. Aspect relation to ground and close objects is much more realistic and not that truck mirror objects are closer then they appear like with the original lens.

It took me about 3 days on and off in different light conditions to get mine the way I like it where I can point it straight at the sun then turn to face into a dark hall way into my building and the transition is livable if I had to go from direct sun to that much shade while flying.

What I did to get my initial settings was to hook the camera up with the cable provided to my goggles the battery and the little programming switch then went out side. With Wide Dynamic Range on and my goggles defaulted to middle settings for contrast and brightness I pointed it straight into the sun and dropped the contrast on the camera until it got to where I went one number lower and there was no noticeable change. Then I set the brightness. Once those two settings were OK I set the time the camera would adjust for dark to light and light to dark to 5 seconds. they come defaulted at 3 seconds and is too fast and you will be in and out of shadows with the brightness jumping up and down at bad times.

then I walked into shaded areas to make sure the change was not drastic. Then it was back to looking right at the sun and then walking into the dark hall way at the front of my building where there was just a few light bulbs to provide light. Once that was done I flew it for the day and kept in mind any changes I wanted to do. Once I got it dialed in for contrast and brightness I took it inside and pointed it at the green part of the body of my monster truck to match that as close as possible. After that I found a can of rubber cement that had some red and blue on it and balanced them out going back to the truck body to check the green. Once I was happy the colors were close enough I went back out side into the sun and looked at the grass and the trees and the buildings and change the color intensity until it was enough to see the colors but not wash out. After that it was a few more direct sun to inside checks and then back to flying.

Now when I fly all I do is adjust the goggle settings to adapt to the conditions I fly in. Here is what it looks like right out of the goggles into a dvr now. this video has light and dark, sun and shade to compare. Look specifically at the part where I fly directly in line with the sun and the finger of god extends from the sun to the ground but now blinding light or wash out of the picture.

 

[LitterBug]

Wish I knew, it comes off the Smart PNP 100mm quad. I will be putting it on a new brushless build of equal size. Here is a pic of the drone from the website.
View attachment 78609
Also a link:
http://www.gearbest.com/multi-rotor-parts/pp_467445.html?currency=USD&lkid=10133836&gclid=Cj0KEQiA1b7CBRDjmIPL4u-Zy6gBEiQAsJhTMEGVzFW-lszKM8p8q_EJQTetrckm0Ne26Vo6kiR6yi0aAtDy8P8HAQ

AHHhhhh... the Pico cam. I've seen one recently with an upgraded lens. Gotta try and find it again....

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[RC-Mallory]

Yea, I think I may have gotten a cheap Chinese knockoff then, it seemed to only have brightness, contrast, and color correction from what I could find in the image settings. Right now, I've got a Lumenier CMOS cam on my quad, I will have to see if I can get its settings to work well, it might be good enough, but if not, I will see if I can find another good CCD cam to put on it.

Good to know that's a Pico cam, it works pretty well for the most part. Would you happen to know what the video transmitter is? I am surprised with its quality so far, works great. If not, do you know of any others of similar size? After gutting that brushed quad to put on a brushless, I might eventually rebuilt it to lend out to beginners who want something to try for the first time.

 

[LitterBug]

No idea on the VTX on the 100mm. Upgrades for that thing will more than double the price if you aren't careful. I don't really have any good recommendations for upgrades.

Cheers!
LitterBug