Dash Cam Pro?

rcspaceflight

creator of virtual planes
Seems heavy for aerial footage. The HD Wing Cam from Hobby King is the same price. ... Excluding shipping.
 

BobK

Banned
Excluding shipping.

So..with shipping from HK it would run about $120 ;)

I honestly don't know how I would use it, maybe a hat cam, or my bigger planes would carry it no problem. I did think it was heavy also. I like that it can take stills, and it has night mode (not sure if it is useful at all), motion detection, etc.
 

rcspaceflight

creator of virtual planes
How is it $120 with shipping? Assuming you're in the USA, both US warehouses have the HD Wing Cam. Shipping really shouldn't be that much. The HD Wing Cam does have a motion detection mode, can take stills, and supposedly you can "hack" it into being able to be used as an FPV camera.
 

BobK

Banned
I was joking ;)

I'll look into the Wing cam, thanks for the suggestion. I personally don't shop at HK, so we'll see.
 

rcspaceflight

creator of virtual planes
Hobby King does have it's issues, but it's a great little camera for the price. I've only used the Wing Cam, but I'm sure the Mobius is a lot better if you don't mind the extra money for one.

Currently I altered my HD Wing Cam into more of a surveillance cam / timelapse cam. I replaced the LiPo battery pack with 3 D cell batteries so the battery will out last the memory card even at the lowest possible resolution. (With current 15gb memory card it will record 5 hours of video.)

Oh, if you want a super cheap camera, want to avoid Hobby King, and don't mind the poor quality, get an 808 key chain camera. They're like $10. Available from a lot of sites (including Amazon). I had one and the HD Wing Cam is better, but at $10 you'll be a lot more comfortable putting it on a plane.
 

BobK

Banned
I'll have to look into the key chain also, I appreciate the suggestions. I do a lot of different things with cams, the reason the dashcampro caught my eye was the night vision and motion detection as I do quite a bit of work with the DNR with nest boxes for wood ducks, and fox, coyote and timber wolf dens, etc. On board motion detection would be sweet since right now we are trying it with a remote trigger and it is proving not to be very reliable getting the cam triggered.

My wife gave me a hard hint that my daughter might be getting me a Mobius for Fathers day (fingers crossed lol) so I am a bit stuck with that on my mind because I don't want to get something to serious if that is her plan. :)
 

rcspaceflight

creator of virtual planes
Ah. I've used trail cams before. Some are better than others. But I've had issues of wind moving trees which sets off the camera which means you get a lot of pictures of nothing on windy days. I've also had a timelapse camera which is basically a trail camera without the infrared or flash and takes a photo every X minutes. I had the timelapse camera set up with a solar panel but winter kills it every year. I don't know if it's the cold or snow getting on the solar panel and draining the battery or what.
 

BobK

Banned
My experience with solar panels are..to throw them in the trash lol, never had good luck with them. It is true a lot of it depends on the camera, and over the years the tech has improved greatly on battery life in them, but I went with Tenergy rechargeable batteries many years ago and never looked back. I'm sure the ones I use are at least five years old now but they still work well, my favorite cam is an old Cuddeback Capture white flash and the D cell Tenergys keep it running for 3 weeks between charges, I just use a cheap Harbor freight charger on them and have had great luck even in cold temps.

I am not convinced on the infrared, red flash, etc cams and fully believe the white flash cams don't spook animals any more than the others..I've been in some pretty heated arguments over that but I have the pics and vids to prove it lol, I think noise is the biggest factor..I will not buy a trail cam until I can hear it trigger at the store, Gander Mountain is a great place to test cams, they will yank a camera out of the packaging on the spot put batteries in it and let you mess with it all day long before deciding to purchase it.

Wind moving trees and even long grass is something that is a problem, I try to use larger trees and remove any tall grass I can when setting up..but even one strand of grass can be a nightmare. One winter I had a cam set up on a feeder and was getting hundreds of pictures of what I thought was absolutely nothing, then finally after zooming in on the pictures I realized there were wood mice zipping around and triggering the cam. :)

I realize this thread is getting off topic on an R/C forum, but recently Wildgame Innovations said if I can prove that animals can see their product..I can have the test camera for free. I set it up in a dead stump that I hollowed out just enough to allow the cam to be mounted inside with just the trigger/lens showing..and here is the video I put together..needless to say I got a free cam lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRTbVueBOPM&feature=youtu.be

I also can't stand the horrible video/picture quality of anything but a white flash cam.

But, putting regular size trail cams in a nest box or den site is next to impossible, so I am always looking for smaller options.
 

rcspaceflight

creator of virtual planes
Here I thought off topics are encouraged. lol.

Here is a video I made recently with the HD Wing Cam from Hobby King, but remember that I have it set at the lowest quality and the window it's looking through is dirty. It still looks decent later in the video. But it's still unfortunate that I have it aimed right at a dirty spot on the window.

The HD Wing Cam uses a vibrator, like on a cell phone, to indicate when buttons are pressed, etc. But you can easily cut it off and it will still work fine. Again, it has a motion detection feature for both stills and video. You could probably put black tape over the indicator lights. The LiPo that comes with the camera only lasts 3 hours and it's a 1 cell (3.7v) 900mah battery. I could show you the mods I did to mine but basically I took this 4 D cell battery holder and put the camera inside it in place of one of the D cell batteries and power it off of 3 D cell batteries. I don't remember my estimate for how long the batteries will last, but I have used the camera twice now with the same 3 D cell batteries for a grand total of 10 hours of use.