Help! Good all-in-one FPV camera?

MaxTheFliteFreak

Active member
Hello, I was recently hooked on the idea of FPV planes that can fly for a long time, are sub 250 grams and can be flown pretty much anywhere. I was thinking of building the FT Goblin or FT Nano Flerken for just this purpose when I realized that even though I have FPV goggles, I don't have a camera, VTX or antenna. Does anybody knos of an affordable all-in-one FPV camera that still has great video quality?
 
I can't vouch for the video quality or durability as I have not used it yet. I bought it for a future adventures in FPV but haven't bought goggles yet. It certainly fits the all in one cheap category!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06Y5D8SPZ/?tag=lstir-20
i actually used to usw this camera and it works great! The range is quite decent and the camera quality is also good for the price. Its not DJI quality but it works. Hope this helps
 

joelspangler

Active member
One thing to consider is voltage in. Most of the all-in-one (AIW) cameras require something like 3v-5v power. You should NOT use BEC power from your ESC. You might be OK if you keep the output to 25mw, but at 100 or higher I would not suggest it. I did this with a 200mw unit, and it burned up my ESC mid-flight, and I lost all control of the model and broke pretty much everything as a result of the uncontrolled decent.

I've gotten around this a few ways since then, the easiest is to simply power it with a 1s mini-quad battery, but that does add extra weight, and you need somewhere to put the battery. I've also powered one through the balance port on my battery, just using one of the cells. This causes the cells to not be balanced at the end of the flight, so you always need to balance them again before putting them to storage. Lastly, you can use a separate BEC for only the camera, but again - extra weight, more space needed, and complexity in wiring. There is one camera that I know of - the ZOHD VC400 which can take full voltage from up to a 6s battery. It's about $40 though, so double the other suggestion, but it does also output 400mw. There are probably other cameras that can take higher voltages - I haven't shopped around much though, so I don't have any other suggestions.
 

MaxTheFliteFreak

Active member
One thing to consider is voltage in. Most of the all-in-one (AIW) cameras require something like 3v-5v power. You should NOT use BEC power from your ESC. You might be OK if you keep the output to 25mw, but at 100 or higher I would not suggest it. I did this with a 200mw unit, and it burned up my ESC mid-flight, and I lost all control of the model and broke pretty much everything as a result of the uncontrolled decent.

I've gotten around this a few ways since then, the easiest is to simply power it with a 1s mini-quad battery, but that does add extra weight, and you need somewhere to put the battery. I've also powered one through the balance port on my battery, just using one of the cells. This causes the cells to not be balanced at the end of the flight, so you always need to balance them again before putting them to storage. Lastly, you can use a separate BEC for only the camera, but again - extra weight, more space needed, and complexity in wiring. There is one camera that I know of - the ZOHD VC400 which can take full voltage from up to a 6s battery. It's about $40 though, so double the other suggestion, but it does also output 400mw. There are probably other cameras that can take higher voltages - I haven't shopped around much though, so I don't have any other suggestions.
Wow, ok I'm definately going to be mindful about power. Do you think I could connect the cables to the reciever's power supply? This is actually a good idea that is simple and eliminates any extra weight of extra batteries.
 

Intashu

Elite member
I had good luck with the "Spotter V2" all in one fpv camera.

I generally try to use setups with can either run off the battery voltage directly, or I use a dedicated Ubec for the camera. I add a capacitor to the camera side to help keep it stable if I pick up a cheap one, and have never had any issues with this setup, running my smaller 5v camera's directly off power from the receiver I've had issues with stable video, throttling up can cause image quality to drop a bit or signal range to lower from the voltage sag. and it's more work on the ESC to power an extra device off the receiver. The Flitetest 7A UBEC works great, with tons of power for the task.
 

Hondo76251

Legendary member
I've had good luck with those little akk cameras, but I usually get the cloverleaf version. Just seems to work better for me.