Recommendation for a video camera to record flights

[Inq]

Well... I gave the CapPod a shot. I took it out to the field today and video'd other pilots since I wasn't prepared to be focusing on... well... aiming AND flying at the same time.

I took three segments of the same flight, taking off the cap, changing the phone's zoom from 1x to 2x and finally to 5x and replacing it. The phone was set for 4K, 30 fps. The YouTube is at a zoom 1x. The video of the 2x was worthless... out of about 1 minute of recording only about 2 seconds had the plane in the FOV. The 5x was even worse... NADA, no plane existed except an occasional buzzing sound.

Summary - There is no way this is going to work without some aiming device to show me what FOV is being taken. I also noticed while not using the cap, I don't always point my head and I'll pan with just my eyes... which will obviously not work. I think if I can figure some unobtrusive gun-sites, this should is quite doable.

Just for reference
A GoPro at full zoom has a FOV of 65°, while my phone at 5x is 11°. It should give a 6x better view of the plane, but is 6x harder to target it.

 

[model14]

The 1x capod is a lot better than my Hero3 GoPro which has no Zoom.

 

[Tench745]

I videoed a maiden earlier today with my phone on my head. It was aimed a bit too high, but I got ok footage. It could have used a tighter lens, but I played with zooming in my editing software. The end result wasn't too bad, but definitely isn't as clear as a zoom lens could get.

 

[Inq]

I videoed a maiden earlier today with my phone on my head. It was aimed a bit too high, but I got ok footage. It could have used a tighter lens, but I played with zooming in my editing software. The end result wasn't too bad, but definitely isn't as clear as a zoom lens could get.

What are you using for editing software?

 

[Tench745]

What are you using for editing software?

Davinci Resolve 16. It's a pretty high-end editing software and available for free. I believe they're up to version 18 now, but I'm not sure if my aging computer can run it, so I haven't updated yet.

 

[Inq]

CapPod... Take two!

11° is way too narrow a FOV to ever happen to be on an airplane. I've made about seven different aimers with varying degrees of success. A one gun-site type at the brim was hit or miss simply on how I put the hat on twice in a row. I have to have some way to make sure I have my eye-line parallel to the camera's line. Anyway doing the trig, the outer site being 80 mm from my eyeball, gives a width of about 16 mm. I've also made the eye-site removable for breakage, or just to get it out of the way.

Here putting the camera near to where my eye should be. Camera is at 1x zoom so it can try to focus on it being up so close.

Here the camera is at the 5X zoom with a couple of targets. The truck (at 300 yards) is about 6 feet across... my trainer has a 5 foot wingspan. Obviously... neither the truck nor the plane is within the FOV and wouldn't get videoed. The image is also misleading about how obtrusive it is. I can barely see it with my eye in the cap and I can't actually bring in into focus that close. It's like looking through a screen door... you know it their, but can't really see it unless you step back. Also, it is such a small portion of my eyeball's near 180° FOV, I don't think it will be a problem to ignore if I need to focus on the plane.

Although... having the Auger-In might be worth recording.

 

[Inq]

Davinci Resolve 16. It's a pretty high-end editing software and available for free. I believe they're up to version 18 now, but I'm not sure if my aging computer can run it, so I haven't updated yet.

Wow, Good stuff and free! How bad is the learning curve? I'm never going to be a YouTube star with my ugly mug. Like you mentioned... about all I need is to cut out parts, maybe crop, maybe dub some music or commentary.

 

[Tench745]

Wow, Good stuff and free! How bad is the learning curve? I'm never going to be a YouTube star with my ugly mug. Like you mentioned... about all I need is to cut out parts, maybe crop, maybe dub some music or commentary.

If you've done some non-linear editing before, it's fairly easy to pick up. If you haven't, it will take longer. I watch tutorials to get the broad strokes. There are a lot of in-depth things you can do with editing nodes and color correction, yadda-yadda-yadda, but you don't need to deal with that to get usable footage.

 

[hunterdave99]

Here is my setup: A Sports Camera Sunglasses, two Key Fob Spy Cameras, and an Action Camera on a small tripod. All purchased on Amazon and capable of at least 1080. The sunglasses have a built-in camera on the bridge of the nose so it sees what you are looking at. I do wish it could zoom a little bit. The two key fob cameras are mounted on the plane (weigh 39 grams each) and I point one forward and one to the rear so that I can get some great on-board shots. I place the action camera right on the runway to capture takeoffs and landings. I have downloaded Davinci Resolve 18. It is not too difficult to learn as there are many great tutorials on YouTube. This was the first time trying to film my flying and the multi-tasking was a little distracting. I later realized that I was focusing more on aligning up for the camera than the actual mechanics of the landing. That led to a few less than desirable touchdowns. I have made two videos so far. One is Grifflyer's Grunjet. The other is the Durafly Vampire. For the Vampire I used the YouTube preset for exporting and for the Grunjet I used the H264 Codec. The Grunjet is about 3 times the file size and took about 3 times longer to upload but it is a little better quality. My first two videos are up. Please don't be too critical, it was my first attempt.
Hope

 

[Inq]

The sunglasses have a built-in camera on the bridge of the nose so it sees what you are looking at. I do wish it could zoom a little bit.

This was the first time trying to film my flying and the multi-tasking was a little distracting.

That is certainly my problem. Being a novice pilot... I either focus on the filming and flying is nearly sacrificed into the ground or fly the plane and the camera is not near it. I find I don't track with my head naturally. When flying, I see in my videos where the plane is practically never in the feed. If I focus on aiming the CapPod on the plane it does pretty good. I've worked up to using 2X on the telephoto and think as my flying skills improve and allow me to multitask more, I'll get up to the 5X. Only time will tell.