What does it feel like to drive Mount Panorama?

Sadly, I can't tell you from personal experience but there is nothing like a properly mounted helmet camera to put you in the driver's seat.

You are riding with Christopher Mies in and Audi R8 LMS during the 2016 Liquid Moly Bathurst 12 Hour week end.  Turn up the volume.



The ideal placement for a POV camera is as close to eye level and as centered as possible but, unfortunately, there are no perfect mounting solutions out there at the moment.   There are accessories for other positions but, mounting the camera on the side of the helmet doesn't look right, on top is too high and on the chin bar,  too low.

The best spot for a POV camera is on top of the visor in the middle.    Marshall Pruett came up with this placement and method, aided by abundant gaffer's tape to produce the great POV videos that occasionally appear on Racer's web site.

Incredibly, nobody has yet stepped up with a proper mount for this location without having a big contraption sticking out from your helmet.  
I've used a modified version of Marshall's mounting technique involving 3M Dual Lock tape and the GoPro upside down to line up the lens  even more.   Obviously this is particular setup is adapter for a closed car where you might keep your visor open and not ideal if you need to close it.

Perhaps someone out there knows of a better way or might like to step up and design something that will work better because this IS the sweet spot for in car POV shots.

Nice catch Dion!

We haven't posted a good onboard for some times now so  let's ride along with Dion Von Moltke in his Paul Miller Racing Audi R8 GTD during a dry practice for the Sahlen Six Hours of the Glen.  

Von Moltke with co drivers Christopher Haase and Bryce Miller placed third in class for the very wet race.

Check out the slide at the off camber turn 9.

Experience the whole Italian Grand Prix from inside the cars in 30 minutes.

You got to love that 8th to 1st gear sequence for the first chicane...

(h/t Peter Krause)

Ferrari 458 Challenge onboard video

Vallelunga, Italy (YT via Motorsportblog.it)

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Japan, Onboard

Fuji, Montegi, Sendai and Suzuka courtesy of Smartycam. The others are after the jump.

HD Four Way

Scooby Canada sent up this clip, interesting for a couple of reasons I thought. It's a user selectable multi angle clip, something I had not seen before on YouTube. You can choose a front bumper cam, an over the dash view, a rear side and driver action angle. Pretty cool and all shot in HD.

The other nice bit is that it's a clip of someone doing rally in North America who is not either Travis Pastrana or Ken Block, WIN!

Here is the caption from Subaru Canada

"We strapped four High-Definition cameras onto a Subaru WRX rally car, so now you can control the action.

Choose between four explosive angles to watch Subaru Rally Driver Pat Richard and navigator Alan Ockwell take on the tough Stage 4 of Tall Pines. It's rally racing like you've never seen before, and it's the type of performance at the heart of our newest creation - the 2011 Subaru WRX STI. "


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MotoGP blows your mind with new gyroscopic camera mount

Can MotoGP get any cooler? Perhaps you were marvelling at the return of Valentino Rossi, only six weeks after having a bone stick out of his shin, to score a fourth place finish at the Geraman GP this past Sunday. The Doctor came vary close to scoring a podium but for Casey Stoner taking back third on the final corner, still an amazing performance.

Yeah but MotoGP was not done, Dorna Sports, the Spanish marketing company behind the sport, deputed a fantastic new gyroscopically mounted camera on Rossi's bike. In case MotoGP had not sufficiently blown your mind, this new prospective will.

MotoGP, is way ahead of Formula1 not just, because of the nature of the machinery, with on track action, but also in its content delivery systems available: Dorna offers various levels of online access, season to daily passes, in high and low definition, at around $10 per race week end. You can find details HERE

We wonder when Formula1 will wake up.
(thanks to Rick Lopez!)



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Recording your passion: in-car camera roundup

What a great time for tracktard photo and videographers, there have never been better or more affordable tools to capture our passion. Check out this great clip shot with a still camera, a Canon 5D MkII. Creative possibilities have hugely expanded even in just the last year or so and after the jump we'll look at some of the best tools available to you.



Cool video right? It comes from Chean's Weblog via this other great page : Bulgogibrothers.com. Make sure you watch it full screen in HD to really see how good in car video can now be.



While some tracktards out there only want an onboard camera to have a record any incidents which might happen, the boundaries of what's possible, practical and affordable in terms of image quality have been radically shifted in the past year or so.

For a long time now the the gold standard for in-car video has been the ChaseCam system and for good reason. Compact, rugged, simple to use, the system was designed by car people for motorsport applications. But ChaseCam has an inherent flaw: it was designed for watching videos on a 4:3 televisions which means interlaced video. I don't think I'd be too off the mark if I said that 95% of all chase cam videos are watched on 16:9 computers screens today. Interlaced videos on computer screens simply don't look as good as progressive scan pictures from even a first generation GoPro camera, with all it's flaws.

The advent of inexpensive HD video has effectively rendered the first Chase Cam system obsolete in terms of image quality. Chase Cam has announced a new HD based recorder will be on the market this year and it will likely become the new standard. But there are a number of other solutions with great image quality available for al you "Motographers" out there.

GoPro updated their camera with impressive specs and some cool features: 1080P, 30 fps with a maximum 15Mbit/s data rate, the ability to do time lapse stills so, for example, you could make a video like this:



Personally I find the GoPro's ergonomics and the need for it to be in it's bulky case a bit frustrating and it does suffer from a bit of that dreaded "Rolling Shutter" artifact which makes it impossible to use so many CMOS based camcorders for in car footage (CCD camcorders don't have this problem but ...you can't find any now, HERE is an extreme example of the problem).

Here is a clip filmed with a GoPro HD


An alternative to the GoPro is a camera which has wide popularity with the extreme sports crowd, skiers, mountain bikers, base jumpers but for some reason not as popular yet with the four wheel motorsport set, the ContourHD1080p. Specs for the new ContourHD 1080p are comparable to the GoProHD but the ergonomics are in my opinion vastly superior. The design philosophy is to make a camera as simple to operate as possible. There is a power on/off button and a large record switch and you aim it with the aid of two built in lasers. All housed in a sleek metal water resistant housing...Done.

There is one hidden switch that allows the choice of two resolutions, preset via computer software. Via software you can also set the mic gain and the exposure as well a choice of three exposure metering modes, spot, center weighted and average. The ContourHD 1080P does a very good job in tricky lighting conditions (though it does get grainy in very low light), The video below was shot in the late afternoon with the sun low, you can see what a great job the camera does not only at picking a balanced exposure but also not freaking out with the changing lighting. (try fullscreen)




Another alternative is to use the video feature of many point and shoot cameras, results can be pretty good but these cameras are generally delicate and most don't have a wide enough field of view... this one was shot with a Canon PowerShot SD780IS




For the ultimate in quality and image control you can use a Canon SLR (Nikons have the wobbly rolling shutter issue) with its wide choice of lenses but of course, SLR's are expensive, heavy and relatively delicate and for a similar cost you might have a look at something like a Sony HXR-MC1 but frankly I think it's not worth the money, the Sony lacks crucial "pro" features such as external mic inputs for example while not providing a drastically better picture.

Of course both the Contour and the GoPro lack a remote start feature but they are $300. You could buy a SmartyCam for about $1000 it features a live data overlay and connection to AIM systems but the image quality is just OK and the data overlay has some sync problems. Convenient, especially if you already have AIM but Traqmate's TraqstudioHD produces a cleaner overlay and final result. (example HERE)



So, while we wait to see ChaseCam's second act, a number of simpler, lower priced alternatives have raised the bar very high. Best time ever for tracktardographers!.

Please share your thoughts, expertise and setup as reference.

Bavarian Concerto M88, second movement, andante moderato.

A very nice in car High Definition camera setup in this BMW M1 Procar. I recommend turning up the volume and hitting the "full screen" button on the lower right.

The M88 still produces one of the best engine notes ever, even when not pushed to the max. It just never gets old.

(HD onboard cameras by DriveData)



More Bavarian Symphonies on Axis HERE and HERE