Dodge62
New Member
Hi folks - I have some fairly specific requirements and would like some recommendations. Please bear with me while I set the scene ...
I help run a club for Caterham racers. A Caterham is a small British sportscar, based on the 1957 Lotus 7. Website Caterham Graduates Racing Club
We have a requirement for all drivers to carry cameras, so the Clerk of the Course and our own driving standards group can review on-track incidents. We have far too many situations where the cameras (typically GoPro's or copies) have failed to record, due to user error, batteries running out, memory cards getting full, etc. This leads to fines for the driver involved which are - to say the least - unpopular.
So for 2021 we are mandating that drivers must carry a camera which is hard-wired to power, and starts automatically either with the ignition or when the car reaches a certain speed (eg. 20mph). We're looking for cameras that we can recommend to our drivers (currently 90 of them, though a significant proportion already have cameras that fit the requirements - typically expensive VBox datalogging/video systems)
The cars are open-top, and it's Britain, so the cameras must be waterproof. That requirement rules out the majority of dashcams, of course.
We've looked at, and liked, Innovv cameras. But their 2-camera systems suffer from a serious problem - they rely on a switched and unswitched power supply, and when the switched (ignition) supply is turned off, they use the unswitched power supply to run the camera while they save the footage. But that doesn't work in a race car which has a master 'kill' switch that turns off all power. Using the kill switch loses the last segment of video. Many people don't even have a separate ignition switch, and even if they do, in an incident the track-side marshals would turn off the master switch and the incident footage could be lost. It's not allowed to bypass the kill switch for any purpose, so we can't run a separate feed to the camera.
The Innovv C5 single camera system uses a video format that survives power loss, and that is our current recommendation. However, Innovv tell me that the C5 doesn't sell particularly well (the dual systems are much more popular) and may not be available for too long.
So ... my requirements are:
I help run a club for Caterham racers. A Caterham is a small British sportscar, based on the 1957 Lotus 7. Website Caterham Graduates Racing Club
We have a requirement for all drivers to carry cameras, so the Clerk of the Course and our own driving standards group can review on-track incidents. We have far too many situations where the cameras (typically GoPro's or copies) have failed to record, due to user error, batteries running out, memory cards getting full, etc. This leads to fines for the driver involved which are - to say the least - unpopular.
So for 2021 we are mandating that drivers must carry a camera which is hard-wired to power, and starts automatically either with the ignition or when the car reaches a certain speed (eg. 20mph). We're looking for cameras that we can recommend to our drivers (currently 90 of them, though a significant proportion already have cameras that fit the requirements - typically expensive VBox datalogging/video systems)
The cars are open-top, and it's Britain, so the cameras must be waterproof. That requirement rules out the majority of dashcams, of course.
We've looked at, and liked, Innovv cameras. But their 2-camera systems suffer from a serious problem - they rely on a switched and unswitched power supply, and when the switched (ignition) supply is turned off, they use the unswitched power supply to run the camera while they save the footage. But that doesn't work in a race car which has a master 'kill' switch that turns off all power. Using the kill switch loses the last segment of video. Many people don't even have a separate ignition switch, and even if they do, in an incident the track-side marshals would turn off the master switch and the incident footage could be lost. It's not allowed to bypass the kill switch for any purpose, so we can't run a separate feed to the camera.
The Innovv C5 single camera system uses a video format that survives power loss, and that is our current recommendation. However, Innovv tell me that the C5 doesn't sell particularly well (the dual systems are much more popular) and may not be available for too long.
So ... my requirements are:
- Waterproof. Definitely the camera(s), and preferably the recording unit, if separate (if the recording unit is separate, it could go inside the car boot/trunk, which is *mostly* water tight).
- Automatic start/stop with ignition or at a certain speed
- Hard wired power, and no loss of footage on complete power loss
- A dual camera system would be preferable
- Ability to mount the camera(s) on the roll cage, which uses 32mm tubing. Compatibility with GoPro mounts or tripod threads would be fine.
- 1080p resolution with 30fps for the front camera at least
- Reasonable cost. Under £200 ukp (about $230 USD pre-tax) would be best. Up to £300 for a real quality system.
- UK supplier available. Shipping from China might be acceptable, but we'd need some guarantee that the cameras are going to arrive well before the start of the race season in April.
- Easily removable memory card, and video files that can be viewed without specialist software (for review by the Clerk/Driving Standards).