what camera to use

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

rocketcharlie

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 23, 2012
Messages
206
Reaction score
33
Hi-
Never tried this before. I would like to install a video camera in my next high power flight. Can anyone suggest the best, yet not too expensive camera to use?
Thanks in advance
 
There are some lower end 808 keychain cameras on Amazon and eBay for under $10. Search for "808 keychain camera". The lower end ones will be standard definition 720 x 480 and may claim that's HD.... It's not. The last ones I ordered from Amazon shipped direct from China and took 2-3 weeks which was the expected deliver in the listing. There are also some higher end 808's but for me where more than I wanted to spend for something that might be lost or destroyed! I here the möbius cameras are nice, but have no experience with them.
 
I use the Mobius HD camera with a 3D printed shroud affixed to my booster section. I found the images it produces exceptional. Here's one from my level 2 cert flight. - liftoff @ ~21 sec.

+1 mobius is affordable, Landru makes awesome shrouds for them, and the video quality is very nice. Here's a couple flights I did-

[youtube]/2LlFECiy5oc[/youtube]
 
A price check showed the Möbius to run >$70. Are these truly a huge step up in terms of quality/reliability? It is tough to decide if my first venture into rocket video should just be to get a few of the cheaper 808 type of cameras.

After reading about some people ordering cheap cameras, and having DOA units, it seems best to order multiples!
 
Last edited:
I really like the 808 #16 cameras. From any vendor with a good reputation.

720 30p HD video camera for about $40. Add micro SD card and fly.
Recommend buying 2 or 3 at a time. Likely to get about a dozen uses before any onboard camera expires due to motor cato, bad recovery or just generally harsh use.

Used for all my onboard videos for the last 2 years.
From wildly clustered to mach 1.5

Please see website link in my signature for many examples.
Note 808 #16 used for onboard videos only, not shots from the the ground.

I just use yellow masking tape to attach them to the side of all my rockets except the machbusters.
About half a dozen pieces of tape has worked without fail up to 350mph.

I use the PC setup program to set them to blink LED while shooting video, to better confirm what they are doing on the field.
 
Last edited:
I used an 808 #16 V3 (Amazon, about $50, same ship from China deal others have described) for our L1 cert flight and the two subsequent flights we did at XPRS this weekend. I would say on the plus side it's cheap and small, and the 3D printed shroud others have mentioned made by landru fits great. On the negative the video quality kind of sucks, at least on mine, and it seems to just stop shooting video sometimes (before coming anywhere near the 20 minute ceiling) as it did for one of our three flights. I haven't tried a Mobius yet but I already plan to try one for my next flights. Maybe bigger and a bit more $ but I'd like a camera that stays on when it is supposed to.

Below are links to the two videos we got this weekend. Sorry for the hack editing jobs, just wanted to get them posted on YouTube so my son could show his friends and teachers.


https://youtu.be/yxWdFqjiCjg



https://youtu.be/mhm2pROPslU


 
I bought a Chinese keychain camera a couple of years ago, but it was a piece of junk. And the instructions were unintelligible. Stuff like, "Pressing a blue button of LED to make movement of picture, unless still is desired and pressing of OFF then a red button." :rofl:
 
I bought a couple of the $1 808 cameras a number of year ago. Put my own SD cards in them. One worked, one didn't The one that did work great for a while, but only lasted until I messed up and over charged it. Forgot it plugged in to a USB for about 4 hours. After that it would only record for about 2 minutes and die. YMMV
 
Back
Top