First flight with USB flash drive camera

Up to now I've been using an 808 keychain camera for inflight video but yesterday for the first time I tried a USB flash drive camera taped on my Tomahawk. It only costs $7, it's about half the size of the 808, so better aerodynamics, and it supposedly records in 1080P (the 808 is 720P). The result was quite decent, see
https://youtu.be/tk2krZCTg_U
For comparison, here's my old 808 on my LOC EZI-65, launched about an hour after the Tomahawk:
https://youtu.be/w_pEMBUSDj4
The color seems quite a bit better with the flash drive camera but that's probably just a brighter sun during the flight of the EZI-65, I've used the 808 several times previously and it never did this before.

Oops, I improperly edited and uploaded the flash drive camera video as 720P, here's the 1080P version.
https://youtu.be/tk2krZCTg_U

Where and what camera is that? Is it a CamRom like what's available at Amazon?

The eBay seller where I got mine no longer has them, this one looks similar: https://www.ebay.com/itm/32GB-Hidde...HD-Mini-Video-Recorder-Camcorder/263643212946

I'm not familiar with CamRom, is it this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0711H91L2/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
That also looks similar to mine.

The camera's LED is hard to see out in the open on a sunny day, I had to take a large towel to the pad and cover my head and the camera with it to make sure it was turned on.

That's exactly the one I was referring to. I don't do business with Ebay so I found a reasonable facsimile on Amazon. Couldn't find any videos of it's performance, but it's reasonable to assume I'd get the same quality from a different camera priced nearly the same. Not a bad price for a camera. Not as good as I have seen from higher end cameras, but I could live with it. Thanks for sharing.

Yes, I'm always tempted to upgrade to a Run Cam or Go Pro but it's kinda fun to play around with the cheapies, and no stress if it gets lost. Based on the one flight on Saturday, the flash drive camera is an upgrade from the 808, in light of its smaller size and 1080P recording. Don't forget the towel, good luck.

billdz said:

Up to now I've been using an 808 keychain camera for inflight video but yesterday for the first time I tried a USB flash drive camera taped on my Tomahawk. It only costs $7, it's about half the size of the 808, so better aerodynamics, and it supposedly records in 1080P (the 808 is 720P). The result was quite decent, see
https://youtu.be/tk2krZCTg_U
For comparison, here's my old 808 on my LOC EZI-65, launched about an hour after the Tomahawk:
https://youtu.be/w_pEMBUSDj4
The color seems quite a bit better with the flash drive camera but that's probably just a brighter sun during the flight of the EZI-65, I've used the 808 several times previously and it never did this before.

Click to expand...

Its so close to the body, its almost like you need to make a standoff for it.

OOH! A new idea! *Heads off to his workshop to build a camera standoff and buy a USB camera*

You definitely need to slightly lift the lens side (bottom) of the camera off the airframe. In the above video with the 808 camera on my EZI-65, I failed to lift it far enough, and thus half the frame is just rocket, which is not what we want.

Man! I never have any luck with these cheap cameras. First set I bought was from Bayourat and they both crapped out instantly. Battery in one of them swelled up in a matter of an hour and broke the camera. This time I ordered 2 of those CamRom jobs at about 10 bux apice. Only one would charge and the other had some residual charge, but it wouldn't take the necessary 2-3 hours like the other one did. Tried them both and they would shut down after 20-30 seconds. Cheap, is what it is. Maybe I'll just pay Leo to build me a couple. His homemade cam is killer, really small and very light weight, videos looks like [video=youtube;046NcOy6qMw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=046NcOy6qMw[/video].

Sorry you have had bad luck. Surprised to hear you even had trouble with Bayourat cameras, he checks them out before selling. I've bought about 8 cheapies of various types (808, U8, lighter, pen, now the USB drive), all on eBay, all $4 to $9 dollars. They are cheaply made and were not built for high speed flight. One did not work out of the box, the Chinese seller refunded my money and did not ask for a return. A second one flew about 5 times and then suddenly stopped for no apparent reason, there wasn't a hard landing or anything. The others are still working. Who is Leo and what kind of cameras does he sell?

billdz said:

Sorry you have had bad luck. Surprised to hear you even had trouble with Bayourat cameras, he checks them out before selling. I've bought about 8 cheapies of various types (808, U8, lighter, pen, now the USB drive), all on eBay, all $4 to $9 dollars. They are cheaply made and were not built for high speed flight. One did not work out of the box, the Chinese seller refunded my money and did not ask for a return. A second one flew about 5 times and then suddenly stopped for no apparent reason, there wasn't a hard landing or anything. The others are still working. Who is Leo and what kind of cameras does he sell?

Click to expand...

If Bayourat had checked these out, he would have caught this problem. Maybe he spot checks. I do follow the instructions on these things. Never over charge lithium batteries. Leo does not sell his cameras or his altimeters. He just knows how to make them. And they are super light weight. I'm especially pleased with how that video turned out. He is a friend that lives in Germany and launches with us 2-3 times a year. He NEVER misses the Freedom Launch. I'm not certain he'll do it, but there's no harm in asking. He is a member here. Just goes by Leo.