Borescope or Endoscope Camera?

[AllDigital]

I'm looking to create the absolute lowest drag camera that will still give me an airframe and motor view during launch (not a 90 degree "window" view -- that is easier). Assuming this is in a 6" or 8" airframe with plenty of internal room the challenge is how to get a camera that is only 5-8mm protruding? My current research is looking at adapting/hacking an existing camera with a very small ccd into a split camera or using a barescope/endoscope. Has anyone else successfully flown a borescope?

Other massively minimum drag options? tiny mirrors?

 

[FredA]

Has anyone else successfully flown a borescope

I don't think you would want to.....
They are setup for close focus - not focus at infinity.
Doubt you would see anything.

 

[jkovac]

I have a similar interest, in that I have experimented with splitting the difference between minimum diameter and a downward-pointing camera. The best pre-made thing I’ve seen are the camera carriers and shrouds that were made by Liquidfyre Rocketry. They were very well-made and reasonably priced, but I’ve emailed and PM’d the guy, including recently, and he does not reply. I may try to find some of his stuff used. It allows you to mount the lens separately from the rest of the camera, so that only a small portion of the lens is outside of the airframe, covered by a shroud. The ones I purchased from Liquidfyre were for use with 808 cameras, but he also made ones for Mobius cameras.

 

[FredA]

Get a Raspberry Pi camera - they are just cell-phone cameras on a flex - not going to get much smaller.

 

[jkovac]

Get a Raspberry Pi camera - they are just cell-phone cameras on a flex - not going to get much smaller.

What’s your opinion on the image quality attainable with Raspberry Pi? Most of what I’ve read and seen is not that great. If smaller is the only concern it might be the best choice, but the trade off in weight and size for a möbius or even an 808 seems worth it if image quality matters much.

 

[FredA]

The newer models are not bad.
But could be better - clearly there are really nice cell-phone cameras, just the R-Pi people don't pick the best.

 

[DrewW]

I'm looking to create the absolute lowest drag camera that will still give me an airframe and motor view during launch (not a 90 degree "window" view -- that is easier). Assuming this is in a 6" or 8" airframe with plenty of internal room the challenge is how to get a camera that is only 5-8mm protruding? My current research is looking at adapting/hacking an existing camera with a very small ccd into a split camera or using a barescope/endoscope. Has anyone else successfully flown a borescope?

Other massively minimum drag options? tiny mirrors?

I’ve considered the same, but one problem is that the camera units are rather bulky in general. Also, as was previously pointed out they tend to be set up for close focus and that means not a lot of depth of field. They do make optics that couple to the fibers to change the optical characteristics but they are much bigger than the fiber itself.

 

[AllDigital]

I ordered a cheap borescope to play around with it. I am primarily using this camera to test some other telemetry/data capture project on apogee, separation, motor performance, etc. -- not for making amazing cinematic films. So, I can manage with some amount of focus impairment (although details sometimes matter). The camera I bought was a simple USB camera I could test with a laptop, knowing I'd need to figure out a DVR solution separately (Pi or other) and how to chop/splice six feet of cable out.

The head of the camera is tiny -- only 5.5mm and if it exited the airframe at a low angle would form its own wind fairing. It also comes with a tiny 90 degree screw-on mirror -- as a second option - that could easily pop through the airframe (would protrude 10mm x 5.5mm round). That said, it does sacrifice a lot of focus beyond 15 inches. Here are photos of it on an 8" rocket (avbay center) with a few 8x10 eye tests in the background. I also included a photo of my neighbors house from 100 feet away. It is probably good enough to capture motor burn out, apogee, drogue, and main, but you wouldn't want to post the footage on youtube.



At ten feet away


At 4ft (rocket aft)


From 100 feet away

 

[AllDigital]

Forgot the link to the cheap camera. Here it is on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0836XWPJH