Pen Cams?

[rabidsheeep]

i looked and couldn't find a cam post that answered this...

are pen cameras reliable? i know i always see those 60 dollar ones and ive hear you can use them on rockets, but ive also heard that the force can mess them up? do they work well?

thanks

 

[SwingWing]

I have had good luck. I have heard that occasionally the batteries can momentarily disconnect from G force, causing a memory dump. I tape my batteries, and have had 100% success with about a dozen launches. My pencams are the cheap VGA type Aipteks, ( <$10.00 Ebay) I understand the 1.3 MP pencams have a delay between shots to meter and focus.
Here are some threads with pix:
https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4638&highlight=pix
https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5154&highlight=pix
https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3507

 

[mkmilion]

What's the dimensions one your pen cam SwingWing?

 

[SwingWing]

well, its at home and i'm at work, but the Aiptek website gives these dimensions: 5.6" x 1.35" x 1.0"
It fits into a BT-60

 

[rabidsheeep]

wondering would this work?

here

it says like 3 pics per second... does that mean you press it and it automatically does it... or would i need a custom timer?

 

[SwingWing]

That looks like a VGA pencam - same inside as my pencam2 but a different case. Watch out for the shipping $ on that auction tho!!
This is the pencam2: https://www.aiptek.com/products/pencams/pencam2.htm
I use a home made timer to fire the shutter, an AYUCR camera controller is a good kit to buy.
https://www.ayucr.com/cgi-bin/timermenu.pl?Content=pmanual

 

[mkmilion]

I was hoping it would be smaller. i.e. .5"x.5"x.5". What I'm mostly likely looking for is a board cam. Thanks anyways.

 

[pinter75]

Hi,

Yeah they are reliable I even dropped one 500ft a few times and it was fine

They are tiny inside and use surface mount components so there is very little to shake loose.

The only complaint I have with them is their shutter control. Move at high speed and you get blurs. They need good light to get good pics (I think they are CMOS based which have inferior light sensitivity to CCD).

If you look for my posts or on this link you will see the pencams I have flown.

The 1.3MP cams are ace - 26seconds of flight recording, with a push to start and stop shutter (no timers needed). These gave good video going up, but blurry vid on the way down.

I started with a .3MP cam (I think) that was excellent. It took stills interpolated to 1024x768 (pics are on my site) via a really simple relay operated timer circuit. I lost that camera tho'

I have now moved on to wireless cameras, got the cam, laptop and rocket all primed and ready to fly, just need the weather and time.

Steve. UK.