Camcorder suggestions?

Autolex wrote: they make 16 and 32gb sd cards now (very inexpensive). I am sure that you can get more than 2 hours on a 32gb flash card. :)

2gb is max capicity on the Hero camera (see their website).

Tried the 4 gb card from my SLR camera. No go.

The Hero does not support SDHC (which is required for larger than 2gb).

Well, being able to transfer to a laptop, if you have one, makes 2hrs of recording time more than plenty. I have to work with 60min MiniDV tapes, so I would need to have one tape in the camera and one in a camcorder bag, to get approximately the same amount of footage. Besides, SD cards are tiny, so having more than one 2GB card on hand, really isn't going to be a lot of trouble, if you have a safe place to put them so they won't get lost.

If your the kind of person that never bothers to clean-up their memory cards, you really should establish the habit of doing so on a regular basis.

I would be careful with consumer DV cameras used in race cars. I borrowed my father's Canon HD flash based digital camera and took it to Nelson Ledges for a track day. Before beginning the 3rd session I pressed the 'on' button only to have it take a dump and give a lens error. The stink of it was it was 2 weeks out of warranty, and cost $100 for them to fix. It could have just been a freak accident, or the camera just wasn't up to the vibrations of a race car.

Surprised to see so little grassroots hacking here ;)

For last years BABE rally we bought some used CCTV bullet cameras ($10-$50 depending on what deals I could find) and 2 Phillips PMC2730 personal media centers (at the time I could get refurbs for $90) So for about $120 each we had 2 bullet cam setups with 30GB storage capacity each. The CCTV cameras feed the phillips units fine and they have a 30GB hard drive in them so no lack of storage. Never any issues with rough roads or movement and we didnt exactly baby them. Sound was an issue but only because the cheap microphone we got turned out to be crap.

And with CCTV cameras you can get a variety of different lens angles for cheap. You can also get them in waterproof styles.

Another plus is the ability to actually use the Phillips device for other things, you can use it as a DVR on your TV, a personal media player, etc, and they connect and download easily to a laptop.

If you can find them cheap enough they are a good option.

Some samples from the rally are at http://jimthwaite.com/video/Deals%20Gap/

The files are pretty large so dont be in a hurry :)

canoe