Epic Stealth Cam, way better than the Oregon Scientific cam

[xgearheli]

well after investing $129.00 into an Oregon Scientific ATC2k action cam and spending the time developing a mounting system to go along with our other products, I finally was able to get it mounted up and do a test hop with it. I powered on the cam, started the heli, took off, hovered around and came back down to find the camera off, did this 3 or 4 more times, one time the cam stayed on and recorded. I came back home, plugged the sd card into the computer and was very disapointed with the one video that it did take. it was very wavy, and after doing some research on the freak, other people were having the same complaints. I ended up taking it back and getting my money back for it, looked around town and found another brand , the Epic Stealth Cam.

The water proof case that the Epic cam comes with fit the mounts that i developed for the Oregon Scientific cams pretty good, (i'll have to change a couple of things for a good fit, but for testing purposes it did fine. I took the heli back out for a test hop again, landed a few times and checked to see if it was still recording, it was.

I then came back home, put the SD card into the computer and played the video, even with the head vibe that i have to fix, the video played great, no waviness in it at all, the sound quality isn't that spectacular (not sure if any would be sitting next to a screaming engine and getting disc wash).

Overall, I like the Epic stealth cam very well and would recommend it against the Oregon Scientific action cam any day, It weighs less and is considerably smaller and easier to use as well, like i said, i'm not impressed at all with the oregon scientific cam. I'll post some video with it tomorrow after i balance the head assembly. heres some pics of the cam and mounts.

[Windbreaker]

The wavy image is due to a CMOS camera having a "rolling shutter".

The pixel samples are taken progressively across the frame, similar to the way a slit-type focal plane shutter might travel across a sheet of film in some cameras.

With a vibration of the right frequency, the image wavers across the CMOS chip while the image is scanned rapidly line by line. The image will be slightly to one side for one row of pixels, then slightly the other way for another row of pixels. The final image looks distorted as though its being seen through a block of jello.

CCD images, one the other hand, sample an entire frame all at once. Thus there's no "jello" effect.

So if you're getting a video camera for a helicopter, get one that has a CCD chip. Or you'll have to be especially careful to get rid of the slightest bit of vibration to avoid the jello effect.

[xgearheli]

wind, thanks for the info, i'm not sure if the epic cam has a ccd chip or not, i was just happy to see that it didn't look like jello though, I did some balancing on the head, so that should take care of the rest of the jitters

[Windbreaker]

Sandtrx...

Glad to help out. Getting rid of vibrations is the first goal.

CMOS imagers, while susceptible to "jello" vibration issues, aren't necessarily the bane of aerial video. I work with a Sony EX1 to shoot a fishing show and I keep hearing people talk about the problems of CMOS imagers which this camera has. And yet the stuff I'm getting looks good -- or at least that's what everyone is telling me.

Along the way I'm discovering that those who complain the most about the problem are the ones who use these cameras the least.

Good to hear you're getting good results. Now you can concentrate on getting the right light and compositions!

[xgearheli]

wind, I think that it will work out allright, I was looking for an inexpensive somewhat decent camera to design and mfg a simple mount around, Alot of people would like to capture their flights on video, but many can't afford the expense of a good setup, so for $140 for the camera and the purchase of my mount (price is still undetermined, I'm swamped with landing gear orders, so the mounts are on hold for abit) and the general population can record their flights (of course they can strap the camera on somewhere without using my mount, but hell, I think it looks good and i'm proud of it:YeaBaby:, the landing gear sales are going strong and i'm working on new heli models to build gear for. I'm eventually going to offer optional tall arms that swap out with the standard arms on the spider gear so that the heli can be quick changed over from standard to AP/AV just by changing the arms. Once i get back on schedule, I'll experiment more with dampening materials to try to absorb all or most of the ghost vibes that are left.