Bullet Camera - Help??

[NathanL100 0]

Below are specs on a bullet camera I'm interested in buying, can anyone tell me if this would be a good choice? Thanks

21CWSHRX 21CWSHRX Roof
Effective Pixels Version " S " , " X " :
" HR ", " HRX " : NTSC : 768(H)X494(V) PAL : 752(H)X582(V)
H.Resolution Version
" HR ", " HRX " : 480 TV Lines
Min. Illumination Version
" X " , " HRX " : 0.1 Lux at 2.0 (EX-View version)
Lens Standard 4.3mm (78 ¢ª)
Option 2.9mm, 3.6mm(92 ¢ª)
6.0 (54 ¢ª), 8.0 (39 ¢ª)
12 (26 ¢ª), 16 (19 ¢ª)
21(Dia) x 72(L) 21 (Dia) x 77 (L)
Weight(Approx.g) 210 220
IR Sensitivity
Audio
EX-View HAD 480 TVL
Image sensor High Resolution, 1/3" DSP Color CCD (Sony)
Synchronizing system Internal
Scanning system NTSC 525 Lines PAL 625 Lines 2:1 Interlaced
Video output 1.0Vp-p Composite. 75 Ohms
S/N ratio More then 50 dB (AGC Off)
BLC Automatic
Shutter Speed NTSC : 1/60 ¡­1/100,000 sec PAL : 1/50 ¡­1/100,000 sec
Gamma correction r=0.45
White Balance 2100 ¢ªK ¡­8200 ¢ªK Auto
Gain Control 4dB~30dB Auto
Smear Effect 0.005%
MTBF 80,000 hours
Power source DC12V (Tolerence:8V~15V)
Operating current 130mA w / regulated power input
Operating Temperature 14 ¢ª F~122 ¢ª F ( -10 ¢ª C~ + 50 ¢ª C )
Humidity Within 90% RH
Output Terminal 2 Foot DIY cable with BNC-Female for Video, DC Jack-Male for Power
Measurement(mm)
Infra-Red Light sensitive without loosing the true coloration at day light
External Audio with C-Microphone " - 35dB / mV "
Optional
Functions

Base # 942
The race is long and in the end, its only with yourself.

[whatever 0]

I guess it depends on what you want from it....

I bought one of those recently, the NTSC version.

I haven't used it for skydiving (yet), as my 2KC & PC105 do a fine job on their own, but I used it while snowboarding yesterday and while rock-climbing a week or two ago.

Look around for price, I payed $188 USD or so...

it shipped with a 4.3mm lens and that's a fairly wide angle - looks wider than a 0.3 on my PC105.

lowlight sensitivity is impressive...

cheers

soon to be gone

[CaTo 0]

Quote

Below are specs on a bullet camera I'm interested in buying, can anyone tell me if this would be a good choice? Thanks

21CWSHRX 21CWSHRX Roof

couple of weeks ago I bought the 21cwshr (so no X) at www.rfconcepts.co.uk , 125 pound=235 dollar. This is the normal lux version of the X-version. I first used the 2.9 mm lens, butthat proved to be too much fisheye, I now use the 3.6 lens, which is almost equal to the 28mm lens on my still camera.
Just yesterday I have made my first 4 jumps with it, doing CF/CRW and the pictures were great. Note that your really do not need the X-version, since there is quite enough light in the sky and the camera even performs very well in the hangar with less light.
You will have to have a camcorder that accepts analogue-in, like the Sony trv22, trv33 or PC105 can.
Furthermore: After the first two jumps I had to make some adjustments, since it was very very cold yesterday (like -10C on 7000) and the camera did fog-up at altitude. After I removed the protective glas at the front, this 'david hamilton effect' disapperaed and the pictures are great. I will post some tonight at my website, see the what's new page for a link

Caren

[whatever 0]

doh!
I meant wider than the 0.45 on my PC105....
sorry

soon to be gone

[J-Rock 0]

Go to www.viosport.com i bought a cam off of them and have the wide angle lens with it. It is just as wide as the Kenko .43 that i use when i have the standard cam up top. They also have some of the best prices And there cameras are in a nice billit aluminum housing that is water resistant, great for skiing, J-Rock

Im gonna need a bigger hammer....

[imdskydiver 0]

How easy is the bullet cam to set up , with wires running through your Jump suit and connections to the helmet i would thing that it would be a pain in the ass to set up and connect , do you think it would be a durable set up . Do you use a Cam eye sport and where do you put the batteries ?

[CaTo 0]

Quote

How easy is the bullet cam to set up , with wires running through your Jump suit and connections to the helmet i would thing that it would be a pain in the ass to set up and connect , do you think it would be a durable set up . Do you use a Cam eye sport and where do you put the batteries ?

very easy to setup, just do some DIY: I cut the wire just long enough to have the wire coming out of the helme, their a plug (male) will be put. I made a wire that will be installed and stiched into my jumpsuit, female at the neck part, male at the belly-part. The plug below comes out a hole made in my jumpsuit. I have bought a cameracase that is just large enough to hold the trv33 and a seperate batterypack (rechargable). That is strapped seperatly around my belly, so under my rig.
Both trv33 and battery are connected with the other end of the original wire (which I cut before, see above) and a female plug at the end that was cut, coming out of the bag.
(note that themale-female setup is important, since there is voltage on the wire...)
I use a cam-eye sport, that is attached on the bag.

This evening I will try to make some pictures and attach them here.
By the way, for my first jump, the seperate wire through my suit was not yet ready, so I had a direct connection between the camera (helmet) and the trv33, through the jumpsuit.

So, at the moment I have my 10 minutes call, I strap on my cameracase, put the camera on VHS, put on my rig, connect the plug between my cameracase and jumpsuit, grab my helmet and board the plain (oh wait, a pin check :-)
As soon as i put on my helmet, I can connect the plugs between helmet and jumpsuit.

thats all, no problems.

Caren

[CaTo 0]

photos on my site, see the about section

Caren

[didone 0]

I got mine from RfConcepts as well. All in all I am very happy with the quality so far.

A basic set up can be easily made with some velcro straps. I went a bit farther and I pierced an oval hole on top of my helmet to accomodate the camera.

As for the operation, just make sure your camcorder accepts analogue-in. Mine did not. Instead of buying another camcorder I decided to switching to an Mpeg4 hard disk based portable VCR, but that's another story

Cheers,
Diego.

[CaTo 0]

Quote

As for the operation, just make sure your camcorder accepts analogue-in. Mine did not. Instead of buying another camcorder I decided to switching to an Mpeg4 hard disk based portable VCR, but that's another story

interesting

Caren

[didone 0]

That's a long story. To cut it short, there are many products around and many new just about to tap the market. Search for the archos AV 3x0 or for the RCA Lyra AV to get a sample.

You can get 320x240 full frame (25 fps PAL or 30 fps NTSC) @ 2 Mbps max, in Mpeg4 (Divx). Most people will not tell the difference from a mini-DV tape watching it on TV. The next generation should get to 640x480.

The good: those toys can weight much less than a traditional camcorder and fit nicely into a pocket

The bad:
1. none of those is still capable to record directly on solid state media (SD card, compact flash, ...). Those, anyhow, would carry only about 15 mins on an expensive 256 MB card. An hard disk is still the only solutions, and
2. hard drives - being mechanical disks - work only up to 10,000 feet. That's a well known problem due to the too low air density pressure above. My first videos were simply missing the first part of the jump...

Coming to your point, I am currently experimenting a modified AV3x0 (just modified it, not yet tested), but you reeeeally have to enjoy DIY in electronic to get into it now. Or you'd better wait until a suitable product come into the market.

A final remark: don't waist your time on the many gadgets around. The video quality they provide is too poor (without getting in the details, if they claim you can squeeze 1 hour of video into a 128 MB card then the quality is very poor)

'hope it was not too technical ...

Cheers,
Diego