Key Chain Video Camera

[gouacats]

I posted this video in the "What did you do to your rig this week" thread and someone asked me to do a write-up. I'm about a week late, but here it is.

I picked up a keychain video camera off of ebay to use in MOAB for Easter Jeep Safari (I'm headed out tomorrow). The camera is a 808 #16 (google it) that I picked up from a US seller named novotm for $47 shipped. Here is a photo of the camera and a link to the test video...you can change the quality to 720p on the video.

In the past I've used my iPhone, which takes great video, but gets too hot mounted on the windshield and I was never able to get a shake free mount that I was happy with. This little camera shoots HD (720p) and is tiny and many people mount them on RC planes, etc. Bicyclists use them quite a bit as well. I think it turned out pretty good for <$50 and for someone who just wants a few snippets of video from my trips...

You can order this camera with several different lenses (A, B or D). A is 70 degree field of view, B has a 78 degree FOV (this is what I have) and D has a 120 degree FOV. Go figure - There are actually fakes on ebay of this cheap video camera, so make sure of what you're ordering!

I mounted mine on a 1" thick sponge (to get it high enough to see over the window frame) that was duct taped down to the dash in front of the steering wheel. This gives me a nice shake free video. I will only use mine occasionally, so I didn't worry about any sort of permanent mount...I'm sure others will be able to come up with something permanent...

Pros:
Cheap and Small - You can get several of these, if you want to, and mount them in several different locations
Shoots pretty decent video - The colors are probably not as good as a GoPro, but I'm happy with it for my purposes
Micro SD - You can use up to a 32 GB SD card and store a lot of video.
Battery - Supposedly good up to 45 minutes of video (I haven't tested this) and is rechargable using a standard USB chord - It will shoot video while charging
Mac or PC friendly - Plug and Play - I've uploaded to both without any issues

Cons:
Not particularly user friendly - No directions, but there are pretty decent ones that have been created by the RC folks online (again - google 808 #16)
The LED is TINY - Very hard to make sure it is doing what you want it to do - Since I have mine mounted in front of the steering wheel, I can't see the LED easily - I use a mirror to make sure its on and shooting, ect.
Battery - Only good for 45 minutes between charges

That's all I can think of for now. Please let me know any questions and I'll post up a few more snippets next week when I get back from Moab.

 

[steadfast91]

So how long did the battery last in MOAB

 

[gouacats]

So how long did the battery last in MOAB

I nearly forgot about this post! Anyhow, the video camera captured about 40 minutes of intermittent videos of about 10 seconds to 6 minutes over 2 days before running out of battery. I recharged it each night, but forgot to do it after running Fins and Things. Here is a 6-minute video that I put together of the trip:

I should note that we used the camera for work to do some bike and ped counts after I got back from EJS and had it continuously charging and filming for about 12 hours. The good news is that it worked very well for this. The bad news is that it melted the plastic case (yet continued to record). You could tell that it started melting about 9 hours into the video. I'm going to get a new one and we'll make some adjustments, like possibly moving the battery outside of the case, so we can use it continuously. I don't have a pic of the melted case, but will try to get one tomorrow. It's actually fairly impressive that it still works!

 

[steadfast91]

Wow! That is impressive

 

[gouacats]

A couple of poor pics of the melted case...but, it still works...