Product Review

In Car Video Equipment

If you haven't figured it out yet, online video sharing is hotter than ever these days, and DuneGuide.com is going to gear up and add more video content this season. To do that, we need the right equipment. If you haven't noticed, there are lots of remote helmet camera type setups on the market today. We reviewed a lot of them, and in the end decided to go with a package from Sportzshot.com.

Sportzshot.com has all the pieces you need except the camcorder. What cinched the deal for us was their Waterproof Helmet Cam comes with 580 lines of resolution.

In order to record in-car video, you will need the following components:

In Car Video Camera System - Sportzshot.com

1. Remote lens & Battery Pack

Sportzshot - 580 Hi-Res Waterproof Helmet Cam

Things to look for:

Resolution - 380, 480 or 580 lines of resolution

Waterproof or weather resistant

Lens replacement - sand is hard on the equipment

2. LANC Remote Video Control

LANC Remote Control

3. Some way to mount the bullet camera lens

We decided to get a few different camera mounts so we could play around with different camera positions. In addition to their Fixed Mount (not pictured), we also decided to try out the Cross Channel Mount, Channel Mount and Ball & Socket Assembly. All of the mounting options pictured below are on 1 1/2" tube.

Cross Channel Mount - Good for mounting camera
on tube that is perpendicular to direction of travel.

Channel Mount - Good for mounting camera on tube
that is in line with direction of travel.

Ball & Socket - Very flexible mounting setup that lets you get just the right angle. Comes with protective rubber for hose clamp. The ball is molded with a thick layer of rubber which will help absorb any unwanted vibrations

More Sportzshot Mounting Options

4. Somewhere to put your camcorder to protect it from sand

Pelican Cases and Packs

5. Recording Device (camcorder, video recorder)

The camcorder must have video-in capability to work with a remote camera. Not all camcorders have this capability. Other things to look for are LANC remote capability and recording media (mini DV, hard drive, memory stick). Also check on how the data can be transferred to your computer for editing.

The camcorder we already had was a Sony DCR-PC100. Although several years old, it came with a LANC input, video input and firewire connection to download video to the computer.