Racing Tech: New Solutions for "Motographers"

It's summer, the middle of track season. Maybe you like to take your car to the track, or maybe the drag strip or local autocross. Half the fun is bragging about it and showing video of you and your pride and joy in action.

While some enthusiasts might be happy with a basic onboard camera, the boundaries of what's possible, practical and affordable in terms of image quality have radically shifted in the past year or so.

For a long time now the gold standard for in-car video has been the ChaseCam system and for good reason: Compact, rugged, simple to use, the system was designed by car people for motorsport applications. But ChaseCam has an inherent flaw: it was designed for watching videos on a 4:3 televisions which means interlaced video. I don't think I'd be too off the mark if I said that 95% of all chase cam videos are watched on 16:9 progressive scan computers screens today. Interlaced videos on computer screens simply don't look as good as progressive scan pictures from even a first generation GoPro camera, with all its flaws.

The advent of inexpensive HD video has effectively rendered the first Chase Cam system obsolete in terms of image quality. Chase Cam has announced a new HD based recorder will be on the market this year and it will likely become the new standard. But there are a number of other solutions with great image quality available for all you "Motographers" out there.

GoPro updated their camera with impressive specs and some cool features: 1080P, 30 fps with a maximum 15Mbit/s data rate, and the ability to do time lapse stills so, for example, you could make a video like this:

Personally I find the GoPro's ergonomics and the need for it to be in its bulky case a bit frustrating. It also suffers from a bit of that dreaded "Rolling Shutter" artifact which makes it impossible to use so many CMOS based camcorders for in car footage (CCD camcorders don't have this problem but ...you can't find any now, HERE is an extreme example of the problem).

Here is a clip filmed with a GoPro HD

An alternative to the GoPro is a camera which has wide popularity within the extreme sports crowd, skiers, mountain bikers, base jumpers but for some reason not as popular yet with the four wheel motorsport set: the ContourHD1080p.  Specs for the new ContourHD 1080p are comparable to the GoProHD but the ergonomics are in my opinion vastly superior. The design philosophy is to make a camera as simple to operate as possible. There is a power on/off button and a large record switch and you aim it with the aid of two built in lasers. All housed in a sleek metal water resistant housing...Done.

The ContourHD 1080P does a very good job in tricky lighting conditions (though it does get grainy in very low light), The video below was shot in the late afternoon with the sun low, you can see what a great job the camera does not only at picking a balanced exposure but also not freaking out with the changing lighting. (try fullscreen)

Another alternative is to use the video feature of many point and shoot cameras. Results can be pretty good but these cameras are generally delicate and most don't have a wide enough field of view... this one was shot with a Canon PowerShot SD780IS

For the ultimate in quality and image control you can use a Canon SLR (Nikons have the wobbly rolling shutter issue) with its wide choice of lenses. Of course, SLR's are expensive, heavy and relatively delicate and for a similar cost you might have a look at something like a Sony HXR-MC1, but frankly I think it's not worth the money.

Of course both the Contour and the GoPro lack a remote start feature but they are $300. You could buy a SmartyCam for about $1000 it features a live data overlay and connection to AIM systems but the image quality is just OK and the data overlay has some sync problems.

So, while we wait to see ChaseCam's second act, a number of simpler, lower priced alternatives have raised the bar very high. Best time ever for "Motographers"!