Aiptek GO HD for CrashCam, Question

M

MagicCat

Well-known member
Hi All

We are getting ready to do a project on wind energy. For reasons too long to get into here, I need a camera that I can put into "Harms Way" Obviously, Im not going to put any of our Broadcast cameras or HVX's into this situation. The project will be shot in 720 HD. I have been looking at some of these rediculous AIPTEK HD Cameras, Jazz, Flip and others that seem to shoot to some flavor of AVCHD.

My question is, I need to be able to turn off any auto focus and auto Iris abilities on these wondertoys to accomplish the shot I need. Auto Iris will destroy my shot. It will be strapped to the tip of a 130foot Windmill Blade and allowed to spin for a half hour. (solid state is the only thing I think will handle the G's, HDV TAPE will not cut it)

Has anyone played with these things? Do you know if those features can be turned off (I am assuming they have them to begin with) It looks as though the quality will be "Acceptable" for my purposes.

Any input or experience anyone has with these "Toy Cameras" would be appreciated.

Email me if need be mail@mediamagicproductions.com
 
Well, I don't know about the GO-HD specifically, but I got the slightly cheaper model, the Aiptek A-HD, a while back as a crash HD cam, and while it doesn't have Autofocus (only a horrible toggle switch to control focus), it has an auto iris/exposure/shutter "feature" that, based on your original post, sounds like it would destory your shot. As far as I know, there's no way to turn this off. However, there might be some way to trick the camera into not compensating that could work for you, but if there is, I'm not aware of it.
 
Aroon_Narayanan said:
Well, I don't know about the GO-HD specifically, but I got the slightly cheaper model, the Aiptek A-HD, a while back as a crash HD cam, and while it doesn't have Autofocus (only a horrible toggle switch to control focus), it has an auto iris/exposure/shutter "feature" that, based on your original post, sounds like it would destory your shot. As far as I know, there's no way to turn this off. However, there might be some way to trick the camera into not compensating that could work for you, but if there is, I'm not aware of it.
Click to expand...
Thanks so much for your reply, I see APE-TEK :-) has a bunch of cameras, they actually look pretty neat. We will see what happens. Maybe if I soak it in gasoline, put a match to it, it will see the light, set the exposure for as long as it burns, and keep a constant Iris level for a little while......
 
Don't get the GO model, it's auto focus will "hunt" for focus and ruin your shot. I used the AHD model for a theme park commercial. It's a fixed focus, fixed angle lens. (you can switch to macro) You might want to get a cheap wide angle adapter if you need a wide shot. I got mine for $30 and gaff taped it on.

I did some tests, and color and resolution wise it actually compares to the HVX200. In motion however, it doesn't stand up so well. It's the worst skew I've ever seen, and it's also compression heavy - 4mb/s, so the picture looses detail and gets a little blocky.

It's still close enough to cut together for the occasional shot. If I were shooting a documentary, I'd definitely grab a couple extra, just in case. Audio is for crap though, so don't count on it for that.

It does have a fixed 3.5 iris, so it controls exposure with shutter speed. So if you don't want your day shots to look like 28 days later, I'd stack a couple of ND9s.

It worked great for our application - a crash camera mounted onto a roller coaster. And it was great for the price - $100.

My server is down right now so I can't show you the spot, but you can see some behind the scenes pics of how we mounted it here:

http://jaytruesdale.blogspot.com/2008/05/nut-tree.html

-J
 
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