Hi everyone,

I'm really interested in getting one of these keychain cameras to attach to my planes to get in-flight video (not FPV flying).

I read the first few posts in the thread that contain just about all the information one could need (I did not read through the entire thread though, considering it's 350+ pages). However, I still have a quick question:

In each of the 8 ebay sellers listed in the second post of the this thread, they seem to have dozens of #11 cameras. Is there any difference between these, or is it safe to say that they are all the same and will have the proper video quality?

I was looking to buy from seller hxelepro360, but they have so many options for #11 cameras, I'm not sure which one to get.

Thanks for any advice regarding

Hi,

Three things will identify that your getting the True HD # 11 series Keychain.

Make sure the Chipset is H.264 producing .mov files not Avi
Make Sure the Res is 1280 X 720 - Not 1280 X 960 (as this is upscalled from 640 X 480)
The price should be around £25 not sure what that is in US $ around $40 ish at a guess.

If this is mentioned then i would say you are safe in that the internal camera is the genuine #11 series.

The choice is yours, all you need to make sure of is the following -

1: 720P High Definition Video
1280x720 H.264 30fps .mov
2: 5.0Mega pixels Camera
2592X1944 .jpg

I bought this one and it's superb -
http://cgi.ebay.com/HD-DV-Camera-Ved...item33691d3020

hope this helps you chose

Originally Posted by Spitfire222

Hi everyone,

I'm really interested in getting one of these keychain cameras to attach to my planes to get in-flight video (not FPV flying).

I read the first few posts in the thread that contain just about all the information one could need (I did not read through the entire thread though, considering it's 350+ pages). However, I still have a quick question:

In each of the 8 ebay sellers listed in the second post of the this thread, they seem to have dozens of #11 cameras. Is there any difference between these, or is it safe to say that they are all the same and will have the proper video quality?

I was looking to buy from seller hxelepro360, but they have so many options for #11 cameras, I'm not sure which one to get.

Thanks for any advice regarding

Originally Posted by simonbryant

Hi when viewing back the .mov files what would give me the best picture quality out of watching it on my PC through VLC or converting it to something that i can watch on my HD TV?

The native .MOV file viewed on your PC will always give the best video image. Your HD TV screen is probably larger than your PC monitor, so even if you are able to stream the native video to the HD TV, the larger image may not look as sharp as the PC because the pixels are larger, too (depends on how far away from the screen you sit).

Any time you convert a video by re-encoding it it, you will lose quality. Some conversion program and editors will allow you to convert to a different file format such as .mp4 or .avi WITHOUT re-encoding the video, so original quality would be retained. But you still need a way to feed the video to your TV.

If you have a blu-ray disk player and and editor that can burn blu-ray disks, that could retain most of the origianl video quality. I don't have one so have not tried it, but I have streamed my videos to my HDTV using a wireless router and my XBOX360 via the integrated Windows Media Center interface. It looks really good on the big screen, but still not as finely detailed as viewing the smaller image on my PC monitor.

Originally Posted by jesolins

Hi Tony,
Congrats on your solo and thanks for sharing

So you setting by the current the barometric pressure which should give you proper field altitude AGL correct? ...i.e. current BP is 2984? ...or is the new private pilot now only setting the altimeter by the rounding off the field altitude these days?

If you cannot get current pressure from ATC, or an automated weather recording, then the back-up trick is to set the altimeter to field elevation. And that's printed on the charts for each airport. On the ground of course!

Attached is 2W5 @ 170 feet.

Originally Posted by scotsoft

The choice is yours, all you need to make sure of is the following -

1: 720P High Definition Video
1280x720 H.264 30fps .mov
2: 5.0Mega pixels Camera
2592X1944 .jpg

I bought this one and it's superb -
http://cgi.ebay.com/HD-DV-Camera-Ved...item33691d3020

hope this helps you chose

Thanks for the info simonbryant and scotsoft! That confirms what I thought.

Another quick question: These come with chargers, right?

Nevermind, I feel stupid for not reading more on the ebay pages. I see now that they do indeed come with charger and accessories. I just ordered one, looking forward to receiving it and trying it out!

Tom thanks for that - do you use VLC or Quick Time to view your .mov files?

Spitfire

The camera comes with a mini USB - STD USB lead that will plug in to your PC or Laptop - charge takes approx 1 hour so i am told im not sure how long the battery will last though! Im sure that the battery will expire before you fill up a 4GB Card.

Originally Posted by simonbryant

Tom thanks for that - do you use VLC or Quick Time to view your .mov files?

Quicktime does not work on my Windows 7 (64 bit) PC (unless they fixed it), but I don't need it. Windows Media Player and Media Center for W7 plays .mov files just fine, and WLMM edits them as well. Once in a while a .mov file can get mildly corrupted where VLC will play it (less error checking, I guess) and WMP will not, but those cases are rare and I can repair most corrupted .mov files with another utility program.

FWIW, I don't use anything "Apple" or that starts with an " i ".

Ok Tom - Many Thanks.

Originally Posted by Tony_Fletcher

No. The altimeter is set to the current sea level pressure to show field elevation, 170 ft at that airport (rounded to 200.) That way all airplanes are flying in the same space. Imagine a flight that left from an airport at sea level and another at a field 500 above sea level both left with an altimeter set to zero. Without some baseline to share, they would be at different heights if flying at say 1,000 feet.

Pattern altitude is 1,000 feet at that field, so that's why I leveled off at 1,200. Pattern altitude plus field elevation.

I know what you mean. Why doesn't the altimeter read zero was my first thought too. It took me some time to wrap my head around that concept!

Thanks - the cam did a great job of capturing inside gages and outside view. Did you capture audio separately, or is that the cam?

Quick Fun vid from last night.

Joe

PMAC Jet Flight Issue #1 (1 min 42 sec)

Originally Posted by victapilot

Thanks - the cam did a great job of capturing inside gages and outside view. Did you capture audio separately, or is that the cam?

It all depends where my hat is pointed.

I have the cam velcro'd to the underside of my cap and I flip the file in Quicktime.

Sometimes all you see is "out the windscreen." On that flight, I was excited to see the panel. I could really study my pattern that way. The audio is just noise in the cockpit. With the throttle at idle, it can pick up audio pretty well. I'm working on a way to get the headset audio too. It would be great to hear the ATC controllers and study my radio calls, etc.

Originally Posted by Tony_Fletcher

It all depends where my hat is pointed.

I have the cam velcro'd to the underside of my cap and I flip the file in Quicktime.

Sometimes all you see is "out the windscreen." On that flight, I was excited to see the panel. I could really study my pattern that way. The audio is just noise in the cockpit. With the throttle at idle, it can pick up audio pretty well. I'm working on a way to get the headset audio too. It would be great to hear the ATC controllers and study my radio calls, etc.

Is your headset audio in both ears? Maybe you could rig a different camera mount so it is right along side and above one ear, then put some foam under that headset ear piece so some headset sound could escape and be picked up by the camera?

Or the "cable splitter to a small speaker idea" I mentioned a while back?

Originally Posted by Tom Frank

Or the "cable splitter to a small speaker idea" I mentioned a while back?

Yes—I have a #3 camera that I might open up and see about getting the mic into my headset...