Dan Wendling

What is the angle of view for the Traqmate Chase Cam (Bullet Cam 520 line)?

Also looking for any comments on its use, quality at low light, dynamic range,etc.

rbl

Good simple overpriced camera and not as good as the HD one you are looking at. I have the Chase, works great and simple, but not near the Q of the HD stuff.

BEZ06

with rbl

I too have a Chasecam, but I can't tell you about any of the technical details.

It's not HD, but as an analysis tool you don't need HD resolution. With just data you can see your speed and line through a turn, but if you can't remember the situation going into T4 on lap 5 then you might wonder why you were slow and offline - but with the video you can see that it was due to traffic and you were setting up for a pass coming out. With the video right next to your data you'll be able to see the traffic and it really helps to analyze your sessions. You don't need HD for that.

However, if you want HD, you can get a lot cheaper video cameras than the Chasecam. I used a cheapo Aiptek before I got the Chasecam. The Chasecam auto synch interface with the Traqmate using their TraqStudio software is nice, but it's not hard at all to synch video and data if you're using a different camera.

The video below is with the Chasecam during daytime, but you can see that I get the info I'm looking for to go along with the data you get from the Traqmate - a view of traffic, position on the track, steering inputs and hand position, etc. The resolution on my computer when viewed with TraqStudio next to the data is much better than this clip. It lost some resolution when I saved it as a separate video file and some more when I uploaded it to youtube.

Bob

BEZ06

BTW, the Chasecam is not a Traqmate product.

The Traqmate data-acquisition unit logs data for you and has some very powerful analysis software, and there are many other data-loggers out there as well.

The Chasecam is made by....Chasecam.

http://www.chasecam.com


Traqmate has a video software that will synchronize and integrate your video taken with any video source with the data collected by the Traqmate unit and display the video next to your data on your computer for analyzing your track sessions. They just happen to have used the Chasecam as their primary video source and a Traqmate/Chasecam setup will automatically synch the video and data. Video from any other source will have to be manually synched with the Traqmate data. Below is a screen shot of my TraqStudio software showing data and video:




The Chasecam is a stand-alone video recorder separate from the Traqmate.

Also, you can use any video and almost any data-logger and still be able to integrate the video and data - well sort of. I think it only puts that "dashboard" thingy onto your video like you can see in my video link in my previous post above - I don't believe it puts the video onto your computer in the data analysis software that may come with other data-loggers. There is a software called TrackVision (not affiliated with Traqmate at all) and their software is compatible with most all data-loggers and video.

http://www.trackvision.net


So....if all you want is to record video, you can do it a lot cheaper than with a Chasecam.

If you want to integrate video and data, the Traqmate with TraqStudio and any video camera works great. Traqmate with a Chasecam will automatically synch your video and data, but you can do that manually with video captured by any source.

Bob

longdaddy

I am not very happy with the quality on my chasecam (520). if you are looking to make high quality video, I would look elsewhere.

Bill Dearborn

Wasn't there somebody on the forum a couple of years ago that was using a video quad to integrate a couple of feeds to put all the info on the camcorder while you were driving? Seems like that would be easier than integrating after the fact.

Bill