My father-in-law no longer vintage races. However, we wanted to capture some of his track time so several years back we bought one of the first 720P resolution, wide-angle GoPro cameras. We liked it... to a point. We were disappointed with its resolution and the wide-angle lens seemed to straighten out turns so the viewer had no idea why a part of the track might be difficult.
When the GoPro failed to improve with lens changes we gave up on it and I started mounting very inexpensive 808 spy-cameras on the car. These are very cheap, small cameras based on older cell phone camera technology. They were cheap enough that we mounted some on the front torsion bar tube of his Formula-Vee to get a really nice perspective of the track and what the driver sees. We also tried a more expensive Mobius camera on the car with good results. The Mobius is a lot more expensive than the spy-cams but its higher resolution was worth it. The drawback to both the early GoPro, the spy-cams, and the Mobius is/was that they have no screen. You cannot see if you are recording or what you are recording. WIthout a screen you also cannot review a video. You have to download the video files to a laptop or something else to view the file.
I saw recently that a lot of GoPro clones have entered the market. Even though no one in the family is racing anymore I read up on these clones and decided to buy one just to play with. I chose the SooCoo C30 which is about $65 on Amazon. You have to provide an SD memory card. My first impressions are very favorable. The resolution and frame rate are selectable as is the field of view. The camera includes a small LCD screen on the rear which makes configuring the camera easy and relatively fast. The camera also has a built-in gyro for image stabilization and comes with a lot of mounting hardware and a waterproof case. I decided this morning to configure the camera as a dashcam and mount it in my daily driver for the drive to/from church. The videos were amazingly clear and stable.
If anyone is looking for an inexpensive dashcam or action cam for the track, consider giving the SooCoo C30 a try. So far I have been impressed with what I got for $65. Is it as good as a GoPro? I cannot say. But it is certainly good for the price. It is also inexpensive enough that you won't be too upset if something happens to it on the track.
Doug L.
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