Helmet Cammera

[cucc Paul]

Yay got down two caves at the weekend. We managed to get footage from sump 2 to the entrance including through sump 1 in swildons and footage from the top of the first pith in rhinos to the bottom of the main pitches, as a side note wouldnt recomend rigging the second pitch as a deviation very bouncy. Only thing now is I need a bright diffuse light my 14 led duo isnt quite enough and my mini q40 (2watt LED) is too bright in a concentrated spot but great in bigger stuff like on straight pitches. footage will appear on muddydragons asap

 

[potholer]

Are you looking to home-build a light?
It wouldn't be too hard to knock up something using a Luxeon K2 or two - they're basically similar to the old 3Ws, but more efficient, and more resilient regarding heating up.

With a stick-on optic, they give a beam similar to a Nova in terms of spread.

If you wanted a really diffuse smooth light, you could use them bare, giving light spread basically over 180 degrees, or you could fix a very simple home-made conical reflector round them, which won't give any kind of beam, but will throw more light smoothly forwards.

Just playing with a lightmeter and some knocked-together reflectors, (cones with a ~45 degree half-angle), even a tiny one about 5mm deep seems to give a brightening of about half a stop, and with a 15mm deep one, that improves to about a stop - a doubling of brightness compared with the naked LED.

 

[cucc Paul]

http://www.muddydragons.co.uk/coppermine/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=0&pos=0
Its very low res, I run a site i can upload it to in full quality but it will require some ingenuity and know how to enable high quality flash. maybe some day

 

[darkplaces]

Upload it to video.google or youtube. Dark and camera needs repositioning so spot is in the middle.
Annoying music, sorry, it was really annoying when trying to watch and listen so muted.

 

[emgee]

http://www.muddydragons.co.uk/coppermine/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=0&pos=0
Its very low res, I run a site i can upload it to in full quality but it will require some ingenuity and know how to enable high quality flash. maybe some day

Er crashed my browser. What did you want it to do?

 

[darkplaces]

This thread spurred me on to sort my own head cam arrangement. I have the same type of digital recorder (archos 504) but I have brought the archos's own travel adapter and own bullet type headcam which powers itself from the recorder. Works on 1 lux and has built in controls to start/stop/check status and has the mic on this mid cable mounted button assembly. I suspected it wasnt waterproof so taped up and put strong see though plastic over the buttons and mic. I wrapped a layer of carrymat foam around the bullet cam and duck taped it. My version of hardening the camera. The digital recorder was wrapped in the same type of carrymat foam, into a dry bag then loaded into a webbing type water bottle pouch.

Considering the head-cam inst a specialist all waterproof bullet type from Archos I am impressed with the results.
The light source was a nova 3.
The resolution of the camera is 640x480 - Google actually makes the video look worse then it is.

The results are here:
Smallcleugh - Fuzz's Leap - (as per that fat ba$tard belay thread) - http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=8905495471134997188&q=www.c**tplaces.co.uk

Smallcleugh - Entrance to wheel flats
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=6325452150012572728&hl=en-GB

Smallcleugh - Miserycrawl to the Ballroom
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-7756074603615985973&hl=en-GB

Smallcleugh - Ballroom to the tight bit
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-1270030128366003134&hl=en-GB

Smallcleugh - Digging the tight bit
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=682974881369877303&hl=en-GB

 

[cucc Paul]

Good Videos. Thats what put me off google and u tube was their re encription distroying what was once good quality, as both seem to struggle with darker conditions On the plus side the website I have been developing now has a beta page, oooh... were proud of it even if it doesnt look much. It is temporarily hosted here while were playing about with it. This version shouldnt crash anyones browser as long as it supports Java.

www.blackmorescouts.co.uk/test.html

I done the same with my cam wrapping it in tape and matting, really glad i did after i saw the damage to the tape. I did however distroy a microphone in swildons so I am currently building a water proof version. Heat shrinking the cables offers lots of protection I found as well as you can use it to stop the cables getting ripped about when passing sacks etc.

 

[darkplaces]

Shame about video.google and youtubes bad quality video but you cant beat it for dishing out video to the masses

 

[cucc Paul]

Were determined to beat them, Video upload components are nearly done, then dishing out underground video to the masses will  be possible in quality we choose. Eg the best FLV conversion you can get for streaming and divx for download. have to  :spank: my minions into action speed them up.

We used the archos in the car the other day, first time we've used it as a player, we were very impressed