Here is a link to the Intova HD camera that Parallax selected to sell with their fpv quads after testing most everything on the market. Their selection was based on video quality and performance and not price so this is probably worth taking a good look at. I like that it's not quite as wide angle and has less lens distortion. That's one thing that bugs me about the GoPro. This appears to have its guts built right into the waterproof case so you can't shed the case like you can on the GoPro. I really wish all these kinds of cameras were smaller. It does have live composite video out for fpv use like the GoPro. I looked this up on Amazon and their price with free shipping is under $200. I'd sure like to see one up close. I'm going to call next week and ask more questions about this. http://www.intova.net/products/sport-hd/ ...Tiger [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAyR2rd2q6E&feature=related[/youtube]
So 14 of you have looked at this and not a single comment. Is there something I should know about this thing? Anybody even heard any rumors about this? ...Tiger
Since you asked: I don't see the attraction at all except that it might be cheap. Copying the GoPro was a awful choice because it has to be the silliest design for a action camera on the market. It's a box. The smartest design has to be the ReplayXD. Even my ContourHD is a million times better designed than the GoPro. In fact the Contour HD is so well designed Sony recently copied it and made some improvements. You may read this if you haven't already: Sony's Action Cam... in action (video) Additionally, in the video of the camera you posted they state that you cannot remove it from the housing. How is that going to be good for flying? Seems like useless additional weight. The ReplayXD does not need a dorky housing like the GoPro and recently a Contour HD was found after being lost in a avalanche for over two years and still worked and it was not in any housing either, although one is available if you think you need it. The new Sony action cam also has a weather housing option. All of these cameras do not suffer the wide angle fish eye effect you mentioned. So why would you consider this new camera? Spend the extra hundred and get a good camera instead of ending up buying two bad ones.
Thanks John! I agree about the housing and that goes for the GoPro as well. I hate that part of both of them. I'm more focused on controls and how well it works right now. I can solve the housing problem. I've been reading a long and drawn out review of sorts at: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/underwater-videography/417764-intova-sport-pro.html It goes on page after page, but if you stick with it, you seem to come away with the GoPro in second place. The target market for the Intova seems clearly to be underwater work. If you google it, about all you see is scuba links. If all I wanted was HD capability, I'd go with something like you've got, but I want composite video out for FPV and that totally limits your choices. I'm thinking maybe I can turn this thing into what I want with a little work. At the very least, a guy could strip this down quite a bit. You've got to drill or ditch the back cover to get a cable out anyway. I'd be for ditching it along with that horrible latch of theirs. What I need right now is to see one of these in person. Maybe I can get Parallax to send me one for a couple days to play with. I'm also going to look at those links you included although I doubt any of them support the composite output. Please correct me on that if I'm wrong. ...Tiger
Just looked at that little sony and it's super cool. From what I see of the specs on the Sony site, only HDMI output is available so no composite. What a shame! I know composite is a dead format, but it's still what we need on our toys. ...Tiger
Is your desire for a composite output to eliminate the need for a dedicated FPV camera? If so, you might want to look into why most FPV flyers don't do that. All the best FPV videos I've been seeing have both a FPV camera and a HD camera. There might be a good reason for that.
[size=14pt][/size]We find ourselves trapped with mixing too many technologies, and a very small profile in the market. Odds are, there will never be, that perfect camera. Everything in the market place was designed for another use, so it looks like, living with the shortcomings. Cameras are a bitter subject to me. A friend jokes about me collecting cameras. Got a drawer full - all fall very short of what I really expected. The last mistake was one from Fox Tech. Looked like the perfect solution and was hyped on another website. I bit, ordered one. It didn’t work out of the box. Several emails back and forth with a very pleasant gentleman in China, got no where. The general assumption, seemed to be in the direction, I screwed it up. Repair, or replacement was carefully avoided. Looked like a dead end street, with no idea how to send something back to China, I killed the warranty ( if there was one ) and tore it apart. The first problem was a bad solder joint in the power connection to the Mother Board. One attempt to fix it, worked for a very short time. Then there was a problem with the micro switches that took a Gorilla to activate. I quit, gave it to the Young Man at the hobby store. Very crafty fellow! He worked on it for about a week, fixed several things, replaced the micro switches with good ones, and got it working. Then customers discovered the camera unit had problems generating RF, and they came up with a DIY fix kit. If course it is for sale if you want one. I see they advertise an up-graded version, that improves the bad switches, But it looks like you still have to get the DIY kit for the RF Problem. Great idea! No quality control - same for Customer Support. Be careful what you wish for!
Tiger, here is what we talked about today, http://www.bestbuy.com/site/GoPro---HERO-CHDNH001-Digital-Camcorder-LCD---CMOS---Full-HD/3350312.p?id=1218397392756&skuId=3350312
Pretty cool, but did you notice that you can't buy it? They won't ship it and the only store that comes up when you enter our zip code is in the Portland area. I looked this up as soon as I came home and ran into this. I started looking for other sources and found a couple that said it was a "discontinued" model. I wonder if that explains the price. Maybe there is something new coming out. The GoPro site still shows it active and places like Amazon still have it at a higher price. Doesn't give you a warm fuzzy feeling! I only read a couple, but Google "gopro naked discontinued" and check out the responses. ...Tiger
