I’ll admit that my in-car camera footage seems static. Yes – It’s an inside view of going really fast on a dirt road, but it’s always that same shot from the roll cage. One of the new upgrades that I have for the car is a Sony bullet cam (or lipstick camera) hooked to my trusty old DSC-TRV330 HandyCam. Now if you know me, you already know that I didn’t stop there.

The first problem with the in-car camera setup is power. The camera battery lasts maybe an hour and costs more then a set of tires. When you add a bullet cam you must power a recorder AND the camera. So, do you grab 12v from the car? Do you try to power the recorder with car as well? Then, say something dramatic happens, will you remember to start the recorder after you spin and stall the car? You won’t.

I wanted the following:
1. A large rechargeable battery that could run the recorder and the camera.
2. A recorder interface that would allow me to start and stop the tape without scrambling out of the car or reaching back in some sort of crazy yoga position. (and subsequently elbow Christine in the head. )
3. A way to keep this all self contained and not attached to the functions of the car.

I went looking for 12v NiMH batteries and came across a 4.5 AmpHour beast – designed to power kit robots. I then picked up a spare Sony charger on ebay, ripped it apart and pulled off the cord. The HandyCam requires 8.4 volts, but after some testing with a DC to DC converter I got it to happily run on 8 volts. I then powered the bullet cam with 12 volts from the robot battery. Now I have the whole kit running off ONE rechargeable battery that will last days instead of hours. I recorded several exciting hours of our fish tank to test it. Click here to see a break down of what’s in my bullet cam system.

The only thing that remained was camera control. Without it, you’re wasting tape. You can’t imagine the gigs of digital video that I transferred and had to skip through. We’d get to the time control and I just didn’t want to reach back there after my belts were tight. So, I’d start recording before we pulled into the ATC. That’s 6 minutes of boredom right there. Then after a stage I’d be pumped up and forget that we’re still rolling. It’s only after we’d pulled into service that I realized I was still burning tape and 2 hour batteries. “Dammit!”

It’s a good thing I was an AV Geek in High School. I needed LANC. LANC is a controller. LANC can be used to control two recorders in an editing suite, or it can be used to make the zoom a nice thumb button on a tripod. Sony sells a LANC controller for the HandyCam, but after some exhaustive Google work, I learned that it can’t start recording in VCR mode. This is the mode the camera is in with the bullet cam connected, and if I can’t start and stop the recorder this $100 unit is worthless to me. I did however find a LANC controller that was exactly what I needed. You see, the kids over at Hoyt Technologies have been doing extreme camera work for some time and sell a single button LANC remote. Not only does it start and stop the recorder in VCR mode, but you can hold the button for a few seconds and put it in standby. A quick press of the button gets the tape rolling again. It’s fantastic and Christine ordered it as an early b-day gift for me.

Today I tested some potential locations of the bullet camera in the car (and outside). The HandyCam can grab stills onto a memory stick, so I took some test shots. I think we’ll stick with inside the car for a few rallies, and get more brave as the season goes on. I’m stoked about the foot cam and the wide angle lens on the camera grabbing much more of the action. The 2006 rallynotes.com videos will undoubtedly rock.