[ChrisBuer]

Guys / Gals,

Does anyone on the board know much about digital cameras?

I want to start taking some in-car footage of Mini meets / track days / etc in my MINI, but in all honesty, I am totally lost as to which digital camera to get.

All I need is something small that can take longer than 30 secs worth of video footage and can be downloaded straight onto my PC in MPEG format. Any ideas?

I'll also need a mount in which to fit it into my windscreen, any ideas where abouts I can one of these from?

Any help would be greatly appriciated!!

Cheers,

Chris.

[AtomicKiwi]

I have a digital camera that can take video/sound as well as pictures. It's a Kodak EasyShare, and there are quite a few models depending on how many megapixels you want. Mine has 3.1, and I love it. The only thing is, the videos are in Quicktime format. It comes with a cable that you can plug directly into your computer to upload the pictures, and it works pretty quickly and efficently.

With my memory card (256MB I think?) you can take over 700 pictures and 16 minutes of video with sound.

Check it out.

[Johnny225]

Canon Powershot S45 is what I had. Horrible red eye though. Bit expensive, but the Canon EOS rebel digital camera if great. Works like a dream if you can dish out the coin! , 6 MegaPixels.

[ChrisBuer]

Excellent, thanks!!

I've just been looking on the net and I've come across a Samsung Digimax 430 which seems good. With a 512mb card, I can record 8 mins of footage on high resolution and on the medium setting resolution, it does 32 mins!

I'll see how that compares to the ones you have mentioned. Any ideas how to mount it to my car? I've seen cradles that stick to the front windscreen but I don't know what they're called?

[Shamster]

I use a Fuji M603 with a 1GB microdrive. It records some very decent digital video at up to 30fps. Have used it on Mini runs with fairly good results.

[ChrisBuer]

I did look at the Fuji M603 but apparently it's been discontinued. I phoned about and there are still a few places that have some left, so I could get hold of one.

Shamster, how do you mount your camera in your car?

Cheers

[wibbly]

Have a look at www.pricerunner.co.uk - I think you have to log into it now, but you can compare features, and more importantly prices when you know what you want to buy to get the best deal

Happy shopping

[Shamster]

Quote: Originally Posted by ChrisBuer

I did look at the Fuji M603 but apparently it's been discontinued. I phoned about and there are still a few places that have some left, so I could get hold of one.

Shamster, how do you mount your camera in your car?

Cheers

in the navigators hands so far! I haven't tried mounting it in between the headrest yet like Paul M did but I'm not sure it would be that easy as the camera is held 'vertically' rather than 'horizontally'.

The most useful aspect is that you can take still and video footage with the same device. The 1gb microdrive will handle around 15-16 mins of 30 fps video or around 30 mins at 15 fps. However, I've never filmed more than 15 mins anyway + downloading to the pc can take ages too!

I paid £250 for the camera just as it was about to become end of line - it may have come down further - the microdrive was about £140. I also bought a 512mb card too, just in case.

[ChrisBuer]

Excellent! Many thanks for the info!

I've phoned around and there is a local Jessops store that has 3 M603's left in stock so, so I'll call them this afternoon.

Cheers

[T13 Fighter]

Quote: Originally Posted by Johnny225

Canon Powershot S45 is what I had. Horrible red eye though. Bit expensive, but the Canon EOS rebel digital camera if great. Works like a dream if you can dish out the coin! , 6 MegaPixels.

Agreed. the Canon EOS is really an excellent camera. However i need a bigger hard drive as i'm taking too many pics. nearly 1gig in a weekend...........

[lespurgeon]

Try out dpreview.com Closest thing to this site for digital photo buffs.

I have a Canon Powershot S400, recently replaced by the 410 (or Ixus 450 in the rest of the world). Great MINI camera. It will do video, but I wold stick to DV if that is the primary use.