So we've seen "The Long way round" and the new "Long way Down" and seen the shots of Charlie Filming Ewan falling again (sorry Ewan).Well how about doing it yourself ?
I'm a Motorcycle Instructor in real life and have a 2 camera system set up on my bike for use as a training aid, and also to film some of my exploits on tours, and like the pda/satnav/internet/snooper set-up, (see my other article) it all fits into my tank bag.
Which Camera?
After doing a lot of research about cameras I basically found that there's two types for this job.
The "Digital CCD Camera" and the "CMOS" Type.
The CMOS type is the sort of thing you'd see being used as a security camera in or on a building, and quite frankly that's exactly where they should stay. The problem with this type is that they simply don't react fast enough to changes in light, not good for a bike travelling at any sort of speed. Yes they are cheap (about £12 GBP), but really, no good for this job.
What you need for this job is the "Digital CCD" type. They come in all sizes, shapes and lens types, from wide angle to fish eye. The very best of them use Sony circuitry, (they developed it) and start in price from about £22 GBP.
The ones I decided to use are called "Bullet" cameras and are only 20mm diameter by 68mm in length. They are colour, waterproof and will operate right down to 1.0 Lux (dark winters wet day, no worries).
They have all sorts of wonderful Techie bits that I'll not bore you with now just to say that unless it's pitch black they work good. The size of them makes them just about perfect for fitting almost any where you decide, and they weigh almost nothing.
They are powered by 12V DC (+/- 10%) so are just the job for use on a bike. The 2 connectors you can see, one is the power supply (2.1mm power jack female, centre +ve) and the other is an AV (Phono) Jack, just like the red/yellow/white ones on your TV or video. The photo shows this camera using the threaded hole in the rear of the camera and it's own bracket that's usually supplied. It just unscrews and should really NOT be used on a bike. I tried it and there's just to much vibration.
So that's the camera's sorted. Let's talk about supplying it with power eh ? You could if you're an electronics geek make some sort of power regulated supply box thingy as feeding it direct from the bike will blow the poor thing to bits.
No, the easiest way is to simply buy your self an 8 x AA battery holder and some Hi-Power rechargeable batteries. Solder a 2.1mm male power jack onto the leads and hey presto. This is the system that I use and can tell you that the 8 AA Hi-Power (2700MA) batteries will run 2 bullet cams for around 10 to 12 hrs, which in reality is 2 days worth of filming. I also take with me a second set of 8 x AAA (1000MA about 6 to 8 hrs running time) batteries in their own sized holder as a back-up and a 240/12v 4 battery charger for the longer trips.
If you are running more than one camera, the only other thing you'll need now is a lead to split the power to the cameras. I bought a pre-made up lead that has 1 x in (female end) and multiple out (male ends) leads off good old e-bay for the bank breaking price of just £3.99 inc P&P.
Mounting it to the bike
So we've got the camera(s) and sorted out its power supply. So now lets talk about the mounting onto the bike.
First of all step back from your bike and take a really good look at it. Think about the sort of view you would like to have. Maybe even check out some other footage on the likes of YouTube or wherever. Like I said before I have a 2 camera set up. One facing front, mounted under the headlight at the bottom of the fairing, and the second is mounted under the base plate of my Givi Wingrack facing backwards.
The cameras are fitted to home made custom brackets fabricated from sheet aluminium, using rubber lined P-clips. These are a matter of pence from the local car accessory shop. I've used 2 clips per camera and even at 100 mph+ speeds (on the track officer) they are rock steady. Once you have made your brackets, cut some small bits of thin rubber (old inner-tube) to act as protection between the fairing/bike and bracket.
Whilst thinking of the view you want also take into consideration that filming through your windscreen is not good. The curvature side to side and angle of slope distort the light and picture, once you add in speed/vibration etc. not good. One of the best shots I've seen is from where the bullet cam was fitted under the foot-peg giving an ace view of the lean angles and front wheel/suspension etc. Think about what you want to see.
Recording the video signal
So we've got the cameras, we've sorted the power supply and made the brackets, so now we need to think about actually recording some footage.
The signal from the camera comes down the AV or Phono line. So what you need is something that can accept this type of signal. The first set-up I tried was using a Digital JVC camcorder that had an "AV-in" socket. Not all camcorders do so if you are thinking about this system check your camcorder first. I managed to find the JVC on e-bay. It was advertised as being "faulty". The fault was that it would not record through its own lens but the seller told me he had been using it as a video recorder from his TV via the AV-in socket……..perfect. We don't need it to use its own lens because we are going to use the bullet cams:) Anyway the sum of £8 changed hands and I had a camcorder and all its bits: battery, mains power supply, software, computer cable, the lot. A happy bunny was I. Down to the local "Pound Shop" for a 2m AV lead that has male connectors on both ends. Carefully pull the three strands apart to make into 3 separate leads (1 red, 1 yellow and 1 white). Then we needed 3 female/female AV connectors to join the cables from the cameras to the JVC's AV-in lead.
Now this is where it gets a bit technical, because at this point you may have 2 cameras, supplying 2 lots of signal but only 1 input on the recorder. So we need some way of switching between the 2 lots of signal. I searched around for the right type of switch to do this and found one at the unbelievable price of £31. Not good I thought being a tight arse, so I took a trip down to my local Maplins and talked to a nice chap called Tony. Long and short…. he disappeared into the storefront and came back with a small switch, £1.25. "Sounds good to me, what is it ? "
"It's an 'on-off-on' rocker switch" he said, with 6 small connectors on the back. He explained that when you split the AV cable inside there's actually 2 separate wires.
You then solder these 2 wires to the top set of 2 connectors, for the feed from the front camera and 2 wires to the bottom set of connectors for the feed from the rear camera. The remaining centre 2 connectors then has another length of AV cable soldered to them, and this cable now leads back to the recorder. So with the rocker switched Up the feed from the front camera will be recorded and with it Down the rear. With the switch in the centre position (off) no signal is recorded. Nice eh, and all for about £2 and a bit of time.
Once all the soldering was done a small bit of ally was formed into a bracket to hold the switch and mount it to the bike. Mine's simply about 30mm x 15mm with 2 holes drilled 1 top 1 bottom. The switch is in the bottom hole. Then the bottom bolt that holds the clutch master cylinder to the handle bars was removed and the alli bracket slipped up between the clamp and re-tightened. I can operate the switch with a simple flick of my left thumb….sorted. The remaining cable is then zip tied to the handle bars and fed into the tank-bag. This cable is then connected to the AV-in lead (yellow connector) to your recorder.
Oh by the way, after soldering, all the joints have heat-shrink over them to keep out the water. Then the back of the switch and the first 20mm-ish of cable is heat shrinked again just to make sure, yeh:)
The JVC works good but due to the size of tapes, you only get about 120 mins of recording time. Fine for a track day but if your going on "Le Grand Tour" you'll need a whole bucket full of tapes, and they're not cheap. The quality is fine, I've played it back onto a 42" Plasma and it's really good. The "Standard" camcorder battery last about 6 to 8 hrs recording so no worries there, and the bigger battery will do about 12 hrs. The switch over between front and rear cameras is just like you see on a normal TV programme, i.e. quick, because even though you are only recording 1 signal they are actually both there at the switch all the time.
There you have it. A simple camera set up with every thing apart from the camera(s) fitted into your tank bag.
Getting cleverer with MP4, SD cards, and USB
For the more technical amongst you my system has changed slightly. I still have the 2 cameras etc. but I now use an MP4 recorder that has it's own 512Mb internal memory and an SD Card slot. This gives me nearly 9 hrs recording time onto a 4Gb SD Card. (It records the input signal as MP4.)
The unit I have is the "Itrix" MP4 player/recorder that will also record and play MP3s and let you view JPEG photos to.
Just like the old camcorder it has an AV-in socket, but it also has an AV-out so it can be plugged into a TV and used like a normal video recorder/player. So at night in the B&B you can view your filming on the TV in the room. There's a USB2 connector for loading onto or from the Itrix to your computer.
I also have a 2.5 inch external hard drive player unit, with a 60Gb hard drive fitted that has a built-in SD card reader, and is remote controlled, so at the end of the day I can transfer the film from the SD card to the hard drive ready for the next day's filming of Le Grand Tour.
If you'd like more details of this more advanced system or have any questions just emither me on fj1200neil@ntlworld.com
My man John and I can build a full kit for you to order and it takes us about a week to put together.
Cheers,
Neil FJ1200
Neil FJ1200 is a freelance Advanced Motorcycle Instructor, often working with Mercury Training in Bolton, Lancs. He has toured Europe many times on a venerable FJ1200.