Good video camera for night shoots?

[Heli-opolis]

What is a good video camera for shooting night flyer videos?

'good' as in it won't empty my bank account but yet give reasonable results.

I'd prefer something I can mount on a head band or hat so that I can capture exactly what I am looking at and also don't have to worry about having someone to man the camera.

I'm currently using a "Contour GPS" but it's fixed field of view ends up being way to wide to be able to concentrate on the bird and not end up with a speck of a bird in a wide expanse of nothing. Also, it's no-light is better than its low-light in that in low-light it gets really grainy.

Anyone have any suggestions based on what you use or have seen used?

[agenthex]

I've got a Contour+ here. You're dead-on about the FoV being too wide, but at lest in the C+, 1080p records narrower than 720p action. I have a sample video of a flight here:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTWX9BV6Vi4[/ame]

[Heli-opolis]

Thanks for the tip, and the validation. More so for the tip though because I know I'm not crazy, or at least this doesn't prove or disprove my sanity.

I was using the lower res mode under the mistaken thinking that I needed longer recording times but since my batteries last no more than 5 - 7 minutes and I can change memory cards when I change batts, there's no real reason to skimp on the pixels.

Thanks for the tip!!!!

Still though, I'd love to find a cam that I can get a tighter shot with but I doubt that is going to be possible with a head-mounted setup. Using the higher res mode though will get me by much better in the mean time!

[ifly_65]

Hows it going? I hope all is good with you!!!

I use a cheap #11 keycam from ebay. Its HD and I put a deans on the power leads so I can use a 300 nano tech. I can film for days on one battery now, or until my 8g card is full.

I recently had a friend use his gopro on my TA915 and it was so wide you could see a fake curvature of the earth. It was 'fisheye'. It made the heli look really small. Ive also had friends do videos of my mcp x with video cams built into high end Canon and Nikon cameras, but I like my #11 better.

At dusk:



Here is some day footage of the TA915: