Christchurch and District Model Flying Club
sloping off

FLYCAMONE 2 

By Ken Spokes

I have always had a notion to take aerial pictures from a model and once even went so far as to mount an 8mm cine camera on one, Sorry to say this was not very successful and I almost ruined a perfectly good camera which after its one and only flight, ended up covered in oil thrown out by an elderly Merco 60. Recently, I have been looking at some excellent aerial video clips on the web YouTube sites using the latest miniature cameras and thought it would be fun to try again. However, I didn't expect it to happen quite so soon, but a few weeks ago, to my surprise, I was presented with the latest FlyCamOne camera as a birthday gift. Lucky me..

The camera came in a very nice presentation box complete with a PC USB connector, a mounting attachment and instructions. The camera is a masterpiece of miniaturisation weighing just 37gm. It will take video and still pictures in various selectable modes of operation together with sound.

It measures 3" by 1.5" by 0.5", has an internal 220mah Lipo battery and a lens that can swivel through 90 degrees.

Video is stored on a removable SD card.( which has to be purchased separately) The suggested mounting arrangement is by means of Velcro pads (provided) but the problem I found with this was that no provision was made to adjust the camera angle I solved this by making a balsa tray which included a wire link to the camera head with a locking screw that allowed any angle to be preset.

The battery is charged when the camera is connected to the PC USB port and is fully charged after 3 hours. I presume that some sort of overcharging/discharge protection is included although I can see no reference to this.. The FlyCam website mentions that a download is available to modify the camera software to show the state of the battery charge The USB connection is also used to download recorded video ( AVI ) for display via a driver obtainable from the FlyCam website. So far this has defeated me and I use the alternative method of removing the SD card from the camera and inserting it in the slot on the PC. This is the first time I had used an SD card and it was only after I failed to record any pictures that I discovered it had a tiny ON/OFF switch which of course I had accidentally set to OFF. Lost video will also result, if at the end of a recording, the shutter button is not first pressed before switching off. At the moment I am using a 1Gb card and as the rate of storage is 50Mb per min (max resolution) this gives a recording time of just over 20mins. This time can be doubled with a lower resolution setting.

Non - flying tests show that the picture quality is surprisingly good although I found that the contrast tended to be rather unstable at times and the colour balance changed more than I would have liked under varying lighting conditions .I'm probably nit picking!

Operation is simplicity itself. Switch on with a small slide switch, press a shutter button and select the mode you require, eg Video, Still pictures, etc.- nine selections in all including memory delete- then press the shutter button again and recording begins. Recording ends when the shutter button is pressed or the store is full.The various modes and running information is displayed on a small two digit LCD display on the front of the camara.

I mentioned earlier that the camera came with a detachable mounting. This clips on the back of the camera and extends four contacts which can be used to externally power the camera and switch it on or off remotely via the R/C receiver. Details about this and connectors can be obtained from CURVERC

The one thing I really didn't like was the operating instructions which were not only written in such tiny print that I had to use a magnifying glass to read them but were in very quaint English and often difficult to understand, Seems that this is a common problem and I had to resort to the FlyCam Web discussion threads to sort things out. I also discovered via the thread that VIMEO.COM seems better than YouTube for video clips.

For the first test flights, I have mounted the camera on my trusty old Junior 60. I chose to place it beneath the fuselage at about the c/g point although it is so light and streamlined that within reason I don't think it matters much where it is placed. The balsa tray I made screws into a ply plate on the model and permits the camera to look forward or aft. Initially, it will be looking forward and downwards at about 30 degrees. No doubt flight trials will sort out the best angle.

The cost of the camera is around £40, the SD card £10 and the remote add-on anothe £10 -  all depends on where you shop.

Well, how does it perform in the air?  Last evening, in nice calm conditions, I made the first successful flight from Stanpit field and am happy to report that most of the pictures regarding colour and definition were well up to expectations. It was surprising just how much detail could be seen - from quite high up I could even pick out my flight box on the strip. While I enjoyed watching the 10 min clip, it was by no means a prize winner and was more a compilation of what not to do. Flying around at fairly high altitude and in the same anticlockwise direction becomes a bit boring and rapid banking and climbing are hard on the eyes. The camera angle is important and for optimum performance needs to be variable in flight via a sevo  - more looking down in the climb and forward in descent.I am thinking of coupling this to the throttle control.

My overall impression is that this is a very well engineered piece of equipment that will add another dimension to model flying. Great fun.

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