Cop Cam used for Trains

The color's not so good. You could also just prop up your iphone in the gondola and get much better video. 

I've seen those at Menards in the past. I didn't buy one, but, thought the same as you, that it could be used on a layout. I think yours did a good job and worth the $10 dollars. Also, thank you for the tour of your layout.

Rusty

My guess is the reason the color balance isn't right is because you are recording using indoor lighting which has a different color temperature than sunlight. As a test you could take one of your trains outside and just set it in the sunlight and make a brief recording of the train and see what you get.

Thanks guys for the comments and advice.

Will - Yes the iphone camera is much better, the pictures I took were taken with the iphone 8. Problem with using iphone or any larger device is mounting it in gondola or flatcar . Maybe the 1080p version would have better color. 

Rusty- Thanks for the comments. Wish we had Menards in Virginia. Have a few of their freight cars which seem to be of the same style as the AMT/KMT/Williams boxcars. 

Robert - I will have to try some outside video to see if that makes a difference. 

Dean

Oy, I'm dizzy from the speed on those turns. For $10 you can't beat it. Nice postwar layout too.

Post war fans seem to like those neck snapping trolley car curves. It must remind them of their childhood. I prefer wide curves, but maybe that's because I was an American Flyer kid. S-40 is the equivalent of O-60.

I like the AMT collection. A man after my own heart.

Other than color balance, though almost any photoshop type software should/could/would correct balance.  Sure beats my using a video camera on flatcar.  Apparently camera picks up sound.   Whats the run time of camera?

Not bad for $10, price of two lattes.

Good Afternoon

ARTYOUNG - Sorry about the speed, my first go around with the camera and thanks for comments on the layout. Nothing fancy, just something to play with in my old age. 

RoyBoy - I guess I was in a hurry to see the video, funny. The layout does take me back in time to days of youth except back then just a loop with 2 switches, a gateman, beacon tower, 1033 transformer, and my train and my brothers. I guess in our old age we get what we couldn't afford when young but the 2 trains back then were more than enough and thankful for what our parents provided us. Nice to see others appreciate the old AMT. Cabooses are build like a tank.   

RRMAN - Box says camera is HD 720p, day or night, motion activated, powerful microphone, 45 minute recording time. Came with 8 GB micro SD card, micro USB to USB cable, and a clip that lets me clip the camera to caboose railing, front diesel railing, or front of gondola. Tried outside and camera has not as much reddish/pink tint to it so maybe lights in basement are causing tint. Playing around with Imovie to see if I can get colors a little better with color balance. Something to do on a rainy day. 

Dean

Seems like a fun enterprise and certainly affordable.  Might get myself one.  Nice layout, by the way!

I have seen a number of onboard train and slotcar videos, and on many, I've always been bothered by watching the curve disappear out the side of the frame, the viewpoint remaining directly ahead for a while, and then the sudden turn as the train enters the curve, but still looking off to the side of the track until the loco has fully entered the straight. I noticed vids with the wider angle cameras help this a lot (or even cure it for me) - like a real driver, I can see down enough of the oncoming curve at the edge of the frame to make it feel realistic.

For the little narrow-angle cameras like this one, I've thought about a mount that attaches temporarily to the very front of the loco (flatcar, whatever) with the camera itself attached by a spring-wire arm to a freight truck ahead of the engine, as far as possible down the track without appearing in the camera frame. The camera would pivot on the mount, so as to look into the curve, just as the engineer's head would do, before the loco itself hits the curve. Some of the track ahead would always be in the frame. Possibly by making it of thin enough wire, the arm would have enough flex to additionally cushion the sideways snap of the camera on sharp curves. Mind you, I've never actually done it - I'm just throwing the idea out there for anyone to experiment with.

It may be the file conversion that messed with the exposure too... try an mp4 copy.

Lots easier than trying to deal with a phone on a car or engine I bet. 

USB? Wireless?  

Great deal for $10 IMO

Mounting a camera from further rearward and especially instead on an overhang would change the panning timing's some. 

Speaking 0-27, Ever have a crane swing out to the right from excentrifugal forze of turning left? (and overhang even if your boom is not prone to moving)...so anyhow, for saftey, I know your jib trails right.  😉 

Mount it on a crane car and throttle up😜 

Actual linkage to a truck could allow for a greater than 45° pan during a curve where most other ways, (like right on a truck or arm) would be a 45° at best though the camera travel helps ...we lean left to look around a right corner; same type of travel on a trailing boom 😎

Better than the old Rail Scope by Lionel. Don

PW53INVA :  My thoughts on the Cop Cam for Trains. 

1. For $10 its a steal, great fun and a neat point of view...keep at it.

2. You have the same issue everyone had back when those old 8 mm home movie cameras first came out  - that is the "pan speed" which because of the speed of the train is too fast.  So you need to slow the train down, even though it likely does not appear too fast as you watch the train. This will also help although not cure the rapid turn issue expressed by some in this thread.  A wider angle lens might help that (these are available for smart phones, perhaps one could be adopted).  Given that this camera records digitally and thus does not waste expensive movie film, I would recommend experimenting with train speed until you get a satisfactory solution.  There is not good way to predict what will look good to a viewer.

3. The color balance, which as someone said is likely because the exposure is balanced for outdoor light and not indoor.  Besides indoor / outdoor you also need to watch whether or not your indoor lights are incandescent or fluorescent.  These also give off different wavelengths of light and thus require a different balance from each other if you want "natural" color.  Photo filters to handle these conditions are relatively common (or used to be in the film days), mostly available in any good camera store and normally not too expensive.  I believe a blue filter for the outdoor and a green filter for the fluorescent may be what you need , but you need to check, it has been a number of years since I worked film photography and needed the filters and I no longer fully trust my memory.

I think you are really providing some great data to the rest of us as to whether or not these devices can be adopted to create a "train view".  Please keep posting your results.

Don

Hope everyone is having a good Saturday. 

Thanks guys for the feedback and suggestions. I will try some of your ideas out when I get a chance and see if I can get the colors to be more natural. This little camera is not wireless you just connect via usb to charge it and download the pictures or just take the micro sd card out and copy to the computer. I really like that it has a little clip device on it so it is easy to mount on train to get the video. Looking at amazon I saw similar cameras that are 1080p and wondered if they would provide a better picture. Sounds like the speed of train and room lighting might be the problem. I think my macbook air could not deal with the file type the camera saves the files in and I had to convert to .mov. Maybe I will try using my old windows laptop and see if any difference in video color.  I will let you know and if any other ideas, let me know. 

Thanks and Happy Training

Dean