# Videos of slot cars



## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

How do you video your slot cars?

How do you cover a race? How many cameras?

What kind of equipment do you use?

Where do you prefer to upload your vids?

Do you think this part of the hobby should be expanded?

What would you like to see done?

Shoot...


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## joegri (Feb 13, 2008)

thats a good question? i got a lil video camera for xmas and i hav,nt even tried it yet.i spect i,ll try to put it in the photo bucket then to HT.sounds easy enough but i,m not good at foolin with this new com(mac book)seems most time i cant get the time to figure it out!i did google how to but as usual i had to leave n do something else.some of the fellas have loaded video to HT bill hall and i think scman have done this


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## jobobvideo (Jan 8, 2010)

depends on what look your trying to achieve...


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

never did actual races...

this is my most recent, just did it last night:






in-car video:











attempts to be artsy and cinematic:











--rick


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## warnergt (Feb 9, 2000)

[Deleted]


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## Rocket45 (Jan 4, 2011)

Cool videos! I really enjoyed them!


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

Cool stuff Rick!!! What cameras did you use?

Has anyone tried using those GoPro cameras?


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

jobobvideo said:


> depends on what look your trying to achieve...


I guess you would have to divide the goals as *race coverage* vs *theatrical movies*.

There's alot of movie type stuff on YouTube, but the race coverage stuff stinks.
Best coverage stuff I ever saw was stuff Dobas group put together.


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

Here's some examples of our stuff...

Larry's iPhone3 from a couple years back...





I have some with Larry's iPhone4s somewhere. I'll fit them in here if I find them.

My old Kodak 2mb camera...(up to 30 seconds at a time..LOL)
[URL="http://www.myspace.com/video/northtexasslotcars/ole-turn-1-larry-39-s-highpointe-speedway/38505646"]http://www.myspace.com/video/northtexasslotcars/ole-turn-1-larry-39-s-highpointe-speedway/38505646
[/URL]

My 7.something MB camera on video...





I got one of those hot wheels camera cars I'm gonna try some in car stuff with.

For race coverage, I would like to experiment with multiple cameras.


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## jobobvideo (Jan 8, 2010)

if you had multiple cameramen set up... some at level and at-hieght both using panning techniques and maybe a couple of static cameras at cool angles-long striaghts and such- just some thoughts...the real magic happens in editing the shots together...2 cents worth for now


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

NTxSlotCars said:


> Cool stuff Rick!!! What cameras did you use?
> 
> Has anyone tried using those GoPro cameras?


That recent one was with my iPhone. The "in-car" ones were with a Hot Wheels Video Racer. And the older "cinematic" ones, I don't remember... just a digital still camera we had set to video mode, I think, because at the time I couldn't get stuff shot with an iPhone to play nice with MS Movie Maker. 

--rick


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## Shadowracer (Sep 11, 2004)

If you look on youtube, look for the HO Champ Car series. Great videos by guys who look like they're in it for a good time. Only drawback is a lot of the time you have to go to about the halfway mark before you get to the actual racing, but between the silliness, there's some good footage. Great fun. Below is one of them.

If you follow the links at some of the different vids by this group, you'll see some awesome tracks too. (Someone forgot to tell these guys that real race tracks don't need scenery.) Anyway, I love their work. Very inspiring stuff if you're looking at building a track.


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

Doba did an incredible job taping not only his races, but the between race banter was hilarious! One of the sad parts of him moving south was the loss of these awesome productions.


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## 1976Cordoba (Sep 20, 2000)

slotcarman12078 said:


> Doba did an incredible job taping not only his races, but the between race banter was hilarious! One of the sad parts of him moving south was the loss of these awesome productions.


 

Thanks Joe - but other than the occasional starring role as a racer on a good night, or my on-the-mic skills as "John Derek Daly," I had nothing to do with the production of the IndySlotCar videos. The group still races and still videos each event.

Here is a link to the YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/metromike1

Mike Kristof is the series boss and he shoots most of the vid and uses just one camera and an external microphone, and then clips the raw footage later in a video editor. Most of the racers have an on-air alias, or add voice impressions to commentary.

Here's the guys runnin' recently on my old, beloved, much-missed Deckertring a few weeks back:




 
And another at my old track since I headed south:


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## Shadowracer (Sep 11, 2004)

(I always wanted an autographed Kitty Bo Peep poster. :thumbsup


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## videojimmy (Jan 12, 2006)

really great videos guys.... that muscle car video kills me


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

Bump...

Any new video ideas?


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## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

Has anybody used one of these?

Micro-Mark's *Wireless Micro-Camera System with Sound, 2.4 Ghz*


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## Grampa Ho (Feb 25, 2009)

Dr. Noise AKA Billy Martin does all of our races and all I think he uses is a digital Camera. you can watch our races at rchora.net and post a comment to him there
Rich


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

Dslot said:


> Has anybody used one of these?
> 
> Micro-Mark's *Wireless Micro-Camera System with Sound, 2.4 Ghz*


Not that one with the sound, but my first attempt at an in-car HO scale camera vehicle was this camera truck made with a "nannycam" that looked an awful lot like that. It was inspired by a similar vehicle that had been created previously by Goose Chicken.

--rick


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## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

Not exactly on topic, but here's a spectacular cab-ride *HO railroad video* with fantastic performance by the GoPro camera. Great depth of field and resolution. And something else.

Many model-vehicle onboard cameras have a narrow field of view, and you get that slightly disturbing feel when a curve comes up and goes out of the field of view, and the camera doesn't follow it until the train or car itself hits the curve. So you - 
- See curve coming up.
- See curve taking track out of camera frame.
- Stare off into trackless scenery or wall, not into the curve.
- Wham! You see the camera suddenly jerked onto the curve, and follows it partially and a bit to the side, but you still can't see where you're headed.​
In reality, a driver's eyes go down the curve before he turns, so this looks unnatural. The sharper the curve and the faster the speed, the worse the effect is, so slot cars are heavily affected.

I figured that to beat that effect, you'd have to have a little wheelset on the track ahead of the camera vehicle, that is attached to a lever to start swiveling the camera before the main vehicle itself hits the curve.

But this video doesn't have that problem. Yes, speed is low and the curves are gentle on this big layout, but I think the main reason is that the camera is wide-angle, both side to side, (so you can look into the curve), and up and down, (so you're still seeing track even quite close to the lens). It certainly sent me scurrying to the GoPro site to look at the cameras and mounts. 

I knew the GoPro wasn't going to be as small as I wanted, because the viewpoint in the video is offset to the left of the track. That means the camera was too wide to fit on the front flatcar with the lens centered, and still have side clearance. That's going to make it hopeless for N scale trains and HO slotcars, I'm afraid. 

Still, about the best onboard camerawork I've ever seen.

Any thoughts?

-- D


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

The narrow field of view is a great observation. 
I think this is also a problem when recording slot cars on track.
You have to move the camera too much to catch the action on track.
A wider field of view would help solve this problem.


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## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

ParkRNDL said:


> Not that one with the sound, but my first attempt at an in-car HO scale camera vehicle was this camera truck made with a "nannycam" that looked an awful lot like that. It was inspired by a similar vehicle that had been created previously by Goose Chicken.


Thanks, Rick. I read your earlier thread. Could you steer me to one of your videos that was shot with that particular cam?

--D


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## hojoe (Dec 1, 2004)

I was watching a show on chocolate the other day and they showed an old commercial for M&M's. The kid in the add had two hot rod tjets running around a track and of course they explained how it "melts in your mouth and not in your hand" and won't get all over what your doing. ie. playing with slots. I tried to find it on youtube, but couldn't. 
hojoe


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

Dslot said:


> Thanks, Rick. I read your earlier thread. Could you steer me to one of your videos that was shot with that particular cam?
> 
> --D


Actually... I just got on my YouTube channel to look, and it occurred to me that none of those videos ever made it off VHS tape. At the time I was using that camera, the only recording device I had was a VCR, so that's what I hooked the receiver to, and I never got around to getting the necessary hardware to take the footage off the tapes and put them in digital format. I DO have two videos shot even earlier with the camera vehicle built by Goose Chicken, which was very similar in design, using what I think was the same exact model camera. He let me borrow it to experiment with on my layout. I also recorded that on VHS, but I then shipped that VHS tape off to Johnny SlotCar, whose full name I don't even remember, and he was kind enough to pull the footage off them and edit them into a couple of short little music videos:











If you click my YouTube username from either of those videos, and then look at the other vids I have posted, there are 2 shot with the HW Video Racer: Cadillac And Impala Slot Car Chase, and Sunday Drive. The footage is clearer in them, but other than that, the effect is similar. You can see that the narrow field of vision problem you mention in another post is present in both the early "nannycam" videos and the later HW Video Racer ones...

--rick


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## E-Force-1 (May 31, 2007)

On my channel I have the in-car camera shots. I mostly like to shoot different angles of big event races and local club stuff and then edit them with music.


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## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

*$11 wide-angle lens*



ParkRNDL said:


> I DO have two videos shot even earlier with the camera vehicle built by Goose Chicken, which was very similar in design, using what I think was the same exact model camera.


Thank you for posting those, Rick. That tells me what I need to know, and probably saves me a hundred dollars.



> You can see that the narrow field of vision problem you mention in another post is present in both the early "nannycam" videos and the later HW Video Racer ones...


Yes. That's what I wanted to learn. But I wonder if *this $11 wide angle attachment* would be a practical fix for that problem. It will add some extra length to the cam, but that's not too bad. It's _width_ we're short on.

If anybody tries it, let us hear about the results - or better yet, see them.

-- D


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

Since winter has really set in, has anyone messed with this video stuff?


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## Mile Hi Kat (Jan 2, 2021)

Great thread (says the guy responding 8 YEARS after the last post), glad some of these videos are still on YT for us to enjoy, and enjoy them I did! My own latest is posting tomorrow...


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