The "GumCam"

[Tim Mackey]

So called due to it being capable of fitting inside a chewing gum packet, this cost me approx £12 new from an Ebay seller - there's loads around and you may find one even cheaper. The manual is complete jibberish, but it takes a micro SD card, is charged and uploads via USB, and records stills, sound, and video ( 640 X 480 @30 FPS )

I strapped it onto my EPP buzzard and headed off to the field yesterday along with a few other models and ace snapper and clubmate John Bowman.

Here's a few pics I did this morning, and a link to a demo video from onboard the buzzard yesterday will be up a little later. Much better ( and cheaper actually ) than the original flycamone V1 and recommended at the price. Easier to operate also!

[Tim Mackey]

Here's the demo vid - grey day and flooded fields!

[Pete B]

Very acceptable quality, Timbo - definite improvement on earlier cams and amazing for its size. I'm very tempted..............mind you, I was getting a bit queasy towards the end of the vid................

 

Pete

[Paddy Fidling]

Wow! look awesome quality for what little you paid for it!

Definatley for me to try! 

At the moment I have to put up with my full size camera strapped to the side of the plane with masking tape!

[ken anderson.]

timbo-i'm impressed-you have gotten a cracking bit of kit there....

 

        ken(david bailey)anderson...............

[Rob]

i liked how it caught the reflection as you flew over the puddle,Great value f or the money and can be hidden in most airframes without much butchery.One for the wishlist methinks.

[Tim Mackey]

Yep I reckon its great VFM - the quality is actually even better of course before U tube do their thing to it.

Sorry about the quesyness PeteB- it was an almost windless day, so try as I did, I couldnt hold the bird stationary very well - when it gets its outing up the big rock later this week,  it will hover better.

Here's a link to a seller in the US doing them for under £9 !!

Free intl P+P too unless I didnt read it very thoroughly.

Edited By Timbo - Administrator on 08/02/2010 19:07:45

[Pete B]

You've convinced me - ordered one at £8.99 without a card. Should be here for the spring!

 

Pete

[Marko]

Hi timbo nice bird where did can l get one

[Tim Mackey]

 EPP eagle - direct from China

HERE

[John Privett]

There's also several "key fob" cameras which seem to have very similar performance around on ebay at the moment - similar price too. 

 

There's a website (I'll post the url if I can find it again!) that summarises the differences between the slightly different variations of these cameras.  It also gives details on how the date/time can be set correctly - something the original "Chinglish" instructions apparently attempt to do, but fail dismally!  I don't think the date/time can be removed from the display though.

[JOHN BOWMAN]

Amazing film for the cost, well done Tim.

Here are a couple of ground to air shots from the day, It would have been nice to see the real buzzard on the video!

 

Cheers

John

[Pete B]

If anyone else is interested, this item is the one I ordered. It states 720 x 480 resolution in the description, whereas other similar cameras may be much less, so read the desc carefully. Whether my purchase will be as described, time will tell. I have to say that Timbo's looks very good and is probably up to that spec.

 

Pete

[Tim Mackey]

Nice pics JB

[Tim Mackey]

Posted by John Privett on 08/02/2010 23:04:18:

There's also several "key fob" cameras which seem to have very similar performance around on ebay at the moment - similar price too. 

 

There's a website (I'll post the url if I can find it again!) that summarises the differences between the slightly different variations of these cameras.  It also gives details on how the date/time can be set correctly - something the original "Chinglish" instructions apparently attempt to do, but fail dismally!  I don't think the date/time can be removed from the display though.

 

Young Sam has found a link that perports to remove the time stamp completely - Ill experiment and post back.

[Barnesyboy]

Tim Bring it along tonight please i wouldnt mind a look before i buy

 

Ta

 

BB

[Tim Mackey]

Will do mate.

[Reg Tyson]

Had one of these for awhile now. They are very good, especially considering the price.

I bought one with a 4 Gb memory already fitted.

 

One issue that may arise - it appears that some of the cameras come with a USB cable that is not very good. This can cause charging problems. Just swap it for a normal digital camera USB lead if there is a problem.

 

Reg

 

[John Privett]

The URL I mentioned earlier is here.

 

It's mainly (totally?) about the "keyfob" cameras, but may be worth trying the date adjustment methods mentioned there.  One of them might work for these GumCams.

 

[Tim Mackey]

Thanks John...tried about 20 different methods and cant get rid of it .

Still for £9 I can live with it. Had a nice sssion up the Orme all day yesterday, and heres a 4 minute montage of a few flights on the EPP eagle - watch out for Iawnski's 60" Wildthing floating along beneath it ....

 

[Pete B]

Here's my first attempt with the Gum Cam, folks. I trawled the Web for solutions to the date/time field issue and, like Timbo, I've given up! Even having eventually set the date/time, it always defaults to 2008 each time it is switched off.

This is from my Phoenix Rainbow, with the camera Velcro'ed vertically to the cabin side. This seems to have damped out any vibrations. I forgot to tape over the microphone before this flight, so there's a lot of wind noise........ 

I made two further videos but got it wrong with both. The 1st one I lost when I switched it off before pressing the stop/go button to save the recording, and the 2nd one, having switched on the camera, I forgot to press the go button before take off - a real Homer moment - Doh!! -

I've made up a balsa wedge to direct the camera 10-20 deg down from the vertical for future flights. This should exclude a large part of the sky and make the auto-exposure more reliable.

The original quality is far higher than you see here and is quite remarkable for such a tiny camera. I'm looking forward to having a lot of fun with this!

 

Pete

[Tim Mackey]

Good stuff Pete....they really are quite remarkable aren't they for the money .

[Wingman]

Yep, brilliant quality for such a little gadget with a tiny pinhole lens - I got mine off fleabay new c/w USB adapter for £8.99 post free and got a 2GB micro sd card for £3.99. 

[Alan Hall]

I fancied a fly cam one2 but nearly all internet reviews were terrible.

 

I ordered a GumCam after reading this thread and it arrived two weeks to the day from Hong Kong. £8.99 off ebay. The instructions claim it has a 5 M Pixel lens, 30 frames per second video for 640 x 480 VGA resolution. It has about 115 minutes running time.

 

I bought a 2GB micro SD that cost nearly as much as the camera but that was only because I didn't want to wait to try it out!

 

I tried it out today and the video and photo quality is really very good, especially when you consider the price and even better, like Timbo's it was post free!

 

Tomorrow I'm off to the Bardney MFC to give it a try........ Weather permitting.

 

I've often wondered what I look like to the birds flying averhead!

 

If the video turnes out to be good I'll be back to find out how to mount the vidoe in this thread.

[John Privett]

My £7.49 (inc. postage!) keyfob camera arrived a couple of days ago.  I've not stuck it on a plane yet, but from a quick play the quality is impressive for the price!  I also managed to set the time/date correctly, though it would be better if it could be removed from the display - seems that's not possible though with mine.