The introduction of the in-car cameras in motor sport particularly pioneered by the ABC in Australia has caused a whole new genre of video photography. Kaiser Baas has chosen to call this the Sports Camera sector and just released a new micro camera-cum-camcorder they call – ta da! – the Sports Camera!

In the past, footage from such cameras would not be touched with a barge pole by the TV networks; even footage from a MiniDV camcorder was not deemed acceptable. I had one rejected, and had to convert it to BetacamSP so the stations would air it! (TV savvy people will know how stupid that is).

Strangely, it was the Iraq war and 9/11 that screwed all that as footage from cameras other than full blooded TV shoulder mount beasties was needed; the public was clammering for shots that had never been seen before unless taken by “amateurs” and the stations were fighting each other to be first with the latest “new angle” of a story. No longer was a race car video from the grandstand OK when someone else could shoot it from inside the car with driver commentary!

The first I recall was in Peter Williamson’s Toyota Celica at Bathurst, and whilst not exactly a micro camera, it gave us a view of the race and the circuit never before seen. Later, Peter Brock gave us a running commentary and even said “Bev, take a memo…” referring to his then wife, just before his car expired on Mountain Straight at Bathurst. Cleverly he used the camera to allow the mechanics back at the pits to diagnose the problem!

Of course, as technology marched, these cameras became smaller and smaller, and now in 2011, we have them embedded in kerbs, under wheel arches, bolted to sub-frames, inside helmets and in headlight mounts. And what used to cost tens of thousands is, in the case of the Kaiser Baas flavour, only $149.95 (although admittedly there is no radio transmitter attached).

But for your money you do get a 5 megapixel still and video camera (HD no less), that also has motion detection, is waterproof to 20 metres, has an infra-red LED for low light capture, runs for 3 hours off a USB charge and weighs 75 grams.

Storage is to a MicroSD card (up to 32Gb) and you can set the recording option to be continuous to 10 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes or 10 minutes. The capture angle is 120 degrees. Maximum storage is 3 hours / charge.

The Sports Camera comes with a “handlebar” mount affair, which can limit its use to a degree; there is no way that any of the plethoras of mounts available with standard mounts as used for flashes, mics etc can be used. I am sure some adaption can be made to compensate but standardising would be better. An elastic strap is supplied with the camera, but again I am not sure this would afford enough stability to get really serious high action footage without the jitters.

Having said that, the image quality is quite good. It’s not as good as my Canon HV 20 bolted to my Hague (no relation) seat headrest mount, nor my Sony TRV10E attached to my windscreen mount as used in Top Gear. Both of these are tape based as against the memory based storage of the Sports Camera, but the trade-off is size and weight and flexibility versus quality. In a commercial shoot, would the public notice? Yes. But for action freaks out there who are drivers, bikers, divers, hunters, swimmers, climbers and so on, as long as a suitable mount can be found to give the stability needed, at this price, the Sports Camera is a bargain.

Footage can be loaded into an editor via USB or played back directly on a TV via the supplied A/V cable. A small manual is supplied that covers the operations and is adequate for the purpose.

Vendor: www.kaiserbaas.com or 1800 657 601

We liked…

Size, waterproof, convenience, value for money

We didn’t like…

Non standard mount

Auscam Scoreboard

• Performance                          8/10
• Documentation                      7/10
• Features                                 8/10
• Setup                                     7/10
• Value for Money                    9/10
• Help Functions.                      6/10

By David Hague

David is the owner and publisher of AusCam Online. He has a background in media dating back to 1979 when he first got involved with photojournalism in motorsport, and went from there into technology via a 5 year stint with Tandy Computers. Following that, he ran a software distribution company on the Gold Coast and was one of the first to recognise the potential of Microsoft Windows.

Moving back to WA, David wrote scripts for Computer Television for video training for the just released Windows and Office 95 among others, and was then lured to Sydney to create web sites for the newly commercial Internet in 1995, building hundreds of sites under contract to OzEmail including Coates Hire, Hertz Queensland, John Williamson, the NSW Board of Studies and many, many more.

He went back into full time journalism as the Managing Editor for Channel 7's 'Gadget Guy', Peter Blasina's publications VideoCamera and Pixelmag, before starting Australasian Camcorder magazine when these publications were shelved. He lives at Sydney's Avalon Beaches nearly on the ocean front with dog Budweiser and in his spare time is a nut for motor sport, road safety, fishing, science fiction - especially Dr Who - and technology.

David can be contacted via david@auscamonline.com