FlyCamOne HD Review Part 2

Ok, so the weather was somewhat kind and allowed me to get the FCO720 out for a run.  I strapped it to my Funjet and, well, things got interesting, but more on that later.

Firstly I will start by saying that setting up the camera was a breeze.  I set the date and time very easily, stuck the card in and plugged it into my wiring harness.  I had to make the wiring harness, and that was a little tricky as ACME use 1 of the wires to sense when the thing is plugged in and turns off the screen.  I will post the pinout of the harness in the FAQ section shortly.  I think ACME had done this to save battery life I guess.  :)

So after some testing on the bench I worked out a nice clean way of mounting it to the FunJet.  I actually used one of the mounts included with the camera (will post pics soon) and because this camera has a pivot head, it does not matter what angle you mount it at, you just pivot the head to get the view you want, and Bingo! Bob's your uncle.  Something that does annoy me on the GoPro.

Now - This is where things got interesting.  My first mistake was that I decided for this run that I would go to my secondary flying location.  I only ever use this location if I am nervous about launching the plane, mainly because my primary location has water nearby and that would be a tragic end if it went in.  The trouble with this site is, it is unfamiliar from the air.  Before I launched I took stock of some landmarks around me, one being the tennis court and sent the plane up Line of Sight.  My second mistake was that I did a couple of laps with the bird flying line of sight WITHOUT my sunnies on, so when I pulled the goggles down over my eyes, well, things looked pretty dark because my eyes had to adjust.  In those crucial first few moments, I did not take stock of my surroundings and well, eventually I got lost.  I was dodging houses and trees, but somehow, by the grace of god, I got it home.  I was so freaked out by that flight, I did not send it up again. However, I did manage to take a moment to take notice of the camera.

It was working perfectly. It even has a small OSD (which you can turn off) that will show you battery levels (of the camera only) and how long the card has until full, which is handy.

Anyways... I have edited some video - Although Vimeo re-compression hurts. The original video before I ran it through Final Cut looks outstanding.

 

CONCLUSION

All in all the camera ia good for what it is.  Light and easy to use with plenty of features.  There are a bunch of accessories coming like wide angle lenses, larger LCD screens, transmitter kits and waterproof housings.

For me it is the weight that is the biggest attraction for me.  Less than 60g is outstanding, and I am happy with the quality of the footage.  For the general FPVer, this camera will do the job quite nicely.  The 1080 version is going tobe interesting.  A lot more expensive too, so bang for buck, the FCO 72HD is the goods for me.

I just need to work out how to get the video on to Vimeo without so much compression.

 

Enjoy!
Mongrel.

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