Bootcam information...

For the last few years I have taken a miniature camera on my snowboarding trips and attached it to my snowboard boot. This has created 'Bootcam' and can be used to film footage from an exciting and interesting perspective. Often people ask me for information on how I made the camera or where I brought it from. So I have written this page to hopefully answer most of the questions.

What is Bootcam?

In order to film the slopes from a position just above the board, it is important that the camera is small and securely fitted. Because of this it is not practical to mount a videocamera to the board or boot, as for one the risk of damage to the camera might be too great!

Bootcam is therefore a camera attachment that connects to the videocamera. For this to work the camera must accept the bootcam's output as an input. Most mid-range and above camera will accept composite video input through some sort of Audio/Video socket.

How good is it?

The picture quality is about that of a VHS tape. That is better than most digital cameras with MPEG recording, but not as good as a DV camera. Also, DV cameras and digital cameras usually have CCD sensors in and not CMOS, and tend to adapt better to varied lighting conditions. Also, cameras and camcorders have variable focus lenses, while a CMOS camera is fixed focus (which you adjust before use). One other problem is aiming it to get a good range of picture from the start.

Basic Components

The basic set of components you will need are:

A videocamera that supports composite video in.
The bootcam camera.
A power source for the bootcam.
The leads to connect it all up.
Something to keep the bootcam steady and attached.
Something to keep everything in while you ski.

For the bootcam I would recommend buying a self contained composite camera. Most can be powered off a 12v DC input (which can be supplied from 8 AA batteries). The benefit of buying a self contained unit is that you can take it back if it fails to work (e.g. the camera is faulty). I originally brought a miniature camera and soldered it into a Velcro band. However, the next year I decided to buy another camera and when I soldered that camera in I found it was faulty - but by then I couldn't return it. So I brought another one, and checked it before soldering. It was fine and so I soldered it in. It turns out that these cameras were going faulty after 5 minutes, so the initial check was not enough. It was a waste of £100!!!

For a power source you will need 12V at about 70-100mA. I use rechargeable AA batteries (1800mAh), but you could just put 8 Duracell in and reuse them for something else when they drop too much power. The battery power seems to last a reasonable amount of time - at least 8-12 hours. I have been told that rechargeable batteries may be better as they can hold a constant output for longer.

You will also need some connecting leads. The camera will probably have three wires internally which it connects to the twos plugs or sockets at the end of the leads. The three internal wires are Ground (GND), 12V+ and Composite out. The ground and 12V+ wires will probably connect to a power socket or plug - and this may typically be of the ones used to power musical keyboards, some consoles or old home computers. The ground and the composite wires will provide the video ouput and will normally use a BNC or phono connector.

Your camcorder will normally come with a audio/video lead which may have phono plugs on it. Simply connect the yellow plug, via adapters if necessary to the leads you buy for the bootcam. Make sure the lead you buy is 1.5m so that the combined length of all the leads to the camcorder is at least 2 metres. This allows you to route the camera to a back pack. If you bootcam comes with a microphone, then connect the red and while phono plugs via a 2-to-1 Y splitter to the audio output.

The last stage of setting up the system is to make some sort of Velcro belt for the camera or some other means of securing it. Here are two of mine:

Building your own camera

For my first bootcam I built the camera using a miniature camera from Maplin Electronics. I used the following components:

CMOS Colour Camera Std (£49.99, SH70M)
Audio board (£2.99, KJ44X) - Optional
Quad phono lead 1.5m (£3.99, RW51F) - Try and buy one with 1 red, 1 white, 1 yellow, 1 black and not 2 red & 2 white.
PP3 Clip (29p, HF28F)
8AA Battery Box (69p, RK44X)
Phono extender adapter (79p, HH05F)
Twin phono coupler (99p, QT64U)

The camera has 3 leads, +ve, Gnd and composite out. It also comes with a diode to protect the CMOS chip. It is basic stuff to connect up the diode connects in line with the +ve wire. The ground lead and the diode then form the power input. The ground and the composite out form the video out lead. If you are building a microphone into the package then the audio board has 3 leads also, +ve, Gnd and audio out - solder the +ve and ground onto the current wires. The ground and audio out then form the audio output lead.
Use the 4 way phono cable to hold power (black), left (white), right (red), video (yellow). Use all the grounds for ground. Basically cut all 4 plugs off one end and solder up (wire both left and right to the singe audio out). At the other end remove just the black plug and solder in the PP3 connector. You'll probably want to put this in some Velcro for a belt construction.
Bootcam in the making

This diagram may help you a bit (sorry it's so messy!). The diagram does not show the audio board, but you show be able to see the wires to use for that.

On the bootcam camera side, cut off all four plugs and strip back the wires. Connect all the ground (copper) wires together and then to the black wire on the camera. The diode connects to the red wire (silver strip nearest the camera I think). Then connect the black inner wire of the black lead to the diode. The inner white and inner red wire of the quad audio leads are unused if you do not add an audio board. The yellow inner wire connects to the yellow wire on the camera.

At the video camera end, cut off the black phono plug and strip the wire. Add the PP3 clip with clip-red wire to the black inner wire on the audio lead. The black-clip wire connects to the copper ground of the black lead. Apply some insulating tape to seal the wires up in a neat manner etc. Put the 8 AA batteries in the battery holder and connect it to the PP3 wire when you need it. This leaves 3 phono plugs red and white are right and left audio plugs (if used). Yellow is the video out which using the gender adapter can fit to the phono lead that came with your camera.

Kitting yourself up

How you kit yourself up is obviously your choice. Here is how I do it. Note that I like to capture falls on camera so I try and keep things secure. The long wire from the camera goes up you leg (inside or out of the trousers, but I put it inside) to a belt-bag. Inside the belt bag you what to put the 8AA batteries in the battery box and connect to the PP3 connector. Then connect the phono adapters to allow you to connect you normal A/V lead to the camcorder. Make sure you test this all before going away!

Inside the belt bag try and ensure that the plugs / leads don't disconnect, nor do they touch the +ve wire. I think mine did and it causes problems with the DV picture.

From the belt bag the wire to the camcorder goes up inside your jacket and out over the top to your back pack. For obvious reasons try and make sure the camcorder is safely protected in the back pack. When you actually come to record, I usually start the camera going with a 1 hour tape in and then record constantly until I've finished my filming. This is preferable to stopping and starting the camcorder.

Advice

Here is my list of top tips:

Buy a self-contained camera unit so you don't need to solder anything and can take it back if it is faulty.
Buy a CCD camera as they adapt to the harsh lighting conditions on the slope better.
Ensure you try it out at home first and make sure you take everything with you! I forgot the remote control one year and my video camcorder can only record from A/V with the remote control!
Make sure the camera is secure when going down the slope. If the camera is lose the wobble will render the resulting footage useless.
Do not forget to charge your batteries first you go!

Example output

Here is some footage that I shot in Saas Fee, Switzerland. I shot about 20 minutes of footage and speeded it up to music. The file is in low quality RealMedia but you can get a feel for the action. It is an 8MB file but hopefully it will stream and play at the same time. Click here.