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Alright guys, I need some input on this idea. Mods, please feel free to move this thread if you feel it should be somewhere else...

For the people using in-car video cams during races, what setup are you using? I know Boiler is using his DV cam, and I've tried my Sony DSCP9 digital camera using a homemade camera mount. But the DSCP9 video is pretty bad for high speed stuff.

The DV cams are great, but I'm on a grad-school college budget, so that's not an option. (mommy and daddy are out of the financial picture)

I searched the net and came across this thing called ConeCam. (www.chasecam.com) It looks pretty cool, but $200 for an analog camera with no mic is a little pricey. But this looks like something that could be easily pieced together using another CCD analog camera bought somewhere else. Does anyone have any experience with these? Would there be another cheaper analog camera available that would perform just as well? Home security cameras, etc?

It seems that it would be pretty easy to get a cheap analog recording device (small VCR, etc) to record the video in the car.

I think being able to stick the camera on the outside of the car during runs would be really cool. (as long as it isn't in a cone impact area)

 
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I've seen the chasecam in action, and its a great setup. (both the ball cam and the Bullet cam) regarding building one on my own... Not sure, never really looked in to it. Does your Current camera have a Video and Audio in? if so then you have half of the Chasecam set up handled....

 
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You've seen the set up with mine and the video it shoots... so I'll skip that. You can probably pick up a Digital 8 or maybe even an Analog 8mm (do they still sell them?) for real cheap, mount it in a similar way and get decient video... it won't be DVD quality, but you'll see better than what you get. The problem you have is you're shooting video with the auxilliary function on whats intended to be a still camera.
You just need a true video camera... and one that has a stabilizer helps too.
Here's what I'm shooting with for the rest of you... its a Panasonic PV-DV201.

 
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Yeah, I've looked into the digital 8 and analog camcorders... The thing that intrigues me is the ability to suction-cup the camera to the outside of the car. I wouldn't want to do that with an entire camcorder assembly, but a $40 ccd camera and some cable wouldn't be a huge investment if it got destroyed by a rouge cone or a faulty suction cup mount.

I was just curious if anyone had any experience with analog ccd cameras. What to look for, who to buy from, etc. I'm totally in the dark about this.

I'll keep looking around, see if I can kick something up.