Cameras and Drone

For the action cams I rely on Insta360 devices, following my philosophy of using hardware for a task from a single manufacturer whenever possible. Mixing has never worked well. You always end up having to compromise on functionality.

Whether this choice means compromising on features compared to other camera manufacturers, I don’t know yet.

I think everyone knows these two cameras, so here is just one picture of each for the sake of completeness.

On the helmet I have a Chinmount holder for the Neotec3.

Of course, mounting on the chin bar of a flip-up helmet is not ideal, but I find the camera on top of the head or on the side somehow unnatural. Besides, the AcePro2 isn’t exactly lightweight and the chin bar ALMOST closes by itself :-)

Audio on the AcePro2

The microphone connection to the Acepro2 is a bit more involved. Here I followed a video by Rober Baldinger to connect a microphone directly instead of going through the SRL3. Cable is always better than wireless, I know that from my job.

What I haven’t installed yet is the microphone at the ear for recording group conversations. I want to test first whether the SRL3 as a second audio track is enough.

For the microphone at the mouth I use a “RØDE Lavalier GO”. Mounting it in the flip-up part of the helmet was quite easy. The excess cable can be stowed neatly with a few plastic cable clips, and routing the cable through the padding takes just a few moves.

When the camera isn’t mounted, an O-ring holds the microphone plug

Drone

My drone is a DJI Mavic Air 3.

I picked the tank bag as its spot.

In the Pro GS, the battery charger fits into the sloping end.

For charging I’ll use a dedicated cable that provides 80W charging power. That isn’t possible with the built-in USB sockets, nor via the USB adapter in the cockpit’s on-board socket. More on that later.

For the controller I mounted the adapter plate from ADVENTURES with a Quadlock on top.

Mounting the X5

Finding a good spot for the X5 took a lot of trial and error.

I wanted it to be not too prominent while still getting the widest possible field of view.

So I tried both the handlebar and the crash bar. Neither was really satisfying. On the handlebar the viewing angle was poor and it takes the space for the drone controller. On the crash bar the rear viewing angle onto me was truly awful, and it didn’t hold perfectly either.

Now I’ve drilled a hole in the windshield and screwed a mount onto it. In the first test this was much better, and the field of view is very good too.

I’ll test ride it a bit longer, and if it fully convinces me, I’ll drill another hole through the screen for the USB power cable.

Without an additional support the camera won’t hold in the long run. Under strong vibrations it tipped forward and then flailed around wildly.

I found a simple solution, though not the prettiest yet. For now, function comes first.

And here is the test ride

Insta360 GO 3S

I thought it would be a cool option, but unfortunately the little camera is compatible with pretty much nothing.

• Not compatible with the GPS Preview Remote; it would be with the Action Remote, but that doesn’t really help.
• No external microphone possible, which also rules out vlogging from the helmet.
• The in-helmet mount doesn’t fit my Shoei Neotec 3.

Let’s see what I’ll do with it in the long run. Maybe use it as a temporary side-mounted action cam for a spinning wheel or something like that. We’ll see.